Welcome to Israel

Today we added our final, well almost final, touch to our art works downstairs. Our teachers looked at the paintings and they really do spend a lot of time, looking at them and seeing whether they are finished; what they may need to help finish them off; which colours are missing; what needs to be highlighted etc. so you can see that somewhere our art works are a collaboration. Well today, Shelley came upon an idea and that was to photocopy our hands onto acetate. Our printer/copier cannot do this but the office upstairs where Nakamura san sits, has an amazing copier and so she went upstairs and asked him if she could try to photocopy her hand and………bingo! It looked just like her hand. We saw the rings on her one finger and we knew that the hand was hers. So after spending time in the park, we went upstairs to the third floor and each of us had a turn to put our hand on the photocopying machine and take a photo of it. These are now being added to our paintings and……WOW! Mums and dads, you have to come to the Wine Tasting event and buy our paintings. They are true works of art and the special thing is that each of us has something specific to us on our individual paintings.

  We spent time completing our Hina Matsuri pictures and Hisami explained to us about some of the dolls that people display at this time of year. She told us that our display is extremely special and no one touches this kind of display; people just look at the things. So we went downstairs and we sat against the wall and looked with curiosity at all the amazing people and accessories on the steps. There are seven steps covered in red cloth and on the very top are the “Ohinasama” and “Odairisama”. We asked questions about the horse drawn coach and Shelley told us that it takes the “Ohinasama” and “Odairisama” into town or wherever they need to go. We saw the ladies in waiting with a pot and some flowers in their hands. We also learnt that the “Ohinasama” and

“Odairisama” have ladies in waiting who cook for them and bring them food when they are hungry; they bring them clean towels when they have a bath; they put their clothes out etc. Marc wanted to know what the “Ohinasama” and “Odairisama” do and Shelley said that they mostly sit and greet people and are polite and well mannered. We thought that it was sad that they mostly sat and didn’t have a chance to go and play in the park. Hisami said that it would be very difficult for them to climb up the slide as they had seven layers of clothes on their bodies. None of us wanted to be like them really as we love running around and wearing light clothes and getting dirty and playing with our friends and teachers. We saw a sign on the display that had a red circle with a line through it. Inside the circle was a hand; so the meaning of the sign is “Please do not touch”. We understood this perfectly.

 We played with flubber at one of the activity tables and during our second circle time, we practiced singing some Japanese and English songs, because on Thursday we are going across the road to the small building where old people come every Thursday. We will spend some time singing to them, just before they have lunch. If it goes well, we would like to make this a monthly event as we know how wonderful something like this is for both the old people and us, children.

Upstairs, we went to Israel today with Chana, Yossi and Tirza’s mum and Marina, Marc and Sean’s mum. One of Yossi and Tirza’s big brothers came as well. His name is Meshele and he has a fantastic book written all about him and his life in Tokyo. They brought us blue and white balloons because blue and white are the colours of the Israeli flag. “Kagchol” is blue and “lavan” is white in Hebrew. The Israeli flag has two blue stripes on it and a star of David in the middle. It is slightly different from other stars as it is made of two triangles on top of each other in the opposite direction. We saw that Israel is a tiny country really far away from Japan and the capital city is called Jerusalem. This city is the Holy

City for Jews, Muslims and Christians. There is a huge wall that divides Jerusalem which is called the Western Wall. If you drive the width of the country from west to east, it will take you 1 hour and 15 minutes however if you drive from the north to the south, it will take you 6 hours. There are many seas in Israel but the most famous one is called the “Dead Sea”. It has so much salt inside it that you can just float on it. You can put a cup of tea on the water and it too will float on it.

 We made Israeli flags and then we had the most amazing snack. It was pita bread, falaffel which is made from chickpeas and humus which is also made from chickpeas. Yossi did the prayer to demonstrate how he and his family say prayers before they eat each day and after the have eaten all of their meals. We want to say “Toda raba” to Chana and Marina for the fantastic lesson on Israel and for preparing yummy food and fun activities.

 When we came back from the park, we played with the balloons and tried to keep them in the air. We tried to count how many times we could keep it in the air. The paint had dried on the Israeli flags that we had made, after park time, so we were able to put them into our passports together with the Philippines one from yesterday. We have been true world travellers this month and know that there are a few more countries we will be visiting this week and next. We have had an amazing time and really loved having our parents with us at school, helping teach us and our friends.

Shelley, Darren, Hisami, Ayaka, Liezel, Nanako, Goh, Christine, Maryna, Sharee