30: Our Animal and Plant Friends

The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.

-Charles Darwin

 Animals are an integral part of our world and our lives. From providing food and companionship to maintaining ecological balance, animals play a crucial role in the way we live and survive.

To deepen our inquiry on the importance of animals, we took the children on a field trip to Rokkosan Bokujo last April 24th to let them have a hands on experience on how animals live, what they contribute to us, and how people take care of them.

Have a look at some of the pictures from our trip:

In class, we also had an in depth discussion of why animals are important, and these are the answers that the children shared. 

1. Animals give us food.

"We get meat from them, Ms. Pam!"

"Also milk, cheese and butter!"

"Also ice cream!"

"Also chicken and eggs!"

2. Animals are our friends. 

"I have a pet dog, Ms. Pam!"

"Piper is your friend!"

3. Animals help us go to different places.

"We can ride a horse to take us somewhere!"

4. Bees help spread seeds to grow more plants.

"Butterflies and other insects do that too!"

5. If there are no animals, the grass will get too high. 

Note: 

I love how the children already have a basic grasp of the food chain and how we depend on others to balance our ecosystem.

6. Animals' poop help us make fertilizers to make the soil rich.

"Like the worms that we have in school!"

7. Animals give us clothes.

"We can use the wool of the sheep!"

It's wonderful to see how much the children already have an awareness of the importance of animals to the world and to our lives.

This week, we also made a craft of some of our animal friends and wrote stories about them. 

Emma I.

This is Ellie the penguin. This is ice and she loves playing and skidding on the ice. She also loves swimming in the water. Ellie is a friend to a flamingo named Charlene. They always play together. They love playing with balls. Ellie is kind. 

Eisuke

This is Owl. This is a tree. Owl lives here. He eats worms. Owl likes flying very high and he loves it. He lives with his family.

Koh

This is Lego the tiger. There was a zoo and people go to the zoo.  Lego the tiger lives there. He likes climbing trees. He eats meat, too. He likes eating a lot. 

Emma C.

This is Ellie the Elephant. We met her when my sister and I are playing with the train tracks. Mom told us, “Let’s go to the park.” We took Ellie the elephant with us. We decided to bring her home too. She is now our pet. 

Tamaki

This is Rabbit. This is her house and she likes jumping and climbing the trees. She likes to slide in the playground. She likes the monkey bars. She likes carrots. 

Chanin

This is Pete the Cow. One day, he walks and walks and finds a house. He thought it’s empty but people live there. Pete goes inside the house. Then Pete goes away to look for another house. 

Yorinobu

This is Fuji the Pig. This is an apple tree. It has green and red apples and strawberries and peaches. Fui likes it. He likes eating all the fruits. Unta likes runnig while he says, “Oink!”

Kallea

This is Piper the hedgehog. Piper’s mom and dad were here. It’s a cage. People keep them in different cages so that they will not get sick. Piper is sick. Nobody should touch her now. Piper uses her body and his spines to break the glass. She gets out and finally touches her mom and dad. It’s a happy story!

Haruto

This is Ducky the duck. This is an Elmo train, a JR train and an elevator. He likes to go inside elevators and sometimes they break down. Ducky likes rescuing people from broken elevators.

Yui

This is Keith the dog. This is a house. He lives there. He eats dog food. He lives with us. He loves playing with a ball. He doesn’t like going out for walks. 

Clara

This is Charlene the flamingo. She lives here. She eats breakfast, especially bread and marshmallows. She doesn’t like doing anything because she likes to rest. 

The children 

This week, we also had a chance to review the importance of plants -- an inquiry that we had just before we went on break. Of course, the best way to do it is to spend time outdoors to truly enjoy the different hues of green and to appreciate the gift of plants. These are the reasons we came up it on why plants are important:

1. Plants give us food.

"Like strawberries, mangoes, blueberries and apples!"

2. Plants give us wood.

"For tables and our school, Ms. Pam!"

3.  Plants give us seeds to plant more plants.

"If we don't have plants, we can't plant more plants!"

(the truly makes sense, doesn't it?)

4. Plants give us flowers, fruits and leaves for decoration.

"We put the flowers in a vase and they're beautiful!"

5. Plants help us breathe.

Note: I finally explained how plants turn carbon dioxide into oxygen. The children were amazed at how it happens, and I think have more questions as to how plants can truly do that.

6. Plants give us paper.

"If we use a lot of paper, we use a lot of trees!"

7. Plants give cotton to use for our clothes.

"Cotton grows from plants?"

To appreciate the beauty of plants, we decided to collect some plants from the ground to use for an artwork. 

Chanin and Koh's Artwork

Clara and Emma's Artwork

Eisuke's Artwork

Yorinobu's Artwork

Tamaki's Artwork

Emma's Artwork

Kanato's Artwork

Yui's Artwork

Haruto's Artwork

Kallea's Artwork

Ms. Pam's Artwork

Animals and plants truly are an essential part of our world and our lives. They play a crucial role in our survival and even our happiness. It is our responsibility to protect and care for them, and ensure that they are treated with kindness and respect. By doing so, we can ensure a healthy and sustainable future for ourselves and for future generations.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Your Kindergarten teacher, 

Pam

P.S.

I hope you had a wonderful Golden Week break. The children were so eager to share everything they did with you.

REMINDER FROM THE SPONSOR RUN TEAM:

Sponsor Run

Friday 19th May

9.00am - 12.00pm

Our first sponsor run will be happening soon - we aim to raise 100, 000 yen which we will use to purchase exciting robotic equipment for our STEM room, which everyone can enjoy.

All students will be taking part and we encourage parents to come along and run as well (you can buy a school shirt to run in here)!

Schedule

(Hat, water, school T-shirt and sunscreen for each child please)

9.00am - 10.00am Early Years

10.00am - 11.00am Lower primary (Preschool - Grade 2)

11.00am - 12.00pm Upper Primary (Grade 3 - 6)

Please just come along to the Green Field at the time of your childs session.

We will use a 1 coin - 1 lap system, so when a child completes a lap, they can drop a 100yen coin in our collection jar to try and fill it up! 

Parents who join, please help your child. If you cannot join, our teachers will help but please send a maximum of 1000yen in 100yen coins in a sealed envelope with your child on the day.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sponsor run team.