Sail boat building

Dear Flower Class parents, We were happy to see the sunshine this morning because it meant we would be able to go to the park today. When we arrived in class we saw some pieces of colored card and markers on the table with the words ‘Happy Birthday Maki’ written on a piece of paper. Maki is returning to Japan for a short time later this week and we are going to have a birthday party for her in February. We copied the words onto our chosen piece of colored card and decorated the other sides with a nice picture. Also on the same table we saw the blue play-dough and many of us used the play-dough to make play food for the teachers and our friends. On the carpet the wooden ‘Kapla’ blocks were very popular and we made a series of steps and then got the colored marbles and rolled them down the steps we had made onto the carpet. Also on the carpet we saw the box of animals and landscape mat. Together with our friends we sorted the animals into families with all the elephants together, all the cheetahs together etc. After packing away the toys we checked the calendar, and weather. Ayaka taught us how to say winter, spring, autumn and summer in Japanese too! We ate our yummy snacks quickly and went off to the park. On the way we saw big piles of ice left over from the snow yesterday and were surprised to see lots and lots of ice in the park. It looked a lot like snow but was actually ice. We used our feet to crush the ice and broke lots of pieces on the floor. It made a nice crunchy sound when we walked on it. Some of us got ice in pots and added some cold water to make iced soup. It was very cold on our hands but fun to play with. In circle time we talked about the wind moving the clouds and then together thought of some other things the wind moves such as the trees, leaves, sailboats and snow. The teachers then showed us a giant propeller which fits onto a wind turbine construction set to make electricity which charges batteries. Many of us said that we hadn’t seen one of these before but will look out for them now we know. We then looked at something called a ‘net’ which was a flat model of a boat printed onto paper. We moved to the table to color the boat with markers and then carefully cut all the way around the outside. We carefully cut the parts for glue and then started to fold and glue the boat pieces together. It took us a little while but the boats are now 3D and just need a sail which we can add tomorrow. We even tested the sample boat that Darren had made on the surface of some water in a tray and blew on it to make it move.

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

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