It was wonderful to return to school on Monday after being away for spring break to see smiling faces and hear stories of where our friends had gone. As we completed our Japanese unit, the children were greeted with different materials and toys to interact with. Among the most popular were animals and a barn. It was interesting to see the different ways in which the children played with the animals: Some of them lined up the animals by type or size. Others begun categorizing them by land or sea animals. Some friends used play dough to cover the animals and made clothing for them so they could be warm. It was fun to watch how creatively they used the animals and the teachers enjoyed sitting back and listening to their thoughts.
Upon returning, some children shared pictures of fun happenings during the break. Aila shared a photo of herself and her sister with the Easter bunny which the children were happy to see. She also shared a picture of herself holding the dot vase she made during our Yayoi Kusama study, but in the picture, her vase had real flowers in it! Mya shared some a booklet from a whale watching adventure she had been on. She shared some information about New Zealand and said she saw about five whales including a blue whale!
Upon returning, some children shared pictures of fun happenings during the break. Aila shared a photo of herself and her sister with the Easter bunny which the children were happy to see. She also shared a picture of herself holding the dot vase she made during our Yayoi Kusama study, but in the picture, her vase had real flowers in it! Mya shared some a booklet from a whale watching adventure she had been on. She shared some information about New Zealand and said she saw about five whales including a blue whale!
Celebrating Spring
This week, it was hard to ignore the beauty all around us outside on the streets--cherry blossoms! When the children came to school, they were greeted with cherry blossoms in a vase on the table. Some friends pointed them out right away. Aila and Mia both said they have them in their houses. Michael said they are called cherry blossoms but in his Japanese class, the teachers called it something else (sakura). The children took turns creating observational paintings and each child created unique and colorful sakura masterpieces.
Next, the children went outside to explore the area near school to see what it looked like with blossoms. They noticed that they were pink and all the way down the street. Many said they had seen them with their families, but they were still eager to collect petals that had fallen from the beautiful trees.
We were so fortunate to have agreeable weather the next afternoon so we decided to enjoy our lunches outside and have a hanami picnic under the cherry blossom tree in front of school. The children were thrilled to eat lunch outside on the playground and some asked if we could do this everyday. We ended up having another picnic on Friday as well as we had another lovely day and the children asked if we could eat outside again.
Sakura Smoothies
With all of the fun and excitement surrounding cherry blossoms this week, some of the children observed that many of the petals had fallen after the rainy days that we had. For one last sakura related activity, the children all helped make sakura smoothies. Although the ingredients were just bananas, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt and milk, they ended up being pink just like the cherry blossoms and the children were excited to pour, measure, stir, and consume!
Other Fun
The children have also been very interested in peg boards this week. They have enjoyed placing the pegs into the holes and pulling them out. Some of the children made lines, others created colorful borders, and some friends worked together to make special designs. This is a wonderful activity for fine motor skills, as well as color and shape correspondence and patterning.
On a last note, we had a class discussion about what to do with the "dot loft" that the children worked so hard on. Mina suggested that we have a doll tea party in it, while some children suggested that we leave it as-is. Another friend asked if we could take parts of it home. James pointed out that, if we took the dotted paper down, that friends could start sleeping in the loft again. So the children voted and agreed: So, on Thursday, friends played up in the loft one last time. Many had the tea party that they had agreed on. Others showed the teachers the dots that they had put up themselves so the teachers could take note of it and save the areas for them to keep forever. There were several pieces that went unclaimed so we took this opportunity to show the children that we do not have to throw everything away so we will be using the paper in some creative ways so look out for some dots in their work soon. We will talk about what to do up in the loft next and are always excited to hear what the children come up with!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! See you next week.
-Julie and Natalie
-Julie and Natalie