The land of the rising sun....an early start.

Gill and I we delighted that every child was able to meet us bright and early on the beach front on Friday. You cant learn about Japan, the land of the rising sun without, without witnessing a sunrise!

It was a beautiful morning, perfect conditions and we were fortunate to be able to see the sunrise in all its glory! It was a first for many children and even some parents, which made it even more special.

Walking down to the beach..all very excited.

Moms ready to capture the moment.

Sun as it made an appearance.

Beautiful!

Once the sun was up, in keeping with our theme, Mrs Gaylard kindly offered to do some yoga with the children. A lovely way to get our minds and bodies ready for the day.

The yoga was followed by some welcome hot chocolate and muffins. Gill and I knew that this was a safer bet than a traditional Japanese breakfast of fish and soup! However, we did expect them to eat the muffins with chopsticks!

That's cheating Jenna!

We had explained to the children at the start of our theme about how the earth moves around the sun. We conducted an experiment to show them all this fact. We put the children into groups, used a stick as  a marker and got them to draw around a group member. Just before we left they compared their shadows once again. They were amazed at how different their shadows were and could not believe how much they had 'moved'!

Our final activity, which gave the biggest reaction..and I think was the most fun (for most anyway!), was when we dissected some sardines. As fish is eaten widely in Japan , it was a perfect way to end off a  highly successful outing.

Blake waiting for instructions, whilst
Josh looks a bit apprehensive!

Who is going to be brave and actually touch the fish?

Shaylin deep in thought

eeeeww!

Feeling the scales.

Natalie feeling the scales.

Many couldn't believe how wide the sardines mouth was!

Neha, just couldn't bring herself
to touch the fish. Kamira shows her
how its done!

The gills

It has teeth!

Cutting open the stomach.

These two, had so much fun and got really involved
in the dissection

Removing the backbone!

Cebo had great fun making his fish talk!

Feeling the eyeball.

Blake checking out the hard centre
of the eyeball.

The two hours on the beach really flew by and before we knew it the buses arrived to fetch us. The children thought that it was time for first break and would not accept that it was just after the normal start of the day!

It was a fantastic outing, where the children learnt so much and I am sure will remember for some time to come.