Girl’s Day-Hinamatsuri March 3rd
Hinamatsuri’s- Girl’s Day on March 3rd is a special day for all girl’s in Japan.
It is a day to celebrate a girl’s good health and long happy life. We learnt that the sweets enjoyed on this day are represented in the colours of:
PINK: To drive evil spirits away
WHITE: For purity
GREEN: Good health
We enjoyed a sweet treat called, “Hina alale”, which is sweet puffed rice in these same colours.
Just the girl’s in our class made peach blossom crowns. The flower that grows at this time of year. The boys know they will have their special day in May when we celebrate, boy’s day known as, Tango no sekku on May 5th.
Friendships, emotions and sharing with others during circle time
The biggest learning that takes place in a kindergarten classroom is the ability to socialise with others outside of our own family unit. For some children this can be easier with the experience of sharing with other siblings at home. However, for others even with siblings the ability to make and maintain friendships, express emotions towards others in appropriate ways and share their activities and games on the playground can be hard at times. The discussion around respecting others and their space, speaking with a kind, caring voice, including others and compromising are an ongoing topic in our classroom. It is normal for children to struggle with their emotions and not always know how to handle them. So this is why it is important that our classroom is a place where we can talk about how we feel when others may hurt our bodies and feelings. And how we can learn to express our feelings in a way that makes everyone feel safe, respected and heard. Recently, we read a book about how our words can hurt one another and then repeated a phase that we hope can empower a child when faced with a conflict. When someone says something unkind, we encourage the children to say, “Your words are unkind. Please don’t say that to me.” We also talk about and remind each other that “hands are for helping” not hurting when a classmate is too physical. We brainstormed and shared some of the ways our hands can be helpful to ourselves and others.
We also talked about and shared all the different kinds of feelings we experience individually and with each other. The ’emotions’ game where we take turns to place our matching emotions card down, helps us to recognise how these feelings look to others.
As mentioned before, it is an ongoing conversation in our classroom as the children all grow, mature and learn to except each other’s differences. But also learn how to compromise, show patience, care and empathy towards each other as individuals, who are part of our class community.
Construction
The construction for our new gym going on around us has been ongoing, but at the same time exciting as each part comes together.
Watching the construction and how each tradesperson does their part also shows the children teamwork. That when we work together, concentrate and try our best we can achieve so much, not only as an individual, but as a contributing member.
Remembering the Great Tohoku Earthquake
The Montessori children stopped for a moment of silence to remember and pray for the people in Tohoku on March 11th, along with our whole school. On this day, 10 years ago, they learnt that a big earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku area and caused so much loss and sadness. Today the children listened to a story that our librarian, Ms Shaumacher suggested called, “The Phone Booth in Mr Hirota’s Garden“, which tells the story of a local man who had built a phone booth for the villagers of his area. While the phone itself was disconnected, he believed that his words would travel on the wind to his and others lost loved ones. It was a moving story, but one that also shared much empathy, and showed the people’s hope and resilience.
Saint Patrick’s Day
On March 17th we dressed up with our own leprechaun hats, listen to stories about Saint Patrick’s day and also listened to Irish harp music while we enjoyed our lunch together. Then at the end of the day we were given some Saint Patrick’s Day Irish potato candy, made by Isaac’s mum (one of our lovely class mother’s).
Spring time
During these beautiful springs day we wanted to seize the morning while it wasn’t too windy or rainy to enjoy our snack time up on our roof playground together. We have been so good as a group in remembering to not talk while we are eating. Often times the children remind each other!
Library time
Library time for the children is a chance to choose a book that interests them. When we visit the library we use a library stick to keep the place of a book that we firstly look at and then decide if its the one we wish to take home.
We also sit together and quietly look at our chosen book while we wait to check it out for the week.
And on this library day we took the opportunity to visit the elementary floor to take a look at the grade 5 elementary students work about the human body.
It really has been a month of learning, observing, discussing and making. Until next month!