Happy Leap Year
Today is the last day of February and this date only comes around every four years; it is the 29th February. It is called a leap year and leap is another word of jump. We did lots of jumping in our gymnastics class. We jumped with two feet together and two feet open. We jumped onto the small green cushion with a star on it and then jumped off it. We jumped around a chair and back. We also balanced on one foot for three seconds. In Japanese the games is “gu, pah” which means open and close. We noticed that there are opposites all around us; in everything that we do. We ran from the one side of the room to the other when we played a new game in our gymnastics class. We stood on the large green mattress which we pretended was a boat. All around us was water and we had to try to stay as a big group all balancing on the “boat”. Our button carpet on the other side of the room was another boat; and we pretended that the first boat was sinking, so we had to run to the second boat. Miyashita sensei first said: “Sinking, sinking” and we said: “What
is sinking?” He said: “The boat” and then we had to run. Of course we screamed as we ran across the room.
We completed our art canvas which will be auctioned at the GIVE event next week and we think that many of our parents will want to buy it. Today we threaded beads onto a pipe cleaner and then glued the beads onto the canvas. We chose where we wanted to put our string of beads and some of us chose to make it into a circle, bend it into a shape or keep it long. We also added four shapes which are hidden in the painting which are a surprise for everyone. Tomorrow we will add a few more beaded strings so that everyone can leave their mark on the painting. We spoke about tomorrow being March and that we are looking forward to celebrating birthdays with Griffin, Sofie and Dominik. We learnt briefly about Hina Matsuri and looked at some cards, a 3D Ohinasama and Odairisama and a puzzle of them both. Hina Matsuri is a celebration in Japan for girls and at this time of year, you can see beautiful displays on seven steps in department stores, apartment buildings and other shops around Japan. If you look at our notice board outside our classroom you can read some information about this festival. We all tried to complete the puzzle of Ohinasama and Odairisama as a team. Ohinasama was holding a fan in her hands and we wanted to learn how to make a fan. So we went to the tables and all had made our own fan. We learnt how to fold the paper and flip it over and fold it again
and flip it over; until we had folded the entire piece of paper.
We looked at the flip book about dinosaurs which Hisami brought to school a few weeks ago. It has three flips for each page and when you mix the pages up, you create weird and wonderful dinosaurs. We laughed when we made new creations with the pages. We learnt some new names as well e. g. diplodocus, euoplocephalus, ichthyosaurus. It was hard for our teachers to say these names and even harder for some of us.
When we were downstairs in Buds Class, while they were doing gymnastics in our class, we read some fun stories that we hadn’t seen before. The one was called “Princess Mirror-belle and the Dragon Pox” and another one called “I love you mummy”. We really enjoy story time and especially when we can sit in small groups and sit close to our teachers and a few friends. Thanks for a fun last day of February.
Love always the children in Petals Class.