Welcome back to school

We all received a big, loving welcome when we arrived at school this morning for the start of the new school year. It was so much fun to see our teachers and our friends and also to meet some new friends both upstairs and downstairs. We look forward to a year filled with fun while learning so many new things. Our teachers noticed how much we had grown since the start of the summer vacation.  Sometimes we think that they want us to stay small forever! However this is not possible! We have to grow up and we can’t always be little children.

We wanted to give a special welcome to our new teachers Ayaka and Nanako, Margo in the upstairs class and Vincent downstairs. We also want to welcome their families who already know Ohana as they came to a mums and dads meeting last week, in the night-time. We know that they will be happy at Ohana. We helped them this morning with their jobs and they soon learnt how “A Day in the Life of Ohana” is.

On the second floor we started off our day with some free play on the mat and then we got all prepared to go outside. Even though our first two days this year are short days, so that we all have time to settle back into our routines, our teachers know how important it is for us to go outside; develop our large muscles; enjoy some sunshine and fresh air; and play with everyone in the whole school. We put on our Ohana T-shirts and then changed our indoor shoes into our outdoor shoes; took our sunhats from our bags and held the rope, all ready to go into the elevator and down to the first floor. Some of us remembered to bring mosquito repellent and sunscreen so that we can take care of our skin in the hot sunshine. Walking to the park was so easy as it is right across the road. We had one new toy to play with today which is a wagon. Tokutaro and Clodia pushed it together and placed their hats inside it. Some of us really don’t like wearing hats; however we know that it is important to protect our faces and our skin. Some of us enjoyed using the elephant feet and could balance on them and walk quite far; some of us ran straight to the swings and sat on them and were able to swing all by ourselves; some of us played with sand and water in the sandbox and for the rest of the time, we chatted to our teachers and friends and sat on the small bouncing see saw in the shade. The weather is still really hot and we were happy to be able to play outside earlier in the day; when it should be a little cooler.

Upstairs we were all so happy to be back at school where we have structure and can learn while we play. We played with ‘stuff’ that is similar to play dough however it feels really different. It is called “plasticine” and we could choose from 18 different colours. It is much harder than play dough which we discovered when we wanted to pinch it and cut it.

We enjoyed playing with the new marble track construction toy. We decorated our placemats and are happy to have new ones for the year. Our teachers asked us to draw a picture of something that we did during the holidays. We all did such interesting things and went to so many different places. We revised our morning jobs and had turns to guess what our responsibilities are, each day when we come to school. Our teachers hid the cards and we all had turns to guess what pictures were on the cards.

Downstairs, we also decorated our placemats for snack and lunch time. We used dot paint markers in different colours. The markers make dots when you put them onto paper however we discovered that you can also draw with them; so our placemats have dots and lines on them. We also made our very own play dough.

The table had an array of ingredients on it e.g. flour, salt, food colouring, cream of tartar, oil and water. We measured different amounts for each of the ingredients and then poured them into a bowl. We each had a turn to mix them together and look through the glass of the microwave, while the dough was cooking. We chose yellow for the colour and look forward to touching it when it is cool in the morning.

It was a wonderful start to the new school year for all of us. We look forward to more special times with our Ohana family this year.

Love always Shelley, Darren, Christine, Sabine, Nanako and Aya