Today was the last day of "Spirit Week" and the theme was "Pajama Day".  Children came to school wearing their comfy, cozy pajamas and stayed in them the WHOLE day.  To end pajama day, we watched a movie and had popcorn with mochi crunch. YUM!

The theme of "Spirit Week" today was Sports Day.  Children were asked to come in their favorite team's colors, uniform or jersey.  Children came in cheerleading costumes, soccer/baseball uniforms and jerseys to name a few.  We had fun sporting our favorite team clothing.

Today was the return of Wacky Wednesday (also Backwards Day).  The children came to school with their hair spray painted and styled, clothes inside out and/or backwards, and mismatched shoes and socks to name a few. Even the teachers and a parent got in the spirit for day 3 of Spirit Week.

Today was our 2nd day of "Spirit Week" and it was Costume/Character day.  The children dressed up in their favorite costume or as their favorite character.  There were many who dressed up as Disney princesses and a unique costume was Abby from NCIS.  Here are some shots of room 9 in their costumes.

The children wanted to have "Spirit Week" and had lots of ideas of what we should do/bring on each particular day of the week.  We took a vote and kept the 5 ideas with the most votes.  Today we had "Stuffed Animal Day".  The children all brought their stuffed animals to school and during circle time, they categorized their stuffed animal as having teeth or not having teeth.

This week, we celebrated Boy's Day with a family presentation from a parent in room 9. She shared with us the significance of Boy's Day, the koi (carp) and the kabuta (a type of helmet that was once used by ancient Japanese warriors. The children enjoyed eating kashiwa mochi (a mochi filled with anko or red bean paste) wrapped in a oak leaf for good luck. The children also learned the Japanese song, "Koinobori". 

Yesterday was our school-wide Lei Day program.  Parish Hall was packed with the 9 classrooms, teachers/staff, family and friends. The theme of the Lei Day program was "We Make a Rainbow" and each classroom represented a different island (while the toddlers represented the ocean).  Room 9 represented the island of Kaho'olawe, otherwise known as the "Lonely Isle".  They performed a hula to "Kaho'olawe" by Makaha Sons.  The feedback we received from the performance was: "They look SO professional", "The children did such a GREAT job" and "It was AWESOME".   

Earlier this week we went on a field trip to the Pacific Club.  Prior to going on the field trip, we studied about the restaurant and the role of a chef.  We also had a discussion about the different chefs that wear different "hats".  However, the children still had questions for the Executive Chef, Chef Eric.  Some of the questions were: Do you have to be in shape to cook?, Do you make cupcakes?, what is your favorite thing to cook? and how long did you go to school?  After the Q & A, Chef gave us a tour of the kitchen and we got to make our very own pizzas with toppings such as: olives, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, and spinach.  The children LOVED the part of the tour where we got to go into the walk-in refrigerator/freezer. After the tour, we played Pictionary while waiting for our pizzas to cook.  Chef Eric made us cheese pizza and salad for lunch and the children were able to take home the pizza that they made at the Pacific Club. 

Students created works of art inspired by artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527 – July 11, 1593) who was an Italian painter best known for his imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish, and books. We discussed with the students that they will be drawing portraits, but instead of drawing eyes, lips, ears, and noses, they will be drawing vegetables and fruits as the features of their faces. We studied the shapes and colors of real fruits and vegetables in class. Each child used markers to produce their own fruits and vegetables portrait. 

In honor of Earth Day, the children were asked to create something out of recycled materials from home. We aimed to show children that even items that are intended for the rubbish can serve as inspiration or interesting materials for artwork. We teach them the importance of recycling as a regular part of their life. We even had a parent discuss with them her job and how she helps the environment. She talked about how important it is to recycle.