Hagoita

What a wonderful day! According to the weather forecast yesterday, it was supposed to be snowing a bit early in the morning today but we only saw the rain and the gloomy weather. We arrived school with a smile on our faces and we’re very excited to see what was waiting inside the classroom. We did our morning jobs and of course, our teachers were helping us to identify our snacks and lunches altogether. Sometimes, our teachers were also helping to label some snack and lunch containers. We were very curious about what’s on our tables. There was this wooden thing that looked like a flattened baseball bat. Our teachers told us that it was the hagoita. Then, we sat down and started using the Posca markers to scribble on them. We used our favorite colored markers. Definitely, we were also guided by our teachers on how to hold the markers appropriately. Hagoita is a special game that Japanese do during the new year. It was just like badminton that has a shuttlecock as well. On the other table, we had some puzzles and we were always excited to fix them on our own. Sometimes, we’re asking our teachers to help us and of course they were always willing to help us out.

During our circle time, we sang our morning songs. We also included some actions like clapping, patting and touching our body parts. And then, we also sang “Shake and Move” by Patty Shukla. Our friends were quite joyful while the various actions that we did in front of our teachers. We then got the “hagoita’s” and our teachers showed us how to use it. It was really amazing how well they play with it. We saw that the shuttlecock was even smaller in comparison to what we use for badminton. We still practiced holding our rope and it was very nice that this time most of our friends (especially the new ones) were holding onto it for a longer period of time.

It was raining outside so we had to stay inside our classroom for now. We still had a great time because we were able to play with our friends and teachers for a longer time. Thank you so much Ohana for a great day! See you tomorrow!

Lots of love,

All the children from Buds class 2015-2016 J