We have tadpoles in our classroom

A lovely warm day greeted us for the start of the new week at school, together with some new friends that are now living in our classroom. We were so excited to see many tadpoles swimming in the fish tank that is now their home, until they metamorphosise into frogs, on the light table in our classroom. Charlie and his big brother, Vincent found them in Honmura shogakko. They brought them back to school on Friday afternoon and Shelley put them inside the fish tank. She was worried that they wouldn’t have any food over the weekend so she went to the pet shop and bought food, plants and some dechlorinator. The water in the tap has too much chlorine inside it, so we need to take the chlorine out so that the tadpoles can survive. We need to change the water regularly as they like clean water and we need to feed them once a day. We can’t imagine that they will become frogs however there is a chart on the wall behind them that explains how they start off and how they end up being frogs. They actually begin with an egg, just like chickens, turtles, snakes, crocodiles, ducks, birds and other creatures.

We spent a lot of time looking thought magnifying glasses; watching them and examining them carefully. They look bigger when you look at them through a magnifying glass. Thanks Charlie and Vincent for bringing them to our class. We are so excited to have “pets” in our classroom.

   Hisami read us the story called “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” because it tells of the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly. We sang the cabbage song in Japanese, about caterpillars becoming butterflies. There are a few creatures that start off looking different as a baby, from what they will become as an adult. We have a story called “Monkey Puzzle” which is about a monkey looking for its mum and the butterfly offers to help. The only problem is that the butterfly has no idea that the monkey’s mum looks like the monkey; because her babies are caterpillars and don’t look like she does. Life is full of these interesting stories and things for us to wonder about.

Monday means……………….you guessed it! Miyashita Monday. Today we did our regular warm ups and exercises with a few changes. We did a somersault on the large green mat and walked on the cushions that were placed in two straight lines. The next time, we did another somersault and walked on the cushions that were placed in a zig zag shape. The third game with the circular cushions was when we stood touching one wall, Miyashita sensei said that we need to get to the opposite wall but we have to weave in between the cushions, without touching them. The lucky last game was jumping from one cushion to the next and then run to the wall.

   Hisami drew a picture of tadpole on the white board and then asked them if they knew what it was. They said it was a tadpole and Meg said: It will be frog, when it grows up. We spoke about the food that they eat. We thought they eat vegetables, pasta and sandwiches. YeonJae said: They eat fish food.

We did Yoga and Hisami showed us how to do a few new postures, demonstrating on the doll that we have in our soft toy box. The baby was very good at doing these postures. The one was bending forward and putting your forehead on your knees; the tree pose which is when we have to stand on one foot and put our hands together in front of our chest; the bow posture which is lying on your tummy first and then reaching back to hold your ankles, while bending your body backwards. We also did the cat pose, the triangle pose and Tokyo Tower. We did some meditation on the floor with the lights off.

We felt drawn to go and look at the tadpoles the entire day, whenever we had a spare moment. We still cannot imagine that they will become frogs because they don’t resemble frogs at all. Shelley tried to explain to us that just like our “Monkey Puzzle” book, not all babies start off looking the way they will be, when they become adults.

We started working on our Mother’s Day gifts because there is Kodomo no hi coming up at the beginning of May; and we will have a few days off for Golden Week. We are trying to fit everything in to be sure that we have done our best regarding preparation, productivity and that it has been a healthy learning process.

 We hope that you are staying dry on this rainy evening. See you tomorrow for another fun day with our tadpoles, teachers and friends.

Love,

All the yogis in Petals Class.