A Day at Suwa Hoikuen

On December 1st I took paid leave and used the chance to attend preschool with Yana.

Yana's symbol is a peach and its on all of her
belongings, including her shoe cubby.

We arrived for 9:00am. Yana already knew where her shoe cubby was and as soon as her shoes were off she bolted up the stairs and to her classroom, leaving me awkwardly standing there and unsure of where to go. She is in panda-gumi (Panda class) and knows exactly where it is.

I'm not sure if we were a bit late and missed this, but when Justin went with her he said that the kids eat a small piece of seaweed each morning. This is supposed to help them have good dental health.

Next the kids go to gargle water and wash their hands.

After that they change into their shorts - each kid wears the same school shorts. They have to tuck their shirts into the shorts. Then they line up and walk down to the gym.

In the gym they have a musical exercise program with one or two other classes of similar age. Yana's teacher plays the piano and two other teachers help lead the kids. They do stretches and then run around and do different movements to the music (like hopping on one foot or running with arms outstretched like an airplane).

Once their exercise time is finished, the kids went back upstairs and had to clean the floors in the traditional Japanese way.

Then the kids change back into their regular clothes.

They wash their hands again.

Next its library time. The kids go down to the library for a few minutes. They have time to browse and read a few books, and if they want they can check out a book to take home.

After the library they go back to the classroom and the teacher reads a story to them which she selected from the library.

Next is time for activities. They did drawing and after that played with clay for a while.

After activity time the kids wash their hands again because its lunchtime.

They eat lunch at 11:30am. It is kyuushoku, so school lunch. All the kids eat the same thing. On this day they had some kind of pasta gratin, egg soup, rice, tea, and salad. Yana was not pleased.

After lunch they brush their teeth and have quiet/nap time for quite a while. They change into pajamas for this time.

After naptime, they change back into regular clothes again.

They have a snack, which tends to be some kind of bread. I think they may drink milk as well.

Soon after snacktime is pickup time, around 3:00-3:30pm.

And that's generally how Yana's days at Suwa are spent!