Happy Friday! Today was a special day for several reasons. First, today was the last day of Au and wished him all the best at his new school. Second, we always like singing the song we ourselves made which we call “Today is Friday!”. This song reminds us of what we must do after we come from park time. It is fun singing and doing what the words in the song say. Lastly, we made special things for special events that we are going to have in Flowers. Please read on to find out today’s adventures in Flowers.
MORNING ACTIVITIES
We checked what we had on the sensory table and asked our teachers, “What are we doing here?”. We got excited when our teachers replied, “What do you want to do with these things?”.
Re: I think I can squeeze with this.
Ri: It’s like we are cooking.
Cl: Cookie this. Mix cookies.
Their giggles were enticing that more and more friends came to join them. Soon enough, there was a big group of friends pouring oats into the containers, hiding the “cookies” (wooden shapes) in the big box of oatmeal, and then digging up for them using different ladles! It was so much fun! We got more excited when Vieda told us that it was okay to paint the oatmeal if we wanted to. Yay! We poured paint and mixed the oatmeal with our hands until it turned pink! We took the box outside to dry the mixture. We can’t wait to play with PINK oatmeal next week!
For the table activity, a picture lotto game helped us with our eye-hand coordination and categorizing skills. Gr and E enjoyed matching the toys from the set with the picture cards. They showed interest in putting things together depending on certain categories as well as, such as animals in the ocean and things in the house.
In the library, Sayaka from Petals Class played with us as we built houses and trains with blocks. The blocks that have colored cellophane grabbed our attention. Ma was stunned at what his friends and teachers looked like when he placed the cellophane blocks in front of his eyes. He said with a smile, “Why are you green now?”!
STORY TIME (A Friend by Tanikawa Shuntaro, illustrated by Wada Makoto, translated by Arthur Binard)
Friends keep us company and make our day great! Reading a story about friends offers opportunities for us to reflect on our friendships. Each page of this story is something that we can relate to. Here’s what we shared with our class:
Au: Your cat or dog can be your friend.
Ke: Y’s friend is going to Y’s house.
E: Sometimes I walk to the park with B and Hi.
Co: Th and me meet and walk home together.
Au: I walk to school with my mommy and go home with daddy.
We had a bit of lengthy discussion when we the story was about teasing. The word seemed a big word for us so, we asked friends who could share about it.
Cl: Tease is insects.
H: When the friend don’t like, and you keep on doing it.
Au: Teasing is not what friends do.
Re: Like frog or fish and some friends doing.
Be: Like when your friend doesn’t like it. My mommy doesn’t like frogs, if I bring a frog to her, it’s teasing.
Au: If one time say, “I don’t like it”, we should listen.
Ke: Y’s teasing me! I say “no thank you” but he don’t listen.
*Having someone feel left out*
Au: All the children run to go play except for one friend.
That’s right! We don’t want anyone to feel left out in Flowers. We also talked about using our gentle hands and voice, instead of pushing, when we want to say something to our friends.
CIRCLE TIME
Recently, we have been enjoying counting. Imagine we can even count up to `100 through the help of a song! Today was a challenging activity for us as we picked up a number from a bag, and then tried to name it!
Today’s teacher’s helper rolled the music box two times, and it landed on two exercise songs We counted to 10 to calm our hearts and were able to be ready for our circle time. Au read today’s question of the day (Do you like oni?), and just like that our lively discussion started. He said, “Oni is a person who says, “Oooh!”.
Ke: I see oni in Niigata.
Re: Oni is just coming one time. It’s special.
Hi: One time I see oni in Ohana and we are friends. It was Maryna.
Co: It’s not real people. It’s people who wearing a mask.
Ty: It’s so funny and so strong.
R: It’s scary!
E, Y, M, T, and A: It’s scary!
Ta: Oni is monster!
Are we going to be visited by the same oni as last year? We may feel a bit scared, but we feel that it will be exciting to meet an oni again this year. We wanted to wait prepared so, at quiet time, we made paper balls in case an oni visits us next week
Have a great weekend!
Love,
Flowers