Otsukimi Celebrations

Happy Thursday (9/28/2023) everyone! Today was another special day for our friends from the Flowers class, as we learned a lot of new things about Japanese traditions. Hope you will enjoy today’s journal!

TABLE ACTIVITIES

On the first table, our teachers had nail hammering activities for us. By using cork boards, wooden shapes, and little nails, we were able to design our own items. M. made a boat, while S. made a building. Playing with the cork boards and the hammers is always a good exercise to learn how to use our little fingers and how to manage our strength.

On the second table we had puzzles and Kapla blocks. V. really liked to find which animal was living in the North Pole with the “where do I live” puzzle. On her side, B. did an excellent job with the 3D pyramid shaped cubes and made the puzzle upside down on purpose while K., T. and Y. were busy making towers with the blocks.

It was soon the time for our friends to clean up the classroom. But today we did not go to the Step Park because Flowers Class was receiving some special guests! I wonder who they were!

OTSUKIMI PRESENTATION

We were so glad to have T’s mom, E’s mom and T’s mom coming to Flowers Class to present us the Japanese tradition of “Otsukimi” (Moon gazing). They started by explaining what “Otsukimi” is.
They told us about the moon’s cycle and how the 15th night is the full moon. Otsukimi traditions include a lot of different things: from eating rice dumplings called Otsukimi dango, celebrating the beauty of the moon and displaying decorations made from pampas grass. Some sweet potatoes and chestnuts are also put next to the Otsukimi dango as offerings to the Moon.

We were also so lucky because our guests brought dango for us. We had the chance to make our own displays by pilling them on special Japanese plates. It looked like a pyramid! It was so fun! They also showed us how the shadows on the moon looked like a rabbit! After that we were encouraged to share about the moon:

M.: I saw a moon before.
Th.: I saw a moon in the morning when I was coming to school.
K.: At nighttime, my daddy see the moon.
Th.: Why is the moon always at night?
R.: What is Otsukimi.
Th.: We can eat sweet potatoes?
V.: It’s a circle.
Sh.: I can’t see.

After that super funny and interesting moment with our friend’s moms, it was already time for our book time, so we said goodbye to them, and we got ready to continue our day!

BOOK TIME AND CIRCLE TIME:

During our book time, our teacher read us a story called “Don’t push the button” by Bill Cotter.
It tells the story of a little character that wants to push a button that he is not supposed to touch, eventually he does it and a lot of weird things happen to him: He changes color, gets polka dots and many other bizarre things.

T.: Don’t push the button again!
Th.: When I push that button, nothing happens to me.
A.: We don’t want him to be a bad guy.

After the story, we did our daily circle time, but since some friends were having a hard time staying put and sitting nicely, we decided to remind them by singing the “cookie jar” song.
H.: Because we’re not babies!

What cookies do you like, friends?
R.: bananas!
S.: Chocolate cookies.
M.: Strawberry.
Y.: Cookie cookies!

Once our friends sat properly, we started our circle time and Axel asked us a question: How do insects help us?

H.: Ladybugs can help us.
Th.: Bees can help us to get honey.
B.: Spiders help us eat things that get stuck in their webs.
M.: Ants help us to bring leaves underground.
R.: Ants help us cause they can eat brown leaves.
K.: Sometimes ants can eat bees but not ladybugs.
A.: Sometimes they are sleeping so they cannot help us when they’re sleeping.
Th.: But some are nocturnal, so they wake up at night and sleep in the morning.
Th.: This is a dung beetle, they roll dung.
B.: The ladybugs are helping eat the green bugs on the farmer’s plants.

Then it was time for our question of the day:
E.: Do you think insects are special to us?
B.: Do you know if insects are important for people?
M.: Do you think that insects are important for us?

First we looked at the friends who said no, can you explain why you think so?
A.: They cannot help us because some insects are really loud.
Th.: Cicadas are super loud.
Sh.: Because they don’t have things to help us.
Th.: When bugs bite you, it can be ouchie.
Sh.: I see you have a lot of mosquito bites.

What about the friends who said “yes”, can you tell us why?
B.: because they can make webs, and they can catch insects and eat them for us.
M.: Because bees can make honey for other bees.
H.: Because people can also eat insects.
K.: The people not yummy, the insect eat. I try in England and my daddy said it’s not yummy.
Th.: Praying mantis eat insects.
E.: Some ladybugs.

We finished by talking about the fact that other animals also eat insects, like birds!
Sh.: Crows can do outchies to us.

After that, it was already time to eat our lunches! We were so impatient about eating the Otsukimi dango for dessert!

Thank you, a lot, for reading our class journal! We hope that you enjoyed it and see you tomorrow for more adventures with our Flower friends!

Lots of love,
Children from Flowers Class.