Unprecedented March

Sister Carmel’s memorial sakura tree beside the Fine Arts building is the sign of spring on campus.

Girls Day, or Hinamatsuri (Doll’s Festival), is celebrated on March 3rd to pray for the health and happiness of young girls in Japan.

Using origami, a square piece of paper, the children made a kimono folding the square in half, corner to corner, and making the square into a triangle.  Use a flat  surface to make a nice crease.

Color the faces of the emperor and empress, then carefully cut out using scissors.

Do the same with the lanterns.

The children made a pop-up card using the cut-outs, and pasting golden origami paper as a screen.

Happy Girls’ Day!

One day in February, we saw a beautiful sky and puffy clouds while playing on the roof!

We can now see longer cranes stretching skywards from the gymnasium site.

But this spring 2020 was like no other due to the spread of Coronavirus, and the school administration decided to close down the campus. Initially, it was planned to last three school weeks, followed by our one-week Spring break. All the students, from Montessori up to High School, were to stay at home and keep up their learning online with their teachers.

The Montessori staff are taking turns reading a book to the children every day through the Montessori blog set up for the duration of the School Closure.  We also suggest activities, crafts, and movement classes that can be followed each day from home.

Then, at the end of March, the Saint Maur administration made the difficult decision to extend School Closure through to the rest of this academic year.

Below is a photo of the children taking home their Hina dolls on what would turn out to be the last day on campus for this academic year, on February 28th.  Unfortunately, some children were absent that day, including Ann who would leave for Texas a couple of weeks later.

The children are staying at home to be safe from the spread of COVID-19. It is sad that we cannot go to school to learn together and play with friends.  But for the safety of everyone and their families, we have no choice but to stay safe during this pandemic.  Let us pray that we will be able to go back to school after everything has been resolved in Japan.  In the meantime, we will maintain the classroom learning and discovery online.

Everyone, stay safe and healthy.  And let’s keep in touch!