Picnic for snack time
Today Sui remarked again about Shelley’s mom’s birthday and Shelley told us all that her mummy was very happy that we sang to her all the way from Japan!
Our day started off a little differently and it was so interesting how routined we are; we were thrown a little off balance by the changes which were not really so big. We played for a short while on the mat and then we went under the table as there was an earthquake. Our teachers decided that it was a good opportunity to do things a little differently, so we all got ready to go to the park and have our snack there and then play outside. It was a lot earlier than our usual outside time and we were excited to have a picnic, as the weather was lovely and warm. We had a special mat to sit on and we took off our shoes; sang our snack time song and ate our snack. Afterwards we had one job to do before we could go and play. The job was to take a plastic bag; walk around the park and fill the bag up with stones. We had to try to find ones that were the size of a 500 yen coin and bigger. We found so many and we knew that we were going to use them for repotting the sunflowers that we are growing outside on the balcony. We filled our bags up and some of them were too heavy for us to carry; then we went and played in the park. Some of us used the equipment and some of us filled bottles with water or went up and down the slide. When we returned to school, this was the time when we felt a little upside down. Usually when we return to school after the park, we go and have lunch however it was far too early for lunch. We washed our hands and went into the library for story time. Renshi chose a book that he wanted Shelley to read to us. It was called the “The Great Big Little Red Engine”. It was a strange title, because how can something be big and little at the same time? 
Then we wanted to go to eat lunch but Shelley told us again, that it was too early and we were going to do activities at the tables first and then we would eat our lunch.
Our activities today kept us busy for a long time. We had three activities planned but we only managed to do two of them. The first one was called “Marble Painting”. We thought that you needed a marble for it but you just use paint and water and paper. We chose three different colours and dropped a tiny bit of each colour onto the water. The paint has oil in it so the colours float on top of the water. When you put your piece of paper onto the water, the paint adheres to the paper and makes the most amazing patterns.
Each one looked absolutely beautiful and they were all so different. We are going to keep these at school. Our teachers hung them on the line on the balcony to dry. Then Darren called us to sit around a large green pot. This was the pot that we were going to use to repot the sunflowers. Sunflowers grow really tall so they need to be in large pots, otherwise they cannot grow to their full height. We placed all of the stones that we had collected, in the bottom of the pot and then we poured brown soil on top of them. We added the sunflowers that are growing into the soil and then we placed more soil on top so that the sunflowers were secure. The second last thing we did was put long planting wire inside the pots so that we can entwine the sunflowers around them, when they get taller; and the last thing that we needed to do was give the plant water. Water is the plants food and it needs to drink or eat, so that it can grow; just like we do! We will watch the sunflowers over the next few weeks to see what happens to them. We are wondering if they really can grow taller than Darren. We know that they can grow taller than Shelley, but Darren…………….we are not sure! 
It was a great day, with wonderful weather and many interesting things happening in the classroom. Tomorrow we will welcome Jou kun back for his second day at school and Noah will be with us too. We wish you all a happy fun afternoon.
Love Shelley and Darren