Perfect Timing

We had a wonderful day with all of us together in one classroom like we did when Ohana was still growing; and some days we had a small class. It was great to be able to play with our friends and reunite with some of the children that we played with last year. Today was an interesting day “weatherwise”. We knew that the weatherman had said that it would rain on Tuesday however we did not know that our timing would be so perfect that we would miss the downpour!

We will lead you into the events surrounding our perfect timing today.

Darren did a special puppet show for us today. He told us a story about a raccoon and his friend the rabbit who were enjoying walking together in the forest. They heard footsteps and decided to hide as they didn’t know who or what was coming. They saw that it was a man who had come to eat his lunch. But…………and this was the really sad part; when he finished eating his sandwich, he threw the wrapper on the ground and he did the same with his candy bar and his fruit and off he went. Of course animals in the forest are curious and a frog came along and he ate the one wrapper and became really sick. The raccoon took the frog to the hospital and thank goodness the doctor gave him medicine and he got better. Is it right to throw garbage on the ground when you have finished eating something? We know that we need to take care of the earth and each of us may seem small, however we too can make a difference. Today was our garbage collecting day.

 We have special tongs and other equipment which the Minato-ku office loaned us so we practiced how to use them in the classroom. Our friends who are smaller used the small plastic tongs as they were easier to handle. We crossed the really big street in Azabu Juban and went to a new small park where we searched in the bushes for garbage that people sometimes just throw away carelessly and other things too. We each had a plastic bag which we used to place our garbage inside and we had a great time doing this activity. It is amazing the wonderful feeling that we all had inside of us, having done something special for the community.

We collected about 20litres of garbage which was so much. We had time to play in the park as well which was fun as there are different pieces of equipment and a change is as good as a holiday. While we were playing and walking back to school, we noticed more bits of garbage. We think that collecting the garbage made us more aware of it when it is lying around and not inside a garbage bin.

While we were playing, our teachers noticed how kind all of us in the older class were to the smaller friends. We helped push them on the swing, we helped them climb the steps leading up to the slide and we reminded them to put their hands up even when we cross a little road. Now we can tell you about our perfect timing! When we returned to school and were getting ready to have our lunch, we heard this big noise outside like a waterfall. We looked out of the window and the rain was coming down in sheets. Phew! We were so lucky that we came back to school before the rains came.

 Before we went to do our garbage collection we also did some activities. We shredded more paper which we then added to the mixture of water and shredded paper. Shoko, Nico and FJ enjoyed shredding the paper, winding the handle until the paper had completely disappeared. They then squished it and mixed it around so that it is a thick paste. Miya wanted to use the light box to do some tracing She traced an x-ray of a kangaroo and a snake.

Our story today was called “Lyle, Lyle crocodile”. If you listen carefully you can hear the words rhyming. It is a book about a crocodile that has really sharp teeth. He has a neighbour who is really scared of him because of his sharp teeth. Then one day the neighbour has a fire and he learns that sometimes the scariest looking creatures or people are not so scary; they are kind and caring. The crocodile helped his neighbour and saved the cat from the fire. We should not worry about what people look like but how they are inside.

Love always Shelley, Darren, Ayaka, Nanako, Sabine, Goh, Liezl and Christine.