Happy Birthday

Dear Flower Class parents, It was a rainy and wet morning today and we knew when we arrived that we probably wouldn’t be going to the park today. There are still a few of us who are not feeling well today and so we saw only a few of our friends today. We hope they all recover soon and can come back and play with us soon. This morning on the table we saw the big airplane cockpit we started working on last week and today added some more paint to both the outside and the inside using rollers and brushes. The controls were painted black last week but we soon discovered that the black paint comes off on our hands and so we used some vinyl tape to wrap them so our hands stay clean. On the second table we also saw the ‘dream holiday’ collage artwork we started last week and today added some more pictures to our artwork. Many of them are finished now and will go into our special portfolios for the end of the year. On the carpet area the Montessori world maps were popular this morning and we were soon able to complete them. Many of us asked for origami paper today so that we could make paper airplanes for ourselves and our siblings. The fake money on the table in the play travel agency was also of interest today and we looked carefully to see the faces and designs on the coins and notes. We think we will have to look them up as we were not sure who the people were on many of the coins. The chairs were lined up this morning like our play airplane and we took a nice long trip together with the pilot, copilot and flight attendants. We had a little bit longer free-play time today because of the weather and then had our yummy snacks and helped the teachers move all the tables, carpets and toys so that we could have our weekly gym class together. In the gym class we warmed up and then did a fun activity where we walked on a line taped to the floor with our arms out. We needed to balance on the line and look at Miyashita Sensei’s hand instead of the floor. Once we got to the end of the line we needed to walk on all fours just like a bear and return to the line. We then tried the same thing and stopped to balance on one leg and then jump at the end of the line onto the cushion. On the final turn we had to try balancing on the line while going backwards. This was a little more difficult but all tried our best. At the end of the gym class we played a game where we crept up on Miyashita Sensei and he pretended to be a spider. We sprayed Miyashita Sensei and he chased us back to the carpet area where we were safe. After saying ‘goodbye’ and ‘thanks’ to Miyashita Sensei it was time for a special celebration. Today we were celebrating Pooja and Ryoan’s March birthdays. Our friends from Petals and Buds class came to join us in Flowers class and we gave both Pooja and Ryoan a nice gold crown each to wear and also gave them the special birthday cards we had made for them. We saw the cake with all the candles on top and sang ‘Happy Birthday’ so nicely to them. We also sang our ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ song and suggested lots of actions to sing along to. Pooja and Ryoan were very excited to see the birthday cakes and blew out the candles. We all counted along to ‘How old are you now’? and gave our wonderful teachers lots of Happy Birthday hugs. Happy Birthday Pooja and Ryoan, we all love you. In the short circle time we looked at some different kinds of money and how if we went on holiday we would need to use different money. We knew that in Japan we use the Japanese Yen. When we looked closely at the center oval on the play money there was no picture but when we looked at the real notes and held them up to the light we could see a picture in each one. We also looked at some play American Dollars and some English Pounds too.

Have a great afternoon and we look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow.

All our love, Darren, Ayaka, Pooja and Ryoan