May Day and We Miss Our Friends!
The past few days have been very low-key and way too quiet in Ms. Revard’s classroom! I long for the sound of 18 noisy, enthusiastic learners going about their day with happy hearts and healthy bodies. Today, we think the trend may be turning around as children begin returning to school happy, healthy, and ready to get on with their learning. The few who have been in class these past three days have kept busy planting sprouted seeds for those who were absent, finishing posters for our Magic Stone Garden, educating the preschoolers about our garden adjoining their play area, decorating the Pennies for Patients box, and learning fractions with Miss Cassandra and me. We have all missed our friends and will appreciate them even more when they return! Please, be sure to keep your child home until they are free of fever for at least 24 hours. Mahalo!
Because the week has been so disrupted with sickness and absences, this week’s homework will be due on Thursday, May 3. The spelling test will also be on Thursday.
May Day
Plumeria Lei -- Each child has been asked to bring in 75 plumeria flowers for the lei-making on Thursday. Don’t worry too much about the type of flower, as long as they are yellow or white (no pinks, please). The boys will be making two lei and the girls one lei and two kupe’e (wrist bands). We have lei needles and thread, so all we need are helping hands. We will be stringing flowers from 1:00 to 2:00 on Thursday, May 3.
Costumes -- IMPORTANT! Please, remember to send your child’s costume items by Tuesday, May 1. Place them in a bag with your child’s name and 1/2 Revard marked on the outside. Girls will need swim suits, hair ties, bobby pins, a net, and hairspray; boys need shorts above the knee. Both boys and girls, also, need slippers or sandals. We encourage parents to come in to help us get dressed for the program from 11:45 to 12:15 on Friday, May 4.
If you are able to help with lei or dressing for the program, please, fill out the form I’ll be sending home and return it to me as soon as possible. Thank you!
Inquiry
We had a fascinating trip to Mr. Costello’s shop on Monday! I had shown the children my slides of Thailand, Burma, India, and Nepal before we went, so they were ready to learn more about Buddhism and Hinduism from his collection of statues. Their favorites were Ganesh, the elephant god of India; Shiva, one of Hinduism’s main gods; and the Lucky Buddha with his fat tummy. We also played a gamalan (Indonesian musical instrument); smelled incense from around the world; and looked at South and Southeast Asian clothing. A special thank you to Mr. Costello for inviting us, sharing his knowledge, and giving the children puppets from Thailand.
We really enjoyed Maya Hayashi and Mrs. Hayashi’s presentations. Maya put together a very informative PowerPoint about how the Nile River once flowed from east to west across what is now the Sahara Desert, apartheid in South Africa, the people and cultures of many African regions, and the unfortunate “Lost Boys of Uganda.” She also brought us a great Egyptian sweet to taste and colorful clothes from the Ivory Coast.
MH translated for Mrs. Hayashi as she pointed out informative pictures on her Russia poster. The children were especially interested in her collection of nesting dolls and Asian traditional costumes, learning about the Bolshoi Ballet, and eating her homemade Russian soup called borsch. What a treat!
Captain John will tell the children about his voyage across the Pacific and Oceania on Monday. We will also have Mrs. Napoleon in to tell us about her family’s Portuguese history and customs in Hawaii.
Miss Cassandra
We said goodbye to Miss Cassandra, our OP student from Chaminade, yesterday. We have appreciated her help and enjoyed her creative math lessons during the past two months. The children wrote touching letters to her, and we had a little celebration with lei and gifts. We will miss her!
Pennies for Patients
Thank you, for all the generous donations to this worthy cause!
Posted on April 26, 2007 4:19 PM | Permalink