Monday, June 25, 2012

Japan Week!

Japan Week was so much fun!  There are so many interesting cultural activities having to do with Japan.  Kids Web Japan is a super site that has innumerable activities, videos and facts.  Since there was some rain this week, we did quite a few crafting activities.  We made some paper lanterns out of origami paper. They came out lovely, and now adorn our window in the living room. 

Eva got some books from Oma Nana (or Tschomana, as Eva has always called her) that were perfect for this week.  We used the atlas to locate Japan and Eva learned that Japan is a series of mountainous islands.  Another great book, Kinder dieser Welt, has an entire page devoted to how kids in Japan live.  Menschen is another book that explores differences and similarities between many different cultures.  She also gave Eva an Origami book which we used to make some frogs and a hen with chicks.  There are so many other cool animals to make, but most are too complicated for Eva to do at this point.  For stories, we read from two books Eva already has:  The Dream Eater and Folk Tales. 

Another nice craft we did was Japanese wood block painting using a Styrofoam tray.  The tutorial is here.  We also made a beautiful carp kite for Father's day, which Daniel will proudly hang at his window at work. 

Eva worked on a Japanese lapbook, where she learned about the Japanese alphabet, animals from Japan, Kimonos, bento boxes and so on.

We made some delicious sushi with carrots and cucumbers.  Eva loved rolling them up as well as eating them!  We also sampled some seaweed salad.  Eva used her chimpsticks, which are a great set of chopsticks for little hands. 

We have an update from last week's activity day!  When Eva did all of those activities (rock climbing, vespa riding, bull riding, etc...  she was entered in a raffle to win one of 5 prizes.  We got a gift certificate for a day at a relaxation spa for the whole family!  Yippee!  We had a great time the last time we went to a thermal spa all together, so I am sure good times will be had by all.



Here is Eva working on her fish craft.  I cut out the scales, and she carefully arranged them on the colored paper to make a fish. 

Here is the completed koi fish kite, ready to go to work with Papa.

Here are all of the books I mentioned.  The Kinder-Weltatlas, Menschen, Kinder dieser Welt and Folk Tales are all great resources, because they can be used to learn about places all around the world.

Our home-made sushi!  We made some inside out rolls as well as traditional rolls.



Here are the origami animals we made: Hens with chicks, and 2 frogs.

The results of our block painting.  On the left are Eva's crocodiles, and on the right, my flowers.  We are planning to cut the pictures out and paste them to cardstock to make cards.

Our paper lanterns.

This is an excerpt from the book, "Kinder dieser Welt".   Here you can see the Japan page.  Kids can lift the flaps to learn more about each item.  What fun!

This is a puzzle map I found for only 2 Francs at a second hand store, still in original wrapping!
Here is our little princess, not so thrilled about her bandana.  This is a bit of a Bruce Springsteen look with the denim. 

1 comment:

  1. Hallo Vanessa + Co.:
    Danke für die interessante Episode über Japan, ein Land, das ich als Kind auch immer sehr spannend fand. Es ist einfach so anders als Europa. Ich freue mich sehr, dass Euch meine Bücher so viele Anregungen gegeben haben für zahlreiche Aktivitäten, die Ihr wieder toll verwirklichst habt. Ich freue mich auf mehr! Tschomana

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