ジーナ先生より
This morning in circle, we sang the Calendar Polka and learned how to polka (well, sort of). The kids requested *Everybody Jump* two times (they never get tired of that song!) and also Bear Hunt, and we did a little Row Your Boat before we sat down for our morning meeting. H.K. was our morning meeting manager today and did a fine job.
Jen's class today was Science, and in honor of Earth Week, the kids cut out pictures from newspaper advertisements of things that can be recycled and pasted them by category (glass, plastic, paper, cans) and talked about recycling, and what we can do to reduce garbage and pollution.
In Jeana's Language Arts today, the Gallaxies worked some more on using their notebooks correctly - writing today's date and the weather. W.D. got his notebook for the first time today and also practiced writing his name in mixed case for the first time. All of the kids are showing a lot of progress in their writing skills - they are tracking letters better, copying out words from the board with more ease, and writing their lower case letters better and better.
They are also making progress on leaving a finger of space between words and adding periods to end of sentences. K.H. asks me every day if he can use his notebook today. They seem to really enjoy the writing part. Once the novelty wears off and they are familiar with the basic mechanics of writing in a notebook everyday, we won't have to spend half the class on it, but for now, they need that time at least twice a week.
In Language Arts with the Planets, we reviewed the "Can it! Save the Planet" Song and also read and sang thru the "Koinobori Song" in English. Both Planets and Gallaxies used the last half of their class to make birthday cards for Jen, as well.
In PE today, we continued with our "training". The kids are already showing more concentration, more flexibility, more coordination - K.H. can do 10 sit ups now with almost no trouble. W.D. can, too. In fact, all the kids are showing improvement in sit ups. K.H. can also do 10 push ups perfectly! He is a great role model for the other kids. The kids take turns helping each other with situps - they are so kind and helpful to each other! Wow! After warmups and stretches, the
kids lined up to practice forward and backward flips on the monkey bars (with a teacher spotting them, of course). We've stressed that the kids should NOT do flips on the bars without a teacher to hold the jungle gym in place. I really look forward to the warmer weather so we can go up to the park and use the bars there.
You wouldn't believe the difference - Last week K.H. taught H.K. and Y.S. how to do front and back flips. This week they taught all the other boys! The smaller boys still need some help, but everyone is showing A LOT of improvement! It is a lot of fun to see them develop their arm muscles along with their English muscles.
In recess and free play time, the boys are still obsessed with "Kick the Can", but they also enjoyed playing in the Sand Box.
In arts and crafts time, the kids stamped animals on strips of paper to make a border for our classroom, and then danced to Ants Go Marching (til they were exhausted).
Our goodbye story today was *From Tadpole to Frog* and *Shark in the Park*. The kids took home their beautiful Koinobori decorations today.
This morning, after the morning circle, the Rockets got to see how the seeds they planted last week have developed so far. They were amazed by the way their seeds became little plants and how different they look. 
