Daisy chains and collages
We were really warmed by the sun when we were outside in the park today and can’t even imagine that with a new month, it feels a little like Spring is coming! We had seven friends at school today which is the most in our regular programme on one day, this year. Some things took a long time and we all helped one another and were patient especially when we change our shoes for outside time and get our jackets and beanies on. We took sand toys and balls to the park and played in small groups with one another. Our teachers like to observe us but stay close to us at all times so that our safety is ensured at all times. We still have the opportunity to be independent and at the same time, we know that a reassuring adult is nearby.
Our morning circle was filled with fun, love and new games. Just before we had our circle time, Shelley said that she would give special stickers to all the children who helped pack away as there were so many toys lying on the mat from our free play time. Of course we always help, but this time, even those of us who don’t particularly like to help, did so efficiently. We then chose either a silver or gold medal sticker and Shelley put them on our tops. We felt so proud!
During our morning circle, we sang our regular greeting songs e.g. “Hello” and “It’s good to see that…………’s here”. We also sang “There are seven days in a week” and we worked out that today is Tuesday. Then Shelley explained to us about a special listening game that we were going to play. She had a huge piece of beautiful, shiny, purple fabric which each of us was going to have a turn to hide underneath. When we were hiding underneath the fabric, one of us would say “Hello…………………” and the person hiding would try to guess who was saying hello to them. We had to listen really carefully. Many of us guessed correctly and we helped our younger friends who were not sure and possibly were not able to understand the game and how to play it. It was such fun to hide underneath the material! When all of us had had our turns, we stood up and held the edge of the fabric with two hands. Shelley gave us a cue and we shook the material and then she said “stop” and we stopped. We did this slowly, quickly, and then some of us went underneath the fabric. It felt like a hugs beautiful, shiny, purple canopy over us. Purple is Shelley’s favourite colour so she especially loved playing this game.
All seven of us worked at the activity tables at the same time and we were extremely productive and focused on what we were doing as we added loops to our pink, red and white daisy chains. We sat together and remembered how to slide the long strip through a loop, make it into a circle shape and then staple it closed. Our daisy chains are getting longer and longer and we will continue working on them tomorrow.
At the second activity, we used glue and collage materials and pasted things onto two huge hearts. The hearts are red and pink. We learnt how to squeeze the glue all by themselves and they pasted material, paper, cellophane, tissue paper. We will put these up on display in the one of our classrooms. The theme for this month is Feelings focusing on positive feelings like love, caring, kindness and sharing. Today we had our first real discussion about what we think we would do to show our love for our friends and family. We talked about kissing, making cards, hugging, cooking and giving flowers being ways to show your love for someone. Shelley said she would give them love, just like our song “Love is something”. Our other friends smiled and thought that being kind and sharing things were also important.
We are also learning about how we can show our feelings to our friends. Sometimes our feelings don’t feel so good and we want to tell our friends this e.g. when they take a toy that we are playing with we feel sad or angry. We are learning to use our words to express our feelings. We are also learning that we can say “no” sometimes which can be tricky! It was nice to know that Darren was feeling better, because he came back to school today.
We are looking forward to celebrating “Setsubun” with mum Nakaba tomorrow and mums Chiaki and Kai, on Thursday.
Love Shelley and Darren