January 16 – We put some sparkles on our elephant
It was a fine morning today. And the Buds class was so busy with their selected toys for the day. Yurika and Lanah used the activity table that our teachers set up; the table had grains of rice with cups and magnifying glasses. Lanah used china cups to scoop the 
rice and put it in the glass while Yurika just wanted to use her hands to put everything in the cup. Taiga was back now and he got his buses and cars around the railway. At first, he would show you what he was holding and then he would smile and point at the toy and say, “bus”. Little by little, Taiga is showing social interaction and speaking a few words.
Also, Hana and Sofie were using lego blocks. Hana told us that the building was her parents’ office, and they need to go to work. She also said that she can also go to their office and everyone from Buds class. Sofie said that she was building a 
tower. She was trying her best to make her tower really tall and she was definitely concentrated so we just gave her the time in making it for she may need that quiet moment to herself.
During our circle time, we sang the number song. It seemed that everybody knew the song, they really jumped and danced with it. Taiga amazingly put his hands up and down when we sang “itsy, bitsy spider”. We played the walking in the jungle once again and the 
kids could dance really well for they were all familiar with it now. They already knew the whole routine of the song and it made the game more interesting. And then, before we did our artwork for today, John asked us to 
pick a toy animal that we wanted to play with. Kaia got the kangaroo, Rei picked the wild pig, Lanah got the horse, Hana liked the sheep, Taiga wanted the lion, Yurika had the gorilla and Sofie loved the giraffe. We all wanted to give our animals a great care so that they can live happily in the jungle. But, it was already time to do our artwork so we had to put them to sleep.
Yesterday, our teachers told us that the Magical Elephant was very lonely because he didn’t have any colors. One thing that we did to make him feel better was painting beautiful colors on him. We chose bright and basic colors. But when we mixed them, it surprisingly gave us various shades and it made him look more pleasing. And today, we had to help him out once again by putting some sparkling sequins. We glued them on the elephant’s skin. We tried to spread the 
sequins all over the elephant’s body so that it may be even from one side to the other. Kaia was always telling everyone that she got a snowflake, a heart and a star. And she enthusiastically put them on our friend elephant. Yurika really liked to dip her hands in the glue so she got them all over hands. We thought that she was having a messy area but it was also beautiful to look at her for she certainly enjoyed the whole process of making the elephant happy.
After the artwork, we noticed that Yurika was looking at the height measurements of the Buds class. She was actually pointing at their faces and said their names. For example, she would say “Karl!” and then point at his picture, “Hana, Haruto and so on”. It was very cute for she knew the faces of her friends at school.
When we were at the park, we saw Flowers and Petals classes again. Rei was playing with them, and they took care of her really well. Darren was also there playing
and guiding her through. It was very sweet to know how gentle they were with her. The Buds class had a fun time interacting with everyone at the park. The whole Ohana family was there and it was really nice to see our teachers and friends having a delightful moment with each other.
After the park, we had our Montessori time. The Buds were very interested in stacking the puzzles in according to their shapes and sizes. Also, Taiga and Rei
were so focused in putting the cones back together. This day was again a fun-filled experience for us. Thank you Ohana!
Love,
John, Sayaka and Maki