Onigiri, onigiri choto tsumete........

Wednesday, March 4^th, 2015 We had another wonderful visit from two of our mums this morning. We learnt something else about Japan together with Rie san and Mie san. It was quite funny because when you say both of their names, they rhyme; they just have a different sound at the beginning. We are learning about rhyming words this month and our teachers would really like us to listen carefully to other words, as there will hear many rhymes throughout the day. When we listen to songs, we can hear rhyming e. g. Mrs. White got a fright; Twinkle, twinkle little star how I wonder what you are etc. We welcomed Mie and Rie san to Petals Class by singing, “Hello…….ohio gozaimasu”. When it was their turn, they sang their names to us. We also showed them how we count one another to see how many children are at school each day. We counted ten children and five adults and some of us were able to work out that there were more children than adults at school today.

We took our roll call and changed the calendar and then it was over to our two new teachers today, Rie and Mie san. The first thing that they did was to tell us that we were going to read a book called “onigiri” and then they told us that we were going to make “onigiri”. We were so excited as we love listening to stories and we love cooking. The book had really clear illustrations about how to make “onigiri” and while Mie san read the pages in Japanese, Rie san translated the story into English. It was a story all about making “onigiri”. When they had finished reading the story to us, we went to the carpet and sang the “obento bakko” song. They showed us all of the vegetables that are mentioned in the song e. g. ninjin – carrot; shitake – mushrooms; gobo – burdock; sakurambo – cherries (these were in the form of a picture) and renkon – lotus root. Vincent wanted to sing the song really fast. We all sang about a really large “obento bakko” and then we sang about a tiny “obento bakko. Afterwards we washed our hands and went to the table to make our own “onigiri”. At each place at the table, was a bowl with a piece of plastic inside it. Rie and Mie took rice out of their rice cookers and out some inside each of our bowls. We then took the plastic and lifted the rice out of our bowls and closed the top of the plastic. We squeezed the rice to make it into our preferred shape.

Then we wrapped the “onigiri” in a sheet of nori. William L said that we were putting a blanket on the “onigiri”. Some of us ate them straight away, and some of us first ate our regular snack and then our “onigiri”. Some of us wanted to take ours home so they are inside our school bags. We had a wonderful morning with Rie and Mie san. Thanks so much for coming to Petals Class and teaching us how to make “onigiri”; for singing with us and reading a story to us. We loved the morning with you! Arigatou gozaimashita! Toda rabah! Baie dankie! Gracias! Salamat po!

During the latter part of the morning, before we went to the park, Taiyo, Miyu, Luka and William L completed a cutting and pasting activity with a focus on the background paper being a specific shape. Hisami and Liezel sat with us as we retaped our marble run so that it was strong and secure. We took it into the large space near the Lego wall and tried to work out how to put it up so that the marbles would roll down. Miyu suggested that we put the marble in from the bottom; Koh Vincent also tried this method but the marble rolled out. Koh chan then told us to lift it up and he manoeuvered the rest of the long pipe lower. It was much too long so Vincent twisted it so that it could fit onto the Lego wall.

Eventually the marbles came rolling all the way down into the dish. We were really excited and all of us wanted a turn to roll a marble down from the top. But it was way too high for us. Some of our friends suggested that we use a chair and stand on it; now we could reach. It was such fun as we found a bigger container and all of the marbles came rolling down into it. We will play with it tomorrow and try to work out if we can add some things to it to make it even longer.

Thanks for a wonderful day. See you tomorrow for more fun in Petals Class, with a birthday party and a trip to New Zealand.

Love always Shelley, Hisami and Liezel