Baba Marta

This morning we found something interesting in the toy kitchen. There were other foods in the kitchen! Usually, we play in the house but today we took the food outside set up our homemade cardboard table and played there. While the girls were pretending to have a tea party the boys were seeing what else they could find in the kitchen. They also ventured outside to see what was in the nature box. While we were free playing the teachers were busy at their stations. Pauline was helping us make Hinamatsuri dolls, Sayaka was helping us make matching clamshells called “kai-awase” and Kai was making Bulgarian “martenitsa” bracelets with us. It was a busy morning of crafts! 

After cleaning up together, we gathered around the map. Today we went to a different country for international month! We looked for sushi, robot, cherry blossom and sumo wrestler to find Japan. Then we pretended to be airplanes and flew to Bulgaria. On the map, it is under the picture of Dracula but there is no Dracula in Bulgaria. Kai drew a rectangle with a red circle in the middle of it and asked if we knew what it was? 

C: A country!

O: A donut!

C: Japan!

Yes, it was the flag of Japan! Then he drew another rectangle and divided it into three horizontal sections. In the first section, he asked us what color it was and S said, ”White!” then the other two sections he colored in green and then red. Then Kai told showed us a picture and asked us what it was and how we call this person in Japanese. It was a picture of a grandma and in Japanese we say “baba”. Actually, in Bulgarian it’s also “baba”. There is a story of Baba Marta. Baba Marta had a brother and sister named January and February. They use to fight all the time and when Baba Marta is angry the weather is cloudy and when she’s happy the weather is sunny. That’s why it’s mostly cloudy during winter. L help to check to see if Baba Marta was angry or happy today. Good thing she was happy cause it was sunny. On March 1st it’s Baba Marta day and it represents the coming of Spring. For Baba Marta day we give out martenitsa. It is the red and white bracelets that we’ve been making. When we give it to our friends we are wishing them good health. When the martenitsa is on we can’t just take it off. In order to take it off, we have to see a special animal.

Kai: What animal is this?

H: Flamingo!

Kai: This is called a stork

S: This have white and black

Since we don’t really see storks in Japan, we can also look for flower blossoms on trees. If we see it then we can take off our martenitsa and hang it on the tree. Before going back to Japan there is one more thing we can do. We can dance the horo! We made a circle moved two steps sideways kicked and kick with the other leg and moved two steps again. We started in a circle and ended up started following the leader around the room. Happy Bulgarian day! 

We got ready for the park super quick today so we could go to Amishiro park. We focused on playing with the swings today and the wide slide. We climbed up the slide and knocked each other down like bowling when we slid down. It’s always an amazing time when we go to Amishiro. 

Hope you had an amazing time as well!! 

XOXO,

Щастлив Petals Class Children