Using our feet to paint

Unfortunately it was another rainy day today but we managed to have a good time inside the classroom. Today we welcomed our new friend to Flowers Class. Today was her first day with us and she soon settled in and started playing. One of her new friends from Flowers Class helped show her where to put her bag, towel, class name etc. and then she made a place-mat for her snack and lunch time. On the table we saw some tools as well as some pieces of wood. There was a drill and some scrap wood to put under the pieces. First we chose a circular piece of wood and then using the drill with the teachers help we drilled a small hole in the wood. We then looped a piece of fine wire through the hole so that we could hang it up after we had painted it. We used gold paint on both sides and also the edges. We will put some more sparkly paint on it tomorrow when it has dried but want to keep what we are making a secret for now. Several of us made a face picture with our friend’s help. We first drew a face outline and then we put on a blindfold. Our friends gave us instructions such as up, down, left and right to place the face features in the right place. It was a little difficult but great fun. In circle time we looked at a book called ‘Touch, the 5 Senses’. In the book there were lots of examples of different feelings our bodies can senses such as soft rose petals, smooth ice, hot fire etc. We came up with lots of examples of our own too. Two of our friends volunteered to stand up and we compared how they are ‘different’ and also the ‘same’. Our heights were different, our skin, eye and hair color are also different. We all have 2 eyes, 1 nose etc. and then tried some things using our hands such as buttons, zippers, hook and poppers but we then tried using just one hand. This was really difficult. When we looked at a few beautiful pictures we found it a surprise to see the artist didn’t have any arms or hands. In one of the pictures we saw he was using his feet to hold a paintbrush. We wanted to try this and used our large group artwork to try. First we took off our shoes and socks and practiced holding a paintbrush between our toes. We then used some blue, red and yellow paint on the brushes to paint on the big sheet. It was not so easy but fun. We couldn’t all do this at the same time and so we divided into 2 groups and worked on our big skeleton drawing with markers and then swapped groups. It was then time to do some exercise and the teachers got their magic remote control and tried running, swimming, sleeping, eating ice cream, stretching and balancing. Have a great afternoon and we look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow morning.

All our love, Darren, Ayaka, Maki and Ryoan.