Happy Birthday Darren!
It is Friday the 13th and many people think that this is an unlucky day. We think every day is a lucky day and that we have so much to be thankful for. We go to school and have fun and learn and we go home and have precious time with our families. So we think that these superstitions are not true! Today was another day filled with new and old things to do at school. One very important thing was baking for Darren for his birthday. We baked the same delicious muffins that Nakaba, Noah’s mum baked with us a few weeks ago when it was “Kodomo no hi”.
This time they tasted different because our teachers used teaspoons instead of tablespoons. We didn’t mind as we just like to eat cake no matter what.
We had a few ingredients that we needed to mix together and we all took turns to add the pancake mix, cocoa powder, sugar and water. We first only used 150ml of water but it was not enough so we added more and the mixture became smoother and runnier. We poured the mixture into paper cups and we also used two plastic cups from Ikea that are microwave safe. While we were eating we heard the ping of the microwave as our muffins were ready. Some of us took our muffins home to eat later as we had a small celebration after lunch and most of our tummies were still full. We gave Darren a big card with drawings that we had made and photos of each of us. He blew out one candle and we sang “Happy Birthday to you” and “When you’re happy and you know it”. Even though his birthday was last week, we think that he had a fun time celebrating with us at school.
This morning Shelley was downstairs with someone who came to do the “Me and My Mom” programme, so Darren and Laura were upstairs with us. Ren made a truck with the wooden construction kit and he followed the instructions and chose all the pieces by himself; Darren helped him put it together. Sui and Ren played on the street mat and all of us built bridges and tunnels with the coloured wooden blocks.
We did a lot of exercise in the classroom and outside in the park. In the classroom we lay on our backs, lifted our legs in the air and pretended to ride bicycles; we stood up; sat down; hopped; rolled our heads; raised our shoulders, touched our toes and swam. We pretended we were swimming by lying on our tummies on the carpet and we kicked our legs and moved our arms in a swimming motion. Outside we had a course with small cones laid out haphazardly on the sand. Shelley demonstrated how we slalom through the cones, running outside one and inside another, almost like a snake. When she came back she gave Ren a high five and he had a turn. Each time we came back to the start, we gave the person waiting, a high five and then it was their turn. It was fun and we ran quite a lot. We played with balls and balloons outside as the sand was too wet from the rain. We had fun kicking and chasing the big and small balls and Ren used his balloon like a catapult to shoot it high above his head. He pulled the end of it back and it shot the balloon out of his hand.
Today we practiced Fire and Earthquake drills. We always have to know what to do in case of an emergency and we are really quick at getting out of the classroom and down the stairs to safety. When there is a fire, we have to cover our mouths and when there is an earthquake, we go under the tables and then go outside, if the ground is shaking a lot.
We like going under the tables as it feels like we are playing hide and seek.
We were happy to see the sun shining today after a few cloudy and rainy days. We hope that the weekend is warm and sunny too so that we can play outside with our friend and families. Shelley had fun in the “Me and My Mom” class and welcomes new students and their mums to join her on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday at 9.30am for two hours. Wishing you all a great weekend and see you on Monday.
Love Shelley and Darren