Happy Otsukimi and Full Moon Festival
Moon Viewing Festival-Otsukimi
Morning free play: We enjoyed playing with blocks, BBQ in the tent and having art activity with Kai.
Maryna dance: Her dance time always lots of fun. We are usually divided by two groups, one is the dancing team and the other team read books while waiting for the turns to dance, we also enjoy watch her dancing. The songs for dancing is funny and very nice!
Circle time: Thank you Maryna! After we said bye to Maryna, we made our circle for today’s circle time. Sayaka asked us if we can make a big circle like a full moon. We tried our best to make a big circle and sat down. We can’t start our circle time without singing our morning song. So, we sang the song with gentle but big voices. We talked about moon viewing festival called Otukimi which is today. Otsukimi means viewing the moon in Japan: tuki is moon and miru means viewing in Japanese. Sayaka told us that during otsukimi it is customary to look at the moon, people decorate with Chinese silver grass called suski, and offer rice dumpling called dango to the moon. Of course, some people enjoy eating mochi during otukimi. Dango is also round and looks like the moon. It is believed that eating dango will provide health and happiness. The reason dango is a special food for otukimi is for us to appreciate harvest of the rice grain during this season before winter. Then Sayaka mentioned special animal for otukimi. She pointed out what she drew. “Rabbit!” We said to her. In Japan, there is also a story about a rabbit that lives on the moon. Sayaka was taught that when she looked at the moon when she was like our age, she was able to see the shape of rabbit on the moon. Then she added that people in America often point out, a man in the moon. It’s very interesting to know!
After we learnt about full moon festival, she showed the book. “パパお月様とって。“Papa please get the moon for me.” The story was in Japanese so she explain in English, too. In the book, there is a girl named Monica and she asked her daddy to get the moon. So, he went to the moon to get the moon but it wasn't easy to climb all that way to the moon. He used a very long ladder to get it. She was happily playing with the moon but one day she realized that the moon had disappeared as the moon got smaller and smaller every night. After reading it, Sayaka told us that the story was actually real. The moon grows every night. So, we sometimes see a full moon like today, half moon, or skinny moon. Then we started today is activity. The goal of the activity was to find three moons. Sayaka showed us paper cut moon. There are different shapes of the moon. They are full moon, half moon, and skinny moon. We closed our eyes while Sayaka and Pauline hid the moons around the classroom. Kai kept an eye out on us to make sure we weren’t peeking! They the teachers were done hiding it’s was our turn to find three moons but we have to be careful to not pick up the Jack-o-lantern that looks like a moon! There was also a rabbit which was good luck! After we found our moons it was time for a quick game.
Ps: Otukimi is knows as jyugoya 15th night. However, actual date changes every year.
Here comes moon
To fit out moon holiday we used a yellow ball and played Here Comes the Moon. It pretty much Here Comes the Boulder but with a moon instead. We had to keep away from the “Moon” while it moved around the room.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this moon filled day.
Thank you for today and see you all tomorrow.
Love,
Happy Petals 2020-2021