The Pirate Story and Welcome Charles!
What a magnificent Monday! We are here again in Buds class and we’re ready for a cool and fun learning experience today. Nanako is staying with us and we’re very grateful for her patience and kindness that she always
shows for us. We would also like to welcome Charles to Buds. It’s his first day and he obviously had a great time exploring and discovering the things and activities that he can do in class. Rei and Kaia soon came together with their moms and dads. They all greeted everyone with a big smile that will surely melt your heart. Nanako sat with Charles, Rei and Kaia to do their morning activities. Charles was quietly working on his play dough and Rei was always showing her friends and teachers how well she molded some figures with Popsicle sticks and colorful wooden sticks. Also, Toshiki, Maryna’s son, was here with us too. He just finished his summer school and he’s here to help John and Nanako in taking care of us. He was very friendly and Yurika was already muttering his name, “Toshiki…
Toshiki…” with such a lovely endearment. Ivory arrived at Ohana and she seemed to have rested very well over the weekend because she was so glad to see her school again. On the other table, we found some pegs 
and lacing activities. Charles, Rei and Ivory were very curious and they all sat there to manipulate and experiment on how they are going to approach these activities. Charles was looking at the big balls. He was examining how he can put the lace inside. Our teachers helped us how to do it and eventually we’re able to manipulate and almost complete the task on our own. Yurika then came and she was able to do her morning jobs without the teacher’s help. And then, she went to the activity table and saw the play dough set. She started getting some colorful wooden sticks and inserted them in the dough. After that, our teachers asked, “Whose birthday is it 
today?” And we all replied, “It’s JOHN’S birthday!” Of course, this was all just a pretend celebration so we all sang and was pleased by the cupcakes and food that we made for him (we made some food out of play dough and offered them to John as a present).
For our special activity, we gathered ourselves by the table and put on our art smocks. Charles liked to observe the activity. So, our teachers instructed us how to mix the paint. We saw white and blue paint and then we put some droplets on the cardboard box and started mixing them. The blue and white paint created such captivating patterns. And Kaia was announcing that we’re making an ocean. Afterwards, Charles was trying to join in and we let him paint for a bit.
Our circle time was amazing too. We sang and danced around together with Toshiki and Nanako. And it 
was so amusing that we’re able to do the actions and stop for a moment and resumed dancing again. And then, we learned about our names and tried to get more familiarized with our new friend Charles. He was smiling all the time and it was a lovely moment for everyone. Next, we noticed that there was a pirate hat. And all of us had a chance of wearing it and played a role of a pirate.
After our fun circle time, we went upstairs for our water play. It was so much fun because we made a big 
splash and the water just wet our faces. Definitely, this made us laugh so hard and we all did it over and over again. We also saw some sea animal plastic toys and we’re very interested in the shark and dolphin because they look so big in the water.
Thank you so much Ohana for the wonderful time and hope to see you all again tomorrow!
Lots of love,
John, Nanako and Toshiki