From High- Energy to Total Calm (Or From "YAY!" to "Ommm")

Dear Mom and Dad,

        What an incredible weather! The skies were blue, the wind felt cool on our skin, yet the sun shone warmly on us. It was a perfect day for a……. picnic!

        After doing our morning jobs, we sat with Liezel again to finish sewing our cards for Mother’s Day. We helped out some of our friends who had trouble threading the string through holes. On the other table, we traced patterns with Pauline using shiny beads and pebbles, and some buttons. We had fun digging through the containers for pretty things that we can use; some of them looked good enough to be jewelry! It felt like we were treasure- hunting.

        We headed to the park for our snack time- picnic, but, first, we tried out again our hula hoop game. It was really challenging- but fun- to pass through the hula hoop and onto the next person. Afterwards, we had our picnic; it was a nice feeling with the breeze ruffling our hair as we watched the butterflies flutter by as we ate.

Here we are getting ready for our hula hoop game.

        It was a great day for exploring at the park. Some of our friends pretended we were at the beach and went barefoot and got their feet buried under sand; some tried their best to climb up the side of big slide. There were some who went cone- hunting; we saw lots of these dried up cones that looked like pinecones, but only smaller. We saw lots of these at the park; do you know what they’re called?

        Some of our friends ran off to join  our Buds Class friends at the green area where they had their music time with John. We had a friend who tried to catch the bumblebee buzzing around, much to our teachers’ panic (Uh- oh). Some of us were just content to sit on the bench and chat with our friends, or do some people- watching.

        After a day well- spent in the park, we headed back to school, where Hisami taught us some meditation. She had a candle that she stuck on top of playdough, which made us sing “Happy Birthday” immediately. That made our teachers laugh, and Hisami said the candle was not for a birthday party.

        We were asked to focus on the candlelight, as it glowed in the dark. Hisami asked to breathe in… then breathe out. Breathe in….. breathe out. Then she asked us to close our eyes and imagine that we still see the candlelight. Then we breathed in…. and out. Then Hisami taught us to chant “Om” and we let our “Oooooommmmmmmm”s roll out nicely while staying as focused as we can . At the end, we chanted “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti”, which meant “peace”. Wow, that felt really calming and relaxing!

"Focus on the candlelight." Hisami urged us during our meditation session with her.

        So, that concludes our Thursday. We wonder what’s in store for Friday……

Love,

All the meditative children in Petals Class.