What is Koinobori?

            For our morning table activity, we had painting and magic cutting to decorate our fish-shaped crafts. There were tissue tube roll ends cut in several lines and sponges for painting. We looked at them and asked, “Can we put this on our hands and paint?”. We were thrilled that we could and enjoyed the cold and sticky feel of it on our hands! It makes us proud each time we come up with some creative “techniques” to use for our craft! On the other hand, since we made snowflake crafts, we have always enjoyed magic cutting. It fascinates us to fold origami papers several times and cut them, not knowing what the pattern it would result into! Our teachers told us that these fish-shaped crafts are going to be hanging in our room. Yay, we cannot wait! We’re wondering why we are going to hang these crafts this week, which led us to discuss today’s question of the day.

QUESTION OF THE DAY – Do you like fish?

            Everyone answered yes! Of course, we were excited to hear the reasons why our friends like fish.

            Z: People kill them and then take them to the store. My mom buys it and then cooks it. She puts it in our plate and it’s just YUM!

            Y: Because eating.

            K: Because I like to eat fish.

            Ky: Because it’s yummy but not sushi.

            D: I eat it.

            A: I don’t know.

            H: Because it’s sweet.

            B: I like fish because it has oil, and it can run fast.

            We  could not agree more that fish can make such a delicious meal! In Japan, there is a special tradition that is celebrated by hanging fish. Do we have any ideas about this?
            Ky: Yes, I know that! Koinobori no hi. I have at home.

            K: It’s fish day day. I see flags of fish.

            Z: When I went for my blood test, I saw flying fish outside the hospital. There are about 600!
           

            We learned that this special tradition is called Children’s Day. As always, we are thrilled to exchange ideas and do our own “research” to discover things. Some of our friends asked if they could ask some questions now, so we can all gather some possible answers. Here they are:

            Vieda: What does Koinobori mean?

            Z: Does everyone celebrate Children’s Day?

            K: Does everyone make Koinobori? If they do, when is it?
           Ky: What is koi?
           Z: I think Koinobori is only in Japan.

 Let’s remember those questions as you do your “homework” today” 😊

            Going back to our question of the day, we talked a little about fish. We read the book Swimmy by Leo Lionni together. Then, we looked at another book about fish where we learned one of the many amazing skills that mommy fish does to her baby fish. She puts the baby fish in her mouth to make sure that it does not get eaten by a predator! Z added, “Mom can hide a baby under a rock away from the predator or can also camouflage”. K also shared, “Like alligators! They put their babies in their mouth, too! We talked about how our mommies take care and protect us well!

            After participating in our monthly earthquake drill, we were about to leave for park time when it started to rain. Staying indoors mustn’t be a problem for us! We used this extra special time to work on the props for our play, The Big Bad Pig, and the Three Little Wolves.

            First, we talked about the characters of the story and which ones we would like to be. It went very smooth as we shared our ideas and the role we want to take. K suggested that “we should have a beaver which makes the concrete house and the flamingo for the flower house”. Ky then said, “Three wolves and sai (rhinoceros)”, which make K got excited because “the rhinoceros is for the armor plates!”. As we talked, Vieda took out the house boxes we have made so far, along with a big container of junk art materials. Z looked at them and said, “Oh, I’m so excited!”. Vieda reminded us that we would be working as a team, to which K reacted by saying, “Teamwork is like gym work!”.

            Making things is always fun when we do it with our friends. We looked at our junk art materials and exchanged ideas with our friends. Some of the boys suggested that the old printer from Petals class can make a good couch for the Big Bad Pig to sit on. Four of our friends “tested” if it could carry at least four people (the pig and the three wolves 😊) and it stood the test. So, we decided to wrap it in bubble wrap first to make it soft and then covered it with a purple cloth. Hi took two paper cups and a tissue tube and turned them into a chimney! B and Z had their hands full in decorating the houses with yarn and small pieces of papers. As Z made doorknobs, D and A put little white things, which they called “mushrooms” on the roof houses. Y cut brown papers into small squares and glued them on the houses. K and Ky glued long thins of papers and called them “barbed wires”. Ky found some colored tree barks that we collected from Arisugawa Park and made them as decors for the concrete house. Wow, the houses already look amazing, and we’re not even done yet! We will be waiting for our other friends to work on the houses as well. Tomorrow, we plan to make our costumes for the play. We told our teachers that it perhaps, it’s time for another movie time in Flowers!

            We hope you had a lovely Tuesday, too! Please remember to wear your Ohana t-shirt tomorrow!

 Love,

Flowers XOXO