We went to Singapore today
Today we went to Singapore with Akari’s dad, Alvin. He was born in Singapore and he told us many interesting things about Singapore. He told us that it is only 51 years old so it is a very young country and when he tried to find it on the map, it was so small, it was just like a tiny dot. He said it really is a small country. He said that if you want to drive from the west to the east, in other words from one side to the other side, it will take you about an hour without traffic. In Tokyo, it takes you the same amount of time to get out of Tokyo to go into the countryside on some days, and that it only a few kilometers. Then he showed us pictures of many things that are very much a part of Singapore and its culture and its people. Each time he said that he was showing us something, he took the wrong picture. He told us that he was showing us a picture of children in Singapore
and he showed us a picture of an orangutan; then he said that he was showing another picture of children and he showed us a picture of a statue with a lion’s head and a fish’s tail. The statue is called “Merlion” and stands proudly overlooking the bay. Sofie said that it is made from rocks. We saw a picture of a car in a race called Formula 1. In Formula 1 races, the cars that race are the fastest cars in the world and they have these kinds of races all over the world. The difference with the one that is held in Singapore is that it is the only one that is held in the night. All the other races are in the day time. The cars race around the streets of the city and make a really big noise.
We learnt that in Singapore they do special exercises every morning and these exercises are done by children and adults. We watched a video that showed us how to do the exercises with music in the background. Our teachers think that it would be great if we did these exercises every morning in our classroom before we start working/playing/learning/doing the things that children do when they are growing. We are not sure about this, even though we had fun doing the exercises with Alvin this morning.
We looked at a picture of children that showed how multicultural Singapore is. People from all over the world can live there and it
makes for a really colourful interesting country. In the picture you can see a boy of Chinese descent; a boy of Malaysian descent; a boy of Tamil, Indian descent and a Eurasian boy. All of them are wearing traditional clothes. Alvin can speak many languages and he taught us how to say how to say hello in all four languages represented in the picture with the four children:
Chinese – nee how ma; Malaysian – selamat pagi; Tamil – vernuhkum; Eurasian – hello. Then we played a game and had to try to find which picture represented the many different foods in Singapore. There was roti prahta – Indian bread, chicken rice, fish head curry, laksa which is a spicy noodle soup, durian which is a smelly fruit, satay which are sticks of chicken or meat dipped in a peanut sauce, chili crab and ice katchang which is ice like “kakigori” with many flavours and underneath the ice there are pieces of coconut jelly and sweet red beans and other fruit. We were so lucky because we went to the tables and sat together to sample some delicious Singaporean treats. Alvin made a tapioca drink with sago, which is fruit from a sago palm tree, coconut milk and brown sugar. Some
of us with sophisticated palates loved it and many of us tried it though. Then we tasted some ‘kaya’ jam on bread which most of us loved and we wanted more and more.
We noticed in the picture of the children that they were holding flags. These were flags of Singapore. You can see that the top half of the flag is red and the bottom half is white. The red represents brotherhood and the equality of man and the white represents purity. There is a white crescent moon and five stars in a circle shape. The five stars symbolise democracy, peace, justice, progress and equality.
We want to say a big thank you to Alvin for all the preparation he did to teach us so many things about Singapore, his native country. Thanks Alvin and Akari chan.
During the morning we read a book called “Me on the map”. We had a great time outside in the park and we think Barbie really enjoyed her second day in Petals Class.
Love always the children in Petals Class.