A rainy cherry blossom day in Tokyo

The weatherman predicted rain and he was right, today. It rained and rained but we were really happy because our newly planted bulbs are getting fed really well. We had a busy day downstairs, completing our animal pictures at the one activity table. We looked at pictures of tigers, zebras, dogs, cheetahs, leopards, bears and wolves. We compared these pictures to the one that we made and looked at what was missing on our pictures. We saw that our animals needed eyes, ears, a mouth, a nose, ears and a tail. We had a variety of materials to use and all of us chose what we wanted to use. Some of us had really long tails and Miyu chan laughed because her zebra’s tail went right off the page onto the table. She decided to fold it over to make it shorter but thicker. Some of our friends who were not at school today will complete their next week. We were very specific about having two eyes on our animals as we know that they have two eyes, just like we do. When we look at someone from the side, it looks like they only have one eye.

Hisami continued working with us at the other activity table where we completed our origami tulips. We saw that our tulip bulbs were being fed a little too much water as it rained and rained the whole day long. Some of us again remarked that our flowers are growing; because the shoot from the bulbs has already sprouted. During morning circle time, we sat on the round cushions and sang good morning to our friends in many languages. We sang in Tagalog, German, Japanese, English, French, Hebrew, Chinese and Afrikaans. Then we listened to a story about a “Surprise Garden”. We know how to make a surprised face and all did it together. The story was about some children who received a selection of seeds from their mum, to plant. They had a large patch of soil which they loosened with their spades or shovels; then they put the seeds into the soil and placed a marker next to them so that they could differentiate the plants that were growing. No one knew what surprise was awaiting them. Suddenly some sprouts appeared, and then some taller stems with leaves and flowers; then the flowers fell off and some vegetables appeared. The first ones that we could see were beans and peas and then many more started to grow.

We realised that the seeds were growing into fruit and vegetables. Yummmmm! The largest of them all was a watermelon which was green on the outside and pink on the inside. We had a few acitivities that were fun to touch; one was our playdough made from conditioner and corn flour, one was pom poms that we could put in coloured cups and enjoy touching and the third one was beads that we could place inside containers and empty out and touch and have a wonderful sensory experience with.

We went to the carpet and dramatised seeds growing. We curled up into tiny seeds, Shelley watered us (just pretend) and the rain also fed us and then she sang a song called “I am a little flower”. We listened carefully to the words and started to grow and grow. Then we found a partner and danced around holding one anothers hands. It was so much fun. We also had to have some sun to help us grow so we sang “Good morning Mr. Sun”.

Hisami played a game with us using the tulips that we had made earlier in the day. We sang the tulip song in Japanese and reviewed the colours in Japanese. We did yellow, red and white as these are the colours that we used for our tulips. Three of our friends had a turn to stand up in front of the class and hold up a tulip and see if we knew the colour in Japanese. All three of us did this. We felt really proud when we were chosen. Then Hisami read us “Chikka Chikka Boom Boom” which is our favourite book at the moment.

Upstairs Tokutaro, Beckett, Marc and Elena wanted to play Chess when they arrived at school this morning. We arranged the pawns once again and Elena and Tokutaro explained the rules to their friends.

We spent some time playing with the finger puppets and castle stage. Sharee read a condensed version of “Can’t you make them behave King George?”

You can see from the one photo that we all dressed up in fancy dress not only because we love dressing up, but especially because today was the last day of our castle in the room. The king and queen, Ayaka and Sharee invited us all to the castle for a party. We arrived at the castle but the drawbridge was up so we couldn’t get across the moat. What were we going to do? The guard (Darren) asked us to identify ourselves and he asked us why we wanted to go inside the castle. We told him that we were invited to a party. When we eventually entered the castle, we bowed and curtseyed to the king and queen and they gave us gifts. We then had a party with lots of food and drinks.

After our party we all helped dismantle the castle and flatten the boxes. We have kept our model castle and will continue to play with it for the next few weeks.

We are still hoping and praying that the weather will rain itself out tonight and we will still be able to go and have a cherry blossom picnic tomorrow.

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