We are good at......

Welcome back after a long Golden Week break. We hope that everyone had a great time with their families and relaxed wherever you were. We know that some of our friends are still travelling and hope that they have a great time, hopefully in the sunshine near a beach.

Our day started off with many different activities at the tables as our teachers are observing our skills carefully. We consolidated our knowledge of shapes and colours and then our teachers checked to see whether we were right handed or left handed. Some of us seem to use both hands for many things however our teachers were mostly able to see which hand we prefer. In fact most of us are right handed and the only ones that for sure are left handed are Karl, Koh and Hana chan. Hisami showed us a puzzle with circular shaped discs in many different colours. We tried to identify the colours and then place the discs on a stick. We looked at different shapes and tried to identify these too. We all a circle shape because of our daily song, “Let’s all hold hands in a circle”. Our teachers also realised that how they asked the questions to us, really mattered. They discovered that most of us know the names of colours however when they asked us “What colour is this?” we were not sure. When they said to us: “Please show me the red one” we could. When we sit in a group and our teachers ask us colours, most of us know them. When we are working one to one with our teachers, maybe we feel pressured and then we appear not to know them. This is the same when we sang the ABC song and pointed to the letters sequentially. When they asked us “What letter is this?” we were not sure, however when we see them and say them in order, we ‘know’ them! Nanako worked with us at a matching game where we tried to name the objects on the pictures and then match them with the matching cards. She also asked us whether we knew what gender we were. Most of us knew whether we were a boy or girl.

During morning circle, we sang “Hello” song and we sang the “Cabbage and caterpillar” song in Japanese. We had a table with drawing and we also spent time playing with our friends and teachers on the carpet. Before we went to the park we did an activity where we walked along a line that was taped to the floor in our classroom. Our teachers were looking at our balancing skills and to see whether we could walk by placing one foot in front of the other. Hisami demonstrated and told us that we could put our arms out to the side to help us balance.

When we were in the park, we did another balancing exercise on the ledge where the plants are. We walked all the way along it from the large tree till the steps where you go down to the houses. When we got to the end, we tried to jump off. Some of us held hands with our teachers so that we could jump off more easily.

We read books with our teachers and our friends in the library and really enjoy these intimate story times. We hope that everyone has a great afternoon and we look forward to our taiko workshop at the AZABU KUMIN CENTER tomorrow morning.

Love always Shelley, Nanako, Liezel, Goh, Ayaka and Hisami