Practice drills and animal masks

This morning on the table we started off by adding some further details to our pet fish pictures. We used lots of sparkly paper, tissue paper and cellophane to make our pictures look really nice. We then put a sheet of ocean blue plastic over the top to make it look like our fish were in a fish bowl or the ocean. Next to the fish pictures we used the corkboards, hammers, wooden shapes and small nails to make our own pictures. We made lots of pictures with these but needed to be a little careful with the nails as they are quite small and a few ended up on the floor. Fortunately we spotted them quickly and wear indoor shoes. On the second tale Jennifer and Jessica helped cover the big class crocodile with more crepe paper, tissue paper and pieces of green cloth. It is nearly finished and we hope we can play with it soon. On the carpet area we had a great time playing with the train set and we put together a lot of track. We all knew we had a small class rule so that we can all play with the train set nicely together: we are allowed 3 trains or carriages each. On the games and numeracy table Jennifer, Jeremy, Jessica, Eito, Tokutaro and Gaby all took turns playing ‘Connect 4’. We like this game but need to concentrate a little to keep an eye on what our opponents are doing. It was sweet to watch Gaby and Riko sharing one of the life books together in the library. We practiced the Ohana song with Nanako and did a great job singing nicely. Soon after we had our snack time and then got ready to practice our earthquake and fire drill. We usually wait for the whistle and then find a place under one of the two main tables in the classroom but today we counted how many tables in the classroom and there were 6 to choose from. When we heard the whistle we got under one of the tables but had to move the chairs out of the way first. Once the earthquake had stopped we went back to the carpet to practice our fire drill. Today we went through the steps for the fire drill starting with calling out “Fire, Fire, Fire” so that our friends and family would hear us. We then covered our mouths and moved to the stairway. Before we left the classroom we talked about what we should do if there was a fire on the stairs and realized that the balcony has a special ladder in case of a fire on the stairs. We know we shouldn’t use the elevator as we could get trapped. When we got to the bottom of the stairs we checked everyone was here and there was no one left in the building. The park was nice and warm and we had a great time. We made sure we took a water break after a short while. We needed water just like the flowers in our park garden! After we got back to the classroom we looked at some books including a great pop-up book about ‘Predators’. There were lots in there including praying mantis, leopards, bats and snakes. We then moved to the table to start an animal mask. We could make any animal mask we wished and looked at some pictures first to see what features we needed to add to the mask. We collected the materials, markers, colored paper and scissors we needed from the free-art table. Looking at the pictures we started to add the colored paper for ears, colors for fur etc. and will continue with them tomorrow morning. All our love, Darren, Ayaka & Nanako