Happy birthday Sophie

Today was another busy day as we worked on our horse, adding parts of its body and even having a chance to sit on it. Unfortunately because the horse is made from a box, it is quite fragile which means it can break easily. Therefore, those of us who are bigger were not able to sit on the horse otherwise, it would have collapsed. Remember, its legs are made from tissue boxes and yoghurt cups……..Pauling, Hana and a new friend, Mika, sat on the horse. Many of us helped to add eyes, a mouth, ears, more hair for its mane and a tail. We used tissue paper, crumpled paper, wool or yarn, stickers, pipe cleaners and more. Hisami is really good at art and she spent a lot of time working with us to put it together. Sound the trumpets……..

 We held hands in a circle, around the horse and did actions and made noises just like horses. We galloped, trotted, ate some sugar cubes and straw, swished our tails, neighed, stamped our feet, walked around on all fours and then we crawled in between the horses legs. This was so much fun; we went underneath the horse’s tummy. We are really sad that Marc has been away sick for so long. It is his birthday tomorrow and we are not sure if we can even celebrate it tomorrow. Please get better soon Marc, William, Tomas and Tokutaro; we are missing you all. We wrapped more string around our hagoita today and have only a few left for the children who were not here at school today. We completed our group art project today and pasted circles in different sizes onto it. We pasted some circles inside one another and the rest of them we scattered all over the paper. Adrien, Lilian and Haruto had fun spreading sparkly gold paint all over the art work. They used brushes and also their hands. Our teachers will cut this up for birthday hearts as February and March are quite busy with birthdays and we need 28 hearts for each birthday, which is quite a lot. We sat together reading books with our friends and teachers in small circles.

Upstairs our friends celebrated another birthday today. It was Sophie’s belated celebration. She is now five years old and her mum and dad came to school to celebrate with us. They brought along a beautiful display for her chocolate cupcakes as well as some yummy snacks viz. crackers and strawberries, and one of Sophie’s favourite stories. The book was called “There’s an alligator under my bed”. We all listened attentively and loved the story. We think that Sophie’s dad loves this story too as her read it with lots of expression and animation. We gave Sophie her crown and chain of hearts. We also gave her a hug and sang “Happy Birthday to you” and “If you’re happy and you know it”.

  During circle time, we learnt about “Pop Art” and looked at some pictures of the artist called Lichtenstein. We noticed that his art looks a bit like comic strips and there are some with lots and lots of polka dots. He really liked comics and this is where a lot of his inspiration came from. We all had a turn to pose and our teachers took a photo of us. We will use these photos and try to recreate them in “Pop Art” style.

We went to Amishiro Koen today to take care of our flowers and saw that some are still doing fine but since it is the end of the season, there are many that died. We will get some new flowers for the new season and once again, take care of them. When we arrived at school this morning, Allie and Tirza headed straight for the easels and immediately started drawing and writing. Allie wrote her own name and many letters and words without anyone helping her. Great job, Allie! Ryan, Ethan, Sophie and Yossi all noticed the paint and palettes on the table. They all tried their hand at some watercolour paintings and enjoyed themselves. Some of our friends completed the decorations on their kites using Posca markers and they then had photos taken with all of their souvenirs for New Year in Japan.

Love Shelley, Darren, Hisami, Ayaka, Liezel, Nanako, Goh, Christine and Maryna