Our plants are too tall!

So what can we do when our plants are growing too tall for our containers? We take them home and replant them in larger pots or in a garden. Ren arrived at school today and even his dad came in the room to see the small shoot that is sprouting in his flower pot. Yoohoo! At last! He has waited so patiently to see something peeping above the soil. We know what is below the soil and we can’t see it but we can and do want to see what is above the soil. We decided to plant the remaining seeds that we had in a large pot and leave it on the balcony upstairs and see what happens to it. Apparently it can grow really tall; even taller than most people. We helped plant the remaining seeds and worked together so beautifully, taking turns and helping one another. First we placed stones in the bottom of the pot; then the soil went on top of the stones; seeds went into the soil and the last thing that we did was pour water on the soil. We noticed once again that the saucer that the pot is in became full of water. This was a bit puzzling. Where did the water come from as we hadn’t poured it into the saucer. We are still thinking as our teachers do not like to give us the answer for everything. They think that it is great for us to wonder and be puzzled and try to work things out for ourselves.

Our activity today was a messy one. We looked at a stick that had ribbons on it and two colourful fish; one blue and the other red. Straight away, we said “Koy Nobori” and we were right. Soon it will be “Kodomo no hi” which is a special celebration for small boys in Japan. The fish are the special decoration at this time of year and people usually hang them outside the house so that the fish blow in the wind. We decided to make our own large one that we will hang from the ceiling when it is done. We used red and orange paint and sponges and sponged the huge piece of paper that was laid on the table. We tried to hide as much white paper as possible and took a while because the paper was even longer than the table. It hung over the edges. Shelley took it upstairs so that it would dry and we would have the use of the table for the rest of the day. We will work on it again on Monday and probably do cutting rather than painting. When we were looking at the “Koy nobori” we saw eyes and we learnt about the other parts of a fish. They have scales all over their bodies which protect them and fins on the sides and the back which steer them through the water. They also have gills for breathing. We tried to make our mouths like those of a fish and were making our lips small and round. We sang “Fishes swim through water clear” and “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive”.

We know that fish live in water and they need to stay there otherwise they will die. There are many different types of fish and some have a skeleton like we do and some don’t, like sharks. In our morning circle today we sang our ‘Hello’ song and we always play an action game where we have to try to copy what our teachers are doing. Today was not as complicated as yesterday when we had to cross our arms over one another. Today our story was called “Can you cuddle like a koala”. In the story there are a number of different animals and we had to try to do the actions as if we were one of them. We cuddled like a koala; jumped like a frog; swung from the branches like a monkey (pretend); crept like a mouse; hopped like a rabbit; winked like an owl and in the end we slept like a koala and all the other baby animals. On the cover of the book was an assortment of foot prints and we guessed that one of them must have been a koala.

We want to wish you all a great weekend and also wish our families who are travelling this weekend going into Golden Week, safe travels; wonderful times with your families and safe returns back to Tokyo.

Happy Easter and happy holidays

Love

Shelley and Darren