Happy Friday everyone! We had been looking forward to Friday because we were scheduled to visit Azabu Library. It was our first time to visit the library as a class and could not wait to see the books they have. Ky wanted to know how many books Azabu Library has and the librarian informed gladly informed us that they have around 2,000 books! B said, “That’s actually a lot of books. I can’t imagine how many books that is. My mommy can only count to 100 but not 2,000!”. That’s really a lot of books and we felt lucky to be able to visit this library today.
When we got to the library, we were greeted by the librarian, and we greeted her back in a small voice because we talked about how softly we must talk in the library. D and Hi gave her the presents (tissue covers and pen holder with Ohana pens) we all made. The library “boss” (as Sh and Hi said we should call him) came to see us and thanked us for the lovely presents. He also told us that they would be more than happy for us to visit the library more often and hoped that we would enjoy the books, especially the English books that the library has.
After giving them the presents, we toured around the library and were so surprised to see many books in different languages. Of course, the library has a rich collection of English storybooks and big board books. As we were touring around the library, Au stopped and asked if he could read the book that has Mount Fuji on the cover. When we mentioned to him that it is in Japanese, he replied, “Yes, but I really want to know about Mount Gifu.”. He kept this Mount Fuji book while we were at the library and decided to borrow it, too. While the rest of the Flowers friends went to the reading area, Co asked if she could take a Japanese book that she was so interested in. When the teachers said okay, she excitedly went to the science shelf and said, “I like this book very much. Look, there is C, DNA, U and H (while pointing at the atom, cells, and other chemical elements). I think this comes from the sky. I like this book because there’s lots of colors and letters”. At the reading area, Sh and D found a board book that is taller than them! They got very excited and asked their friends to look at them. We had a wonderful time reading books of different sizes. The books made us very excited and yet we tried our best to be quiet by using our indoor voices. Our teachers were so proud of how we followed the guidelines when visiting a library.
Then the best part came when we chose the book that we wanted to borrow. There were so many books, and we had a challenging time to pick one book. Some of us thought they had decided which to borrow until they walked past a shelf and changed their mind! We just love books Our teachers also borrowed books and a special storybook called kamishibai or paper theater. Vieda read one kamishibai for us today and we had a chance to read the books we borrowed during our library time. We can’t wait to read them again next week.
At circle time, we shared with our friends how we felt about our library visit.
Au: Excited because I’m so excited to get the mountain book about Mount Gifu.
Ky: So-so because I like zukan or a big picture book.
Hi: Mommy and Hiori went to library last time and we borrow Japanese books.
Di: I like lot of books. I am excited.
Sh: Do you what is the biggest mountain. It’s Mount Fuji. I see a lot of lava. I love volcanoes because I love lava, but I don’t love getting ouchie from the lava. (Sh enjoyed reading a big board book about volcanoes at the library.)
Ka: Good, because there was lots of books.
Co: Good because every day I go to the library.
Library time at Azabu Library was so much fun! We talked about how we would like to visit it again. In our circle time, we talked about how good it would be if we could visit the library regularly. Luckily, Shelley said we can do a regular library visit! Hurray for that!
We hope that you had a fantastic Friday, too! Please enjoy the rest of the evening.
Love,
Flowers