Making paper clay

Today was a lot cooler than yesterday however while we were in the park it warmed up and we had a great time running around, going on the slide together with our friends and teachers and enjoying being outside. Our friends upstairs were so busy working and making things; we missed seeing them in the park. They did Yoga to quieten their minds and work their bodies with easy stretches. On the third floor, we helped make paper clay during our circle time. We learnt about a blender which is a machine that mixes things up until they are all “blended” together. We spoke about how important it is to stay safe when working with equipment or machines and then we put the soaked green paper into the blender; added some starch glue and more water and then pushed the button to switch it on. It made a big noise and we watched all the pieces of paper disappear and get mixed together with the water and starch glue. When everything was blended together really well, we poured the mixture into a piece of cloth that was placed over a bowl. The water drained through the cloth into the bowl and then we squeezed the remaining water out. It felt squishy and cold. Our story today

was ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ using the cards from a Kamishibai which is a Japanese form of storytelling. The cards are numbered and tell the whole story in order of the events that took place. We looked at the cards and learnt how things follow in sequence. Oliver and Nico traced leaves using overhead projector sheets and markers. They traced the veins as well. They also made leaves for the vine which is hanging in the classroom. They folded paper, decided on what shaped leaf they wanted to make and then cut it out. Our Show and Tell is starting next week and we will be inviting our friends from downstairs to come and join us for this fun time each week.

Tokutaro and Eva missed Gento today as he is sick at home. He has a fever and a cough and cold and we hope that he will be well enough to come to school later in the week. This morning, Shelley put our owls together for us. She thought that they would look like owls, however Kana said that they could be peacocks. So now we have peacocks in our classroom! They are hanging on the windows with the beautiful Autumn/Leaf pictures that we made. She attached the eyes and the feathered hands that we had made and tied a piece of string on them. Today we also played with pine cones and shook them so that they rolled around in the box. We each had a box which is going to be our sensory box to take home one day. The second activity that we did was sticking leaves onto strips of coloured paper. We could choose what colour we wanted from red, green, brown, yellow and orange. They are going to be laminated so that the leaves stay moist and hold some of their colour and then we will hang them from the ceiling.

We played with a huge container of Duplo when we arrived at school this morning and loved the different animals in it. We were not sure how to build with the blocks so our teachers will leave it out for the rest of the week and see what we do with it. We are really quick learners and will definitely know what to do with the pieces by the end of the week. We sang a few new songs this morning; “Good morning Mr. Sun”; “Oh Mr. Moon” and “Wake up it’s a lovely day”. Shelley read a book called “On the day you were born” and at the very end of it, she held our hands and sang “Thank you Eva, thank you Tokutaro for coming into this world”. We have a funny feeling that she loves us!

Love Shelley, Darren and Kanako