Colorful Hearts

Good day! The Buds were so excited to see their friends and toys again. Lisa seemed to be very quiet connecting some blocks on the floor while Dominik and Lanah were trying to build up their town again. Dominik said, “John, this is my truck”, he liked connecting blocks and he would then show it proudly to his teachers. He tried to help Lanah with her stuff too, it was a great thing to see them work together and the thought of sharing the toys was making their relationship better. Our circle time was always full of love and laughter. We greeted one another “Good morning”. Lanah said that her name was “Ms. Lobster”, Hana likes to be a mommy, Dominik was a dinosaur, and Sofie said that she was the monster. So, we said “good morning Ms. Lobster, mommy, dinosaur and monster!” We all giggled for a bit and we thought that it was kind of funny to see how they used “pretend play” in class.

Today, we also read a book about mother penguin and baby penguin. The title of the book was “I like it when…” It was very nice to see and hear this story because it taught us how to give a hug, be gentle, be helpful, and be playful with one another. We like our friends in Buds class and we all wanted to do the same thing. So, we gave a big hug to our friends and teachers. Our teachers also showed us some hearts in different colors; we saw hearts in purple, pink, red and orange. It’s going to be Valentine’s Day on Saturday, so we will dedicate this week by making our Valentine’s Day activities more special.

Our gym class was very amusing too. We met our new gym teacher Miyashita-sensei. He looks very young but he was friendly and nice to all of us. He could also do what our Tanaka-sensei does in our gym class. We also liked to play with him. He’s very patient and affable when he talked to us. It was very nice to see another teacher around.

First, our teachers asked us to do some stretching and jumping inside the room. We were very active, we followed them and had a great time warming up with our friends before our real games started.

The first game went like this, Tanaka-sensei would tell us to walk around the classroom and then when he would say “stop”, we needed to give a high five, give a hug and other actions that not only developed our listening skills but also our gross motor skills and rhythm. We started to feel comfortable with the game. Hence, we played with a more interactive and smoother way.

Our second game was to find our cushion. It was pretty much similar to what we know as “musical chairs” but here we had to get our cushions as fast as we can so that our teachers could not take the cushions away. Next, we had to stand the cushions at the side and let them roll around the room. We had to push our cushions every now and then so that it could go like a wheel traveling around and around.

Sofia couldn’t stop herself by playing with her cushion. She really liked the idea of pushing and making her cushion roll around. The last game was the pancake circle. Our teachers told us to make a big circle and then we would eat our pancakes until it turned smaller and smaller. Then, we made a big cookie the second time and we had to eat it until it got smaller. It was pretty funny because Lisa was always trying to get a big bite and we all had to do the same too.

At the park, it was very cold and we had to stay for only a short period. We found chunks of ice there. Maki helped us with our “Ice expedition”. Hana and Lanah actively participated in this expedition and they all looked around the park for more chunks that they could find.

Thank you so much teachers for your never-ending kindness and patience for today and the coming days. It’s always fun to be here in Ohana!

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Maki