Bye-bye Party for Riku and Haruto

                The Buds are here again! We are all ready for a new day! Ritsuka was an early bird and she actually liked to play with the play dough and some toys for the morning activities. We also had some colored Popsicle sticks and some decorative cotton balls on the sensory table. She liked playing with sensory activities all the time. In our circle time, we discussed the new shape for this week. We learned about a square. First, our teachers showed the drawing of the circle and some of us were able to draw it. Later on, John drew a different shape and he said that it has four sides. We looked at it closely and our teachers said it’s a square. We moved our hands in the air as if we were drawing a circle. And then, John called us up one by one and he let us draw a square on the whiteboard. We learned that we just had to draw four lines and connect them together. When we reviewed the word “square”, Dominik already learned it and he kept on saying it when he saw something square in our classroom. We also listened to a good picture book about the square. We saw a board, switch, pillow, puzzle, lunchbox, card, frame and a present. They resembled a square shape.

               We did a very nice art today. Today was also St. Patrick’s Day, so before, we started doing our artwork, we talked about the plant called a clover. It looked like four hearts connected together to the center. We had some blank white paper and we noticed some white scribbling on it. We wondered what it was so our teachers told us that it was a magic paper. They told us that we just needed to put some paint on it so that the drawing would show up. Lisa looked very happy to see what happened to the magic paper and the other kids got so surprised when they saw that a clover appeared. Haruto said that he also wanted to do it. Rei, Kaia, and Riku also did the same thing.

We also celebrated our “bye-bye” party for Riku and Haruto. First, we welcomed Haruto’s mommy and grandma and then Riku’s mommy came too. They all brought some treats for us but we have yet to find that out. We put two special chairs today for our dear friends. We showed everyone how wonderful their portfolio and color books were. We examined each page and Riku and Haruto looked so happy when they were gazing at their books too. It was so nice to see them grow and develop their emotional and artistic skills. We are very proud to both of them because they have shown us good behavior and share their friendship to each one of us. But at the same time, we are also sad for knowing both of them are leaving Ohana. We hope to see you all again someday. After showing the books, we sang the “Thank You” song and we were so glad that grandma and the mommies were able to sway their heads together with the song.

               We then went to our tables for our snack time. Riku’s mom prepared some cupcakes and we saw our names written on the paper that was stuck in the cake. We also had some doughnut balls from Haruto’s mom. Each of us had our own set of cupcakes and doughnuts. And all of us were so delighted to try both delicacies. They were so yummy! Thank you very much!

While walking to the park, we did our tummy drum. And we made a big and loud sound, “Bam, bam, bam, bam!” We all liked it and it was also one way of keeping our hands to ourselves. Taiga was so cooperative for he always did the tummy drum. We also learned that we had to share the rope with our friends because it is very important to walk together and never let go of the rope. Arriving at the park always makes us even happier for the day. We saw the Petals and Flowers class. Most of the Flowers class were greeting the Buds especially, Rei. Rupert was so excited to use the slide and the swing so he took his teachers and asked them to put him in the swing. Some of the Flowers class students were also there so they used the swing together. We also saw that some Buds liked to draw on the ground using some small twigs. Our teachers told us that we could only get the small ones for it is better to use them than the big twigs around the park.

Thank you so much for the wonderful day! It was indeed a great experience for all of us to play and learn at the same time with our friends, teachers and surroundings.

Lots of love,

John, Sayaka and Maki