Moon, Stars and our home – the Earth

It’s still raining today. Friday is always calm and peaceful for Buds class. We arrived at school wearing our rain boots and raincoats. Yurika showed us her wonderful umbrella with polka dots. She likes to show off her new umbrella. Yuu-kun came to our class and started to play with Yurika. They got this wooden fire engine that we have in the classroom. Sofia was very excited to greet her friends. She arrived with a big smile on her face. She went inside the room to see the toys on the floor. The Noah’s Ark was there ready to play with us. Taiga came like a cool guy and greeted everyone “Good morning”. On our activity tables, we continued to work on our “Tanzaku.” Sofia volunteered to cut the sides of her paper and she did it pretty well. Yurika was observing what Sofia was doing and we felt that she also wanted to try it out. We also saw some fine motor and sensory activities that we have in the classroom. Taiga was very concentrated and he used his spoon to scoop the dried chickpeas and white stones, he eventually put them in the bowl. Kaia came to class and after doing her morning jobs, she requested her teachers to finish her “tanzaku”. She patiently put the glue on and tried to stick her wishing paper. Yuu tried his very best to do his art work and it was nice to see how he improves a lot by trying new things in the class. In our circle time, Kaia and Sofia were so active in class. We sang the “What’s your name?” song. We greeted Taiga, Sofia, Kaia, Rei, Yurika and Yuu! This activity is very good to get to know your friends more. It will be easier for us to learn our new friends’ names. Again, we did the matching game of stars in class. All of us know how to match each star according to their feelings. Most of us were able to finish it. We feel that we’re also getting smarter every day. Emma the bunny went to the outer space again to see what’s outside our planet Earth. She got on her rocket ship and “zoooommmm” off she went up high in the sky. When she reached the dark space, she saw the moon. She cheerfully jumped up and down like a floating butterfly. Then, she noticed that she could not find any twinkling stars. So, Buds class helped Emma again to put the stars on the board. She felt happier now and she wanted to go home but…oooppss, she couldn’t find her way back. We have to tell her where to find the planet Earth. We stuck the Earth on the board and told Emma that we also live there. So, she got on her rocket ship again and flew back to our home – the Earth. We also read a story book from Eric Carle entitled “Papa, take me to the moon”. Sofia was very attentive because she was interested to see what the dad will do for his daughter. He took the moon for her but the moon disappeared because it was getting smaller and smaller. After that, we did the Earth art. We used some pegs and put the poms poms on them. We dipped it in the paint and we began making dots in the circle. We used blue, green and white paint. It was great because we got a chance to explore and do things creatively with this kind of writing medium.

We had another circle time today because we didn’t go to the park. Thus, we sat down in the library and listened to Nanako. She read two books which were “First the Egg” and “Don’t you dare, dragon”. Taiga was smiling the whole time because he seemed to enjoy the story of the dragon that does silly things with his friends. Yurika was starting to become more attentive with story time because she was able to comprehend the concept. She loves to look at the pictures and by hearing the story from her teachers gives her more imaginative experience in class. Also, today is Sofia’s last day for the summer school. We’ll see you again in August, Sofia! Have a fun and relaxing vacation! Thank you so much Ohana for the wonderful learning experience and we hope to see you all again next week. Please enjoy your weekend.

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Nanako