Of Tiny Things That Grow in Our Room

Dear Mom and Dad,

          Today was quite interesting; we didn’t see Pooja in the room, and instead we saw Shelley! We were surprised and happy to see her… but, wait, what’s going on?

Before we could have our queries answered, it was off to free play time first. At the back, we enjoyed playing with slime and play dough with Goh– san. “Look, it’s so sticky!” M commented. “We don’t mix the slime here,” S said, while pointing to her play dough.

On the carpet, L and L were playing with the Stickle bricks. “I’m making a park!” she told us. “And this is a boat!” she added. “I’m making an electric car!” L announced to us.

Some of us were crowded on the big table where Sayaka was. We had our tadpoles in there, a net, some bowls, and a pail. Sayaka told us that we need to change the water in our tadpoles’ little home.

We helped her transfer the tadpoles in the pail with a net. Then, we threw out the old dirty water.

“Why do we need to change the water?” Sayaka asked us.

“Because it’s dirty, and tadpoles don’t like dirty,” T replied.

“They don’t like dirty water,” M added. We helped Sayaka put some water in the tadpoles’ tiny aquarium. We used mineral water for this.

Sayaka told us that it was finally time to feed our little pets. She brought out something green wrapped in clear plastic, which we bought yesterday from the supermarket. Some kids guessed that it was a cabbage, others thought it was lettuce.

“I think it’s a tomato,” Shelley said.

“Noooo!” Everybody replied. Shelley asked us why.

“It’s green, and the tomato is red,” T answered.

“Pauline, L ate my lettuce!” we heard M suddenly pipe up. Sayaka had given us some lettuce to try, and most of us were happily munching on it.

“Sorry!” L quickly told him. We laughed, because it was quite funny– they’re like tadpoles fighting over the lettuce! Sayaka had steeped the lettuce in hot water, then after that, we fed them to the tadpoles piece by piece.

“Look– It’s going poo– poo now!” Sayaka suddenly said. We all leaned in closer to have a good look. Sure enough, one of the was doing it!

“Where does poo– poo come from?” Shelley asked.

“From here!” M answered, pointing to his bottom.

“Where’s the tadpole’s bottom?” Shelley wanted to know. We all looked closely at our pets again, and M answered, “By the tail!”

We cleaned up after and officially welcomed Shelley in our class. Pauline finally answered our question: there were some teachers that did a “swap”; Shelley will be in our class, Pooja will be in Buds Class, and John will go to Flowers. That sounded certainly interesting– can the children do the swap as well, we wonder? Hee– hee!

We checked the attendance and the weather, then John came to do the music class with us. Today was all about “echo”, meaning sound bounces back to us. John had his drum, and we tried to echo what he was singing. When he sings, “Lalala– lala”, then we sing the same. Later on, we thought of other rhythmic sounds we can make like “Ohohoh– oh”, “Mamama– ma” and “Nanana– na” After that, we also thought of the sounds different animals make, like the cat, cow, horse, and whale. The whale was really interesting– W said that the whale makes a “Ploop– plop!” sounds. We sang about these sounds after.

We had snacks, then we had circle time. Sayaka read us a Japanese book- “I Wonder What the Moon Tastes Like?” about animals helping each other to reach for the moon. When they finally did, they took a piece and ate it. They all said it was delicious! Oh, so maybe that’s why sometimes we see different moon shapes in the night sky, hey?

We also talked to Pauline about our bean seeds. Imagine, after 6 days, our beans are growing up!

“When seeds grow up, they become vegetables,” L said.

“When they grow up, they turn into trees,” T commented.

“They turn into flower,” T said. Pauline asked us why the seeds grew up.

“Did we give them rice?” Pauline asked. We all laughed and said no.

“The seeds are maybe drinking water, that’s why they grow up,” T said. He was right, then Pauline asked us to think of other things a plant needs to grow. Someone answered maybe some milk?

Pauline said that we taped our beans to the window; what comes through the window?

“Sun,” W answered. Everyone had an “Aha!” moment and said, “Sunshine!” Pauline said we were right, then asked us what else they needed. If we inhale and exhale, most especially when we do yoga with Sayaka, what comes through our nose and into our bodies? We were baffled, so Pauline asked us to exhale with our hands in front of us. We felt something– Pauline said that was air! So, like us, plants also “inhale– exhale” and they need air to grow. That’s why we kept our Ziploc bag of beans open, instead of closing them.

We all went to the park afterwards, and the weather was perfect for running around– not too hot, and not too cold. We hope the weather’s okay tomorrow, too!

Love,

All the little energetic bunnies in Petals Class