Alive or Not?
Dear Flower Class parents, We hope you all had a good weekend. Today on the big table this morning we continued to recycle our white and yellow paper which has been soaking in water all weekend. Today we used the food processor again with the teachers to cut and chop the paper even smaller. We added some extra water too and then blended it really small. We then got a piece of cloth which looked like net curtain and stretched it tight over the top of a big bowl. We then saw that when we poured the paper onto the tight surface that the water poured through the net and left the paper behind. We then made a small bag with the net and paper so that we could squeeze the remaining water from the paper. It was cold and wet and kind of squishy in our hands which made us laugh. We will keep the paper until it is all soaked, blended and strained before using it like play-dough soon. Also on the table we saw the square pieces of wood we painted last week. Alongside the wood were the black and white stones we sorted into small, medium and large piles last week. Today we could make any picture we liked using the stones. Some of us made flowers while others made little footprints and a car too. On the second table the perler beads and pegboards were again popular this morning with several of us completing a board each. On the carpet the big wooden construction blocks were very popular and we had fun using the art materials on the free-art table too. After packing away the toys we had our yummy snacks but found we didn’t have time to get to the park and back before Miyashita Sensei’s Monday gym class. We were fortunate in that the weather was nice and so went to the 3rd floor to use the outdoor space. In this space we had some sand play with lots of shells and stones as well as watering the flowers we planted a few weeks ago. We also had the chance to play at the table with the cooking materials, as well as play with the black and white stones, the clear drawing easel and the big Lego blocks. It was warm in the sunshine and when we returned we found Miyashita Sensei had just arrived and we started our gym class. We warmed up as per usual and today started a new program with jumping as our main theme. We practiced jumping with both feet together and then tried jumping over a low string as well as hopping practice too. At the end of our gym session we played a good game where a wolf (Miyashita Sensei) sat on the floor and we creeped closer and closer as quietly as we could. This was a bit like the game ‘What’s the time Mr. Wolf’. Once we got close we asked him what the time was and ran away . Our teacher’s helpers gave the tadpoles some soft lettuce to eat today and many of us spent our time checking up on them. In circle time with Pooja we looked at things that are living and not living. We started off by separating the objects she had collected into two groups of living / non-living and then discussed ‘What makes something living’? We saw that a living thing can move by itself, it can grow and change, breathes air, needs food & water and finally can make more of itself. We saw a chart of questions and sections which made us think about how we can decide if something is living or not. Using the chart we saw if a plant, a car, a soccer ball, a seed, a cat, an egg and an apple. Using the chart we could see which things are living / not living. It was interesting to see how seeds can be both living and non-living. Tomorrow we are going to see if we can decide if further objects are living or non-living.
Have a great afternoon and we look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow.
All our love, Darren, Pooja, Pauline and Ryoan