Making Nengajyo for New Year

We made our “nengajyo” this morning or New Year’s cards, in English. Ayaka spoke to us about the 12 different animals that make up the Chinese zodiac signs and we learnt that the 2016 is going to be the Year of the Monkey. Today was quite cold outside when we walked to the post office. It was a much longer walk than usual because the post office is in Azabu Juban. The reason why we went to the post office was because we needed to mail the ones that we made during the mornings activities. We each chose a post card and used the stamp with a monkey on it and made the shape on the card. We used some smaller spiral stamps as well as stars and flowers. Ayaka gave us a selection of beautiful stickers that represented winter and New Year in Japan. The winter ones had a snowman, an animal with a Xmas hat on it, mittens etc. The New Year stickers were komma or spinning top, kite and other Japanese New Year symbols. We used coloured pencils to decorate the cards as well. Those of us who are older and can write letters and numbers copied the words “Happy New Year” and then we wrote the numbers “2016”. You can see from the photo here what they look like so please be sure to look in the mailbox as one day, the mailman will deliver them to you!

We were really excited to go on a long “excursion” to the Post Office and enjoyed the walk there. When we arrived at there, some of us were tall enough to reach for the ‘mouth’ of the mailbox to put our “nengajyo/new year card” inside. Some of us asked our teachers to help us so they picked us up and then we could reach too. Amishiro Koen has many interesting piece of equipment to play on and we enjoyed the roller slide and the see saw that four people can sit on.

At the second art table, we made monkeys from origami paper. We folded the paper carefully following our teachers instructions and then drew the monkeys face on it. After tidying up and having some time for free play, we sang our “Hello” song and went all around the room asking our friends and teachers “What is your name?” We discovered that there were seven girls and seven boys in class today and five teachers. We changed the calendar and then stood up and sang the “hokey pokey” song. We laughed when we put our “bottoms in and put our bottoms out”. This is when Ayaka introduced us to the animals in the Chinese zodiac and we remembered that we had made a monkey out of origami paper. She read us a “Kamishibai” story about a bear that received a nengajyo from his grandmother. She wrote on the nengajyo that she wanted him to come and visit her over the New Year holidays and that she was making special “osechi” for him. He decided to take some friends with him and off they went to see his grandmother. On one of the pages of the “Kamishibai” there was a

picture of a nengajyo.

Yesterday some of us were talking about letters and how they get to your house. Jeremy said that the mailman brings it to your house for you. Sometimes the mailman rides a bicycle, or a motorcycle and sometimes he even comes in a large van or truck.

Jeremy and Jessica were like Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus this morning. They brought presents for all of us in the class and for all of the teachers. Thank you Jeremy and Jessica for being so kind to all of us today with your gifts!

On the way back from the park we told our teachers that we were really hungry so Ayaka sang the song “Kare rice no uta” which is all about eating curry and rice when you are hungry.

At the end of the day, we met Rupert’s baby sister, Harriet and we saw his mom, Chevorne for the first time, since Harriet was born. She is only 11 days old and is really tiny. We think that Rupert is a great big brother to her.

Thanks for a wonderful day together and we look forward to seeing our friends and teachers for the last time in 2015.

Love always the children at Ohana International School