Every day is different
Every day at Ohana is different and yet every day is the same. The difference is that we have new and exciting things to learn and do each day and the "sameness” is that our routine is the same and we do some things that we already know e.g. Our “Today is……………” chart; the songs relating to the days of the week; our greeting songs; some of our action songs; our snack and lunch time songs etc. The things that are the same help us feel comfortable as we know them well; and the things that are different, make things interesting and exciting. Some of the things we know, we love and so each day we have smiles on our faces which show that we enjoy what we are doing. Shelley always says that we learn so much more when we are interested in what we are doing. We are coming to the end of our theme on New Year around the world and are so happy that we managed to celebrate it in Mexico and Germany and of course, Japan.
Today we completed our Shimekazari project which was quite difficult for some of us. The difficulty was that there were certain components that we made and we needed a lot of guidance. However, we were thrilled when we saw all the parts that make up the whole and we designed our own Shimekazari today. We had four parts which were the circular shape covered in rope; an origami fan; a branch with red and pink tissue paper blossoms on it and a bunch of bamboo sticks tied together. We laid out the parts on the table and then put them together. This was not the end. Shelley then asked us to draw the design that we had made and then we helped her glue the parts together according to the design. We did amazingly well! We felt proud afterwards as she said that we had done a great job! Our Shimekazari are on display downstairs on the second floor on the wall together with our designs that we drew.
We played with tiny beads in the early part of the day. We wanted to play with them and make some of the animals and designs that we saw in the booklet. We worked for a short time and then Shelley packed the game away. The beads are really small and you can bake them in the oven and the design sets from the heat melting the plastic.
We had two other activities that were specifically planned for today. They were punching holes in paper and play dough. Shelley wants to work a little on our fine motor skills, strengthening them with a variety of activities. We used coloured cardboard and punched holes in the different shapes. We learnt how to put the paper in between the part that you push down and the base of the punch. We noticed that there were tiny circle shapes underneath the punch. Thorsten helped Shelley put them in the garbage as there were too many and we couldn’t punch holes properly. We had to use all of our strength when we punched the holes and push all the way down until the punch touched the base.
At the play dough table, we each had a big ball of play dough or a thick roll of it. We also had a small dish which we needed to fill with small balls of play dough that we rolled between our thumb and forefinger. Some of us have our own ideas about how to play with an activity which is fine. Shelley wanted us to first try to make the balls and then we could make whatever we wanted to.
Today was our first Fire Drill and we followed instructions well and listened to our teachers. They always want us to be safe and so they pretended that there was a fire in the school; we covered our mouths and ran to the door and came down the stairs as quickly as can be. Shelley introduced the Fire Drill to us through a story about Firefighters. She read it to us and we saw what the trucks look like; how the hoses work; the long ladder that goes up to very high buildings etc. Tomorrow is our earthquake drill which is a little different.
Love Shelley and Darren