We Had a Great Time!
October was an exciting month with two very special events, Fun Day and Mikan Picking for the 4-5 year olds and a Teddy Bear’s Picnic for the 2½~3 year olds.
For Fun Day, which was based on books and reading for Montessori and Elementary School, all of the Montessori children enjoyed the story “Today Is Monday” by Eric Carle. For our “costumes” we all made our own crowns with the characters for “Today Is Monday” and learned the song which you may have heard them sing at home (♪Today is Monday, Today is Monday. Monday spaghetti, All you hungry children, come and eat it up…….♪). The children love the song and we still hear the children sing the song spontaneously from time to time! As a whole school event, we were asked to decorate our doors with a story so that other students from other grades can come to see the door. Our class chose the story “Ten Red Apples” by Pat Hutchins. After reading and talking about the story, each child colored and cut out an apple or one of the characters in the story. The children did very well and we could see that their coloring and cutting skills are improving every day! Then, half the class stayed to welcome visitors to our door and the other half went around the ES corridor to look at everyone else’s door displays and then we exchanged jobs. All of the doors were fantastic and full of thought!! The rest of the day went smoothly with visits by other teachers (Ms. Lee, Ms. Culek and Mrs. Okaguchi) who read stories to us as well as helped make the book markers the children took home. The best part of the day, however, were the delicious ice cream and gelatos the children had as an afternoon snack!! It was an exciting day for all!
Decorating the Door with the children’s pictures.
Visiting the ES classrooms with our crowns!
Mrs. O
Ms. Lee
Thank you teachers for working with us 🙂
Ms. Culek
Yummy Ice Cream!!
We Love Fun Day!
Mikan Picking was another exciting event. The children split up into 3 groups—4 year olds and 5 year olds, who went mikan picking at staggered times and the 2½~3 year olds, who stayed back at school to have a special “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” morning. The little ones had a good time going at their own pace and doing activities which were just right for their age level. For the older children, despite the inclement weather, the 4 year olds were able to enjoy the event and were excited that they could eat the mikans freshly picked from the tree! The 5 year olds started out the picking just fine, but just as they finished eating and picking and the last few mikans went into their bags, the rain started to come down. This did not discourage these children; we went to a covered area and ate our lunch standing up! Although we dreamt about having a picnic lunch on the lawn, this rare experience was fun and the children were happy and ate very well. It was an exciting experience for all of the children and the teachers too! J We hope you enjoyed their present of freshly picked mikans.
I found one!
I can’t decide which one to pick!
I’m taking this one!
Twist and pull….I got it!
Is my bag full?
Should I eat this one or take it home?
I definitely eating this one!
LUNCH TIME!! Thank goodness for the roof covering.
Now, the month of November has quickly swept in and is already trying to sweep out! The days seem to be flying. It was a month of many of us getting the early round of the flu. We thank parents who have taken the extra day for children to recuperate after having a fever. It always helps to be safe. The children have been working hard and diligently. We continued learning about pumpkins and autumn. We had a history lesson about the first American Thanksgiving and learned about the Pilgrims and the Native American Indians. This got us inquiring about why the Native Americans were called Indians. The children are so good about picking up information and it is always exciting as a teacher to offer interesting information about various topics. We will be moving on into the month of December soon.
