Tuesday was the opening ceremony at Ben's school. Grant took off the day and our next door neighbor babysat the babies. Japanese schools start in April. Their age cut off date is April 1st so last year Ben was in the two year old class and now he has moved up to the three year old class even though as of April 3rd he was four. No biggie for us though. The age 2 class was great for him and we are so excited about his age 3 class. For age 3 class he has to wear a uniform. Every day he wears his dutch boy outfit to school and then changes into uniform sweatpants and sweatshirt. He is so proud of himself!
Ready to leave for the opening ceremony.
His new cubby for his shoes. This year he is a frog. Last year he was a carrot. That basically means he looks for the frog and knows where to put his stuff! Although I think he now knows what his name is in Japanese. The first five characters are our last name and the last two characters are Ben.
Standing in front of his new classroom. His new teacher is one of his teachers from his Age 2 class. He was thrilled and so was I!
The class birthday train. His is the very first one for April 3.
The auditorium before the ceremony began. For once we were there early and got a front row seat!! Plus I didn't have the babies so I was so relaxed and was able to enjoy everything!
Each class filed in with their teacher and then each teacher was introduced.
Leaving the ceremony. That is the principal behind Ben. She spoke and then the teachers did a little song. On Wednesday they had a welcome ceremony for all of the kids who had never attended Kurinomi before. Although his class was small for the opening ceremony I'm sure it is a lot bigger with many new kids. Can you tell how proud Ben was of himself!
Natsumi Sensei - his new teacher!!
The birthday boy! This was taken back in one of the age 3 classrooms. Because his birthday was not on a school day we sang to him at the ceremony.
Natsumi Sensei and Ben :)
Hugs!
Each child got a present from their teachers. It was an Elmo washcloth. The kids are required to bring a washcloth everyday to use during lunch.
Lots of bowing!
Ben's class! Again it was very small but I think many more are in the class and went to the welcome ceremony. These kids were all with him in his age 2 class. Hannah, the little girl right next to him lives in our neighborhood and her mom Emi is two ladies down from me.
Ben's class.
Sushi! Ben loves sushi and had been constantly asking Grant to take him. I do not like sushi but Ben asked me to come and we had time before we needed to get home.
He loves this stuff - blah!!
