Preparing for our party

It was a rainy, cloudy and sunny day today. When we came to school in the morning, we had umbrellas and rain boots and when we went home, we didn’t need our umbrellas at all. The sun had come out just like the words in our song “Good morning Mr. Sun”. Talking about “Good morning Mr. Sun”, today we had a “rehearsal” for our party next Thursday, marking the end of this school year. Our teachers told us for the first time, that our mums and maybe some of our dads would be there watching and listening to us singing. They asked us if we thought whether our mums wanted to listen to them singing and of course, they don’t. They want to listen to us singing. So we increased the volume during the “rehearsal” and our voices were clear and loud. Sometimes, we shout when we want to sing louder however our teachers said that using a big voice to sing is different from shouting.

You can see us sitting with different foods that the very hungry caterpillar ate. We have been thinking about caterpillars and butterflies a lot lately and Shelley remembered that she had a wonderful book about a monkey looking for its mummy. The interesting thing about the book, “The Monkey Puzzle” is that the butterfly was trying to help the monkey find its mum but it kept on finding the wrong animal. After it had done this many times, the monkey said “None of these animals looks like me” which really surprised the butterfly. She said, that her children do not look like her and we looked at the pictures of her children, and realised why! Her children are caterpillars and they don’t look like her. Our teachers then asked us if we think we look like our mums; some of us said yes and some of us said no!

During our singing practice or “rehearsal” we helped tell the story of the “Very Hungry Caterpillar” because we know it so well; we tried to remember the days of the week and will practice singing “There are seven days in a week”. We cannot get enough of listening to the story and love anticipating what happens

next. We love watching the caterpillar coming out and going for a walk in search of food. Every time he eats something he says: “I am still hungry”…….we say this! Our party will be fun and informal and we are looking forward to showcasing this and some other songs that we have learnt and loved singing this year. Hisami sang the “Cabbage song” and the “Tulip song” too and the last song we sang today was “I want you to meet my family”.

At the activity tables, we worked on our gifts for our parents; we looked at tiny coloured beads inside a jug of water, we drew pictures, we made a jelly fish and an octopus and we built interesting structures using small colourful blocks and different animals and sea creatures. We used the blocks in different ways and tried to make them balance. As you can see from the pictures we concentrate when we are busy at the tables, and can focus for quite a while on what we are doing.

One of the things that we have been focusing on this month and in fact, througout the year, is family and friendship. We have shown our teachers that we really have taken this theme on, and show how much we care about our friends and teachers. Today, Michaela was patting Haruto on the back when he felt sad; Hana was helping Elisa pack her things away after lunch time; Elisa packed Tomas’s drink bottle in his bag for him; Michaela also helped Karl sit on the round cushion after he had fallen off…… all of these things truly make a difference to everyone in our class and all of us have learnt from one another about being kind, respecting one another, sharing, co-operating and also doing things by ourselves and showing signs of being independent.

We cannot believe that there are only seven more days of school for the actual school year left……..

We can’t wait to see our teachers and friends tomorrow!

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