Welcome Lisa and Nikolas!

It was a quiet Monday for Buds class and everyone welcomed Lisa and Nikolas to Ohana. We are so glad to see new faces in our class and we hope that you both will have a great time with us each day. Of course, we won’t expect a full participation straight away and we understand that you will be having some adjustments to your new school, friends and teachers. But nevertheless, we welcome both of you to our group. During our circle time, Lisa was trying to figure out what we should do. When she saw that we all sat on the carpet and made a circle, she understood that she had to do the same. She stayed for quite a bit but then she stood up again and played with the sea animal toys that we have in class. Nikolas was very busy making pictures on our birthday card. We wonder whose birthday it’s going to be tomorrow. We heard from Sayaka that it’s going to be one of our teachers in Buds class.

                It’s our gym time again and we are all excited to see our Tanaka-sensei. He’s always giving us this sweet smile that all of us can easily feel the comfort and kindness that he shows us during our class. First, the funny warm-up exercises made us feel upbeat and ready for the challenges that Tanaka-sensei prepared. We did the different exercises like the airplane and spring stretching, this is to ensure that all of us would be flexible and active before starting the main activity.

With more exercises that we must do, Dominik was doing the best he can to show everyone that his posture was fine. Tanaka-sensei didn’t expect us to do it perfectly but he just wanted to know if we can participate and show our efforts all the way through. Sofia amazingly managed to follow Tanaka-sensei’s instructions. We could see the happiness from her when she did the different postures and warm-up exercises. We also felt that she’s becoming more and more comfortable with her friends and teachers.

                We also had this fun game wherein each of us would get one cushion and we had to put it around the floor. Tanaka-sensei told us that we needed to stand up and walk around until we would hear Tanaka-sensei’s whistle and then we had to sit down as fast as we can. Otherwise, the gorilla (Tanaka-sensei) would run and chase after us.

                Kaia and Sofia were even dancing and showing great cooperation during our gym class. Rei would sometimes go and find some toys around the classroom so the teachers would need to assist her more. She could be very active that she wanted to try everything. She wanted to touch and feel everything she saw in the classroom but then again, with the help of our teachers, she could get back on track with our lesson.

While Lisa was busy with the beehive and bee toys, Tanaka-sensei told us to get our cushions and roll them on the floor like a wheel. We were very amazed by how we balanced them and it made us go around the classroom. Some of us needed help but we eventually learned how to do it by ourselves.

                Next, Tanaka-sensei told us to sit down and be quiet for a while because we were about to do a more interesting game this time. Our game was called “Ninja walls and rocks”. He asked us to be ninjas that could turn into rocks and walls. He also told us that when he would say “walls”, we had to stand up against the wall without a sound. And when he would say “rocks”, we had to stay on the floor and pretend to become rocks. Again, we had to stay as quiet as we could because ninjas were like that too.

After our gym class, we had to go back to our classroom for our snacks and then we had to prepare for our park, so we put on our jackets and smocks. Later on, John got a very interesting book. And the title of the book was “I taste…” It was a funny book because we got a chance to see the different types of food that we like. But at the beginning of the page, we saw a shiny white teeth and a toothbrush. We felt that it was a reminder to always brush our teeth. Inside the book, we learned about lollies, lemons, spaghetti, broccoli, snacks, pizza, spicy, yummy ice cream, fresh fruits, nuts, green peas and blueberries. Hana was very attentive and she liked to read the book again but we had to go to the park so John told us that he will read the book tomorrow to fulfill her request. Of course, with a great sunny weather, we went to the park and played with our friends. It was a bit crowded today but that’s okay. We played with the other kids as well not just from our class. So in the end, we all had a wonderful day again in Ohana. Thank you to our teachers for taking care of us.

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Maki