Sumo Time

Today was the final day of our “Sports’ theme summer school week. We had a great time and played lots of games in both the classroom and the park. We were lucky to see the rain stop for a while and went for a walk to the pond first before heading for the park. In the morning when we arrived we started by doing a basketball or baseball picture. We painted our hands first and then pressed them onto the paper to make a beautiful handprint. The picture looks just like the hands are reaching for a ball. On the smaller table we also saw a big cardboard box with the top open. Drawn inside the box was a soccer pitch and a goal at each end. There was a small tissue ball and two straws. It was a game of football called ‘blow football’ which Toku and Kai wanted to play first. To play the game we needed to blow through a straw and try and get the ball through the goal without using our hands at all. We needed a lot of puff to win! On the carpet area were some plastic bowling pins and a bowling ball which we later took to the park to play with. Kai and Gaby took turns with the bowling and worked well together. On the science table we saw the microscope and Nile, Jessica and Tokutaro all wanted to look at something very, very small. Tokutaro did a tiny drawing with a red pen and when we looked under the microscope we could only see the head as it looked so very big. In the dress up corner Ayaka along with Jeremy, Riko and Kai all get out lots of food like in a restaurant or like they were having a picnic. After packing away the toys we read a an Olympics book called ‘Ambrose goes for Gold’ and then went to the pond and then played some 10 pin bowling in the park. We returned just as the rain started again so we were very lucky. We did one of our weekly songs and actions ‘The Hokey Pokey’ next along with a seated version of ‘Head and Shoulders, Knees and toes’ which was lots of fun. Ayaka then introduced us to the sport of Sumo. We looked at some pictures from the previous yearbook and noticed how big the men were. We then had a little try ourselves with the teachers and with our friends. This was great fun. Ayaka then showed us an origami Sumo game using origami paper and a card box. The paper Sumo wrestlers jiggled and jumped around when we tapped on the sides of the box. We then moved to the table to make our own sumo wrestlers and could choose whichever origami paper we wanted. We needed a little help with the folding and so some of us stayed on the carpet until it was our turn to make the sumo wrestlers. We tried sumo against our friends and teachers before trying some bean bag games and exercises. It was a fun week and we are looking forward to next week’s theme. Have a great weekend,