Mexico here we come

We missed Hisami again today and welcomed Ritsuka for her first official day in Petals Class. Together with our new friends that we are welcoming this week, we also welcomed Alexa’s entire family; her mum, Ale, her dad, Manuel and her sisters, Triana and Jimena all came to our class to teach us about Mexico. They all shared something interesting about the country where they come from e. g. food, the flag and festivals and some information about the country and places. Mexico is a thin country like Japan. They speak Spanish in Mexico and when Alexa’s family arrived we said: “Ola”; just like Dora the Explorer does. She says: “Ola amigos” which means “Hello friends”. Actually, Dora comes from Mexico, so she speaks Spanish. We also learnt how to count in Spanish; “1 uno, 2 dos, 3 tres, 4 cuatro, 5 cinco, 6 seis, 7 siete, 8 ocho, 9 nueve, 10 diez”.

Alexa’s sister Triana showed us where Mexico is on our globe. She told us that it is really far and you need to sleep on the airplane when you go there. Alexa’s dad, Manuel told us all about the flag. It has three stripes that are vertical. The green one on the left reminds us of nature and the many plants and trees that grow in Mexico; the white stripe in the middle reminds us of peace and how important it is to have peace in our lives and the red one reminds us of blood because blood is red. Mexico like most countries has a history of battles and many people died while fighting. The red helps us remember them and all that they sacrificed for the people who live there today. He also told us that they wave their giant flag when they are cheering Mexico when they are playing soccer and maybe some other sports. In the middle of the white stripe there is an eagle with a snake in its mouth and the eagle is standing on a rock on a lake. A long, long time ago, Mexico City was built on a lake, so the blue symbolizes the water.

We learnt about the many foods that people eat in Mexico. They use corn, avocado and tomatoes in many of their dishes together with squash and chili peppers. The chili peppers sometimes make your mouth burn as they are hot and spicy. Some of us have eaten Mexican food before like tortillas, quesadillas, tamales, tacos, guacamole and salsa.

There are many festivals in Mexico throughout the year and one that we didn’t know about is called “Dia de los Muertos”; in English it is called “The Day of the dead”. Jemina told us that during this festival people honour and remember their family members who died. People have face painting and make things that look like skeletons.

We want to say a big thank you to Alexa’s whole family for coming to Petals Class to teach us about Mexico. Maybe we can go there for a holiday one day!

Earlier in the morning we did some marbling using pink, white, green and light red paint. We will use these paintings as backgrounds for another art project.

Since we have been speaking about planting and seeds, we pretended that we were seeds and curled up on the carpet. We told Shelley that we needed water, sunshine and shade. She didn’t have to water us because the rain came down and we sang “It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring”; “Ame, dear ame, fall from the sky” and “Splash went the raindrop”. Then the sun came out and we sang “Good morning Mr. Sun” and then we sang “I am a little flower”. We listened carefully to the words and grew into beautiful flowers. We chose a partner and then we held hands and danced together. We did this two times because we loved doing it so much.

We read a story about “Carlos and the squash plant”. We listened intently to the story because perhaps, some of us could identify with it. Carlos’s parents were farmers and he worked on the farm each day but at the end of the day, when his mother told him to have a bath, he didn’t want to. He hated having a bath and he hated cleaning his ears; so he closed the bathroom door and just wiped his face. The problem was that his mother told him that if he didn’t clean his ears, a squash would start growing out of them. And this is exactly what happened. He woke the next morning and saw a leaf coming out of his ear; each morning it was bigger and he tried to hide it by wearing a large hat; until after the third day, the hat blew away and he had a huge vine growing out of his right ear. He decided to have a bath when he came home and he was amazed to see that the vine became smaller and smaller until it disappeared……….Our teachers were wondering what we were thinking while we were listening to the story! Thanks for a fabulous day everyone. We will see you tomorrow for more fun.

Love always the children in Petals Class.