Our visit to the shrine
It was a beautiful sunny day to go and visit the shrine however it was quite cold along the way. When we walked in sunny spaces, it was warm but in the shade it was cold and windy. We had to cross so many streets so we sang “Hands up” many times. Some of us know how 
to sing the song in Japanese so we alternated. Cars were very polite to us and waited when we were crossing the street with our hands up in the air. We arrived at the shrine which was still closed however we could all still have a turn to shake the rope and ring the bell. It was a really thick piece of rope with a huge bell on top. We had to shake it hard and then the bell rang. There were three strands of rope with three bells on top of the rope so three children could do this at a time. Then we took our coins and pushed them through the slot. We tried to clap our hands together like we do when we sing “itadakimasu” and close our eyes. Shelley told us that it is good to think of something that we really wish for; not an object or present but something that we feel in our hearts. She wished for her sister who is in hospital to get better soon. We think that we know what she meant!
When we came back to school from the shrine, we went to the park and used the two plastic seats that someone left there. We use them to slide on the large slide and they make us go so fast. In the library we read a book called “There’s a hippopotamus on our roof eating cake”. It is an imaginary story because we know that a hippopotamus is too big to sit on a roof and how is he going to climb up? How can a hippopotamus balance on a roof when it is so enormous? It was a fun story to listen to. During circle time we played a guessing game. Our teachers gave us clues and we had to try and guess a grassland animal e.g. I am thinking of an animal that is grey, lives in water, is really fat and has a huge mouth. We made up a new song using the tune from “If you’re happy and you know it”. We used the words “There’s Miya in the garden eating………” We used different kinds 
of foods in our answer and all of us had a turn to have our names in the song; Jenny – meatballs; Beckett – cake; Oliver – cake; Emily – strawberries; FJ – meat; Shoko – strawberries; Margo – chicken; Miya – cheese and salami sandwiches; Ayaka – pizza; Darren – ice cream; Nico – rice.
Downstairs we started off our day using the paper shredder but it was a little too hard for us to use. On the right side is a handle and it felt quite stiff. Our teachers helped us a little and we watched as the paper went through and became tiny pieces of paper. On the table we also had different colours of plasticine. We didn’t have much time for free play this morning because we went on our visit to the shrine for Shichigosan. We had
so much exercise today because it was quite a long walk to the shrine; then we came back and had our KIDFIT class and then we went to the park. Our teachers thought that we would be so tired we would need to sleep but we didn’t all sleep.
Today in our KIDFIT class we reviewed some of the things that we have learnt so far. We remembered that the bones of our fingers are called phalanges; in order to keep the bones of our skeleton strong we must eat healthy food, do exercise and get enough sleep. We also learnt that animals also have a skeleton. A giraffe has 
many bones in its neck as it has a really long neck; a penguin, bear, monkey, pig and cow all have a skeleton. It is a different shape from our skeletons as we only have two legs. We played with the beanbags and tried to balance them on our heads and shoulders; we scooped the balls with our scoops and we pulled hard on our rubber bands. We have to use our muscles when we pull it.
Love always Shelley, Darren, Ayaka, Nanako, Sabine, Goh, Liezel and Christine.