International Month: Setsubun

We started our morning playing with the playdough for some fine motor exercises and then the magnet letters to spell out our names! We also continued gluing on some puzzle pieces on our world map! After we finished our table activities, we joined our friends to build houses with wooden blocks.

We packed away our toys earlier than usual so we could get ready for our very first International Month presentation! We sat in front of the world map and welcomed our two guests! We had M (N’s mom) and A (J’s mom) come to Petals Class to talk about Setsubun! We started by asking where our two moms are from. J and N helped point out where Japan was on the world map and which flag was the Japanese flag. A started our Setsubun presentation with a page from a book about Japanese Festivals. She opened the page that talked about Setsubun and taught us that Setsubun, which on February 3rd, is the first day of Spring! People throw soy beans at the oni saying, “Oni wa soto (Oni go outside)! Fuku wa uchi (Good fortune come inside)!”. 

After we learned about Setsubun, Miho showed us the craft we were going to make today! It was a cute Oni hat! We quickly found a seat at a table and started crafting! First, we used a big white sticker and stuck smaller colored circles inside to make the eyes of the Oni. Next, we used crayons to draw and color the mouth. J and N helped their moms hand out some yarn. With the yarn, we rolled it up into a ball to make the hair. We pasted the hair and waited a little bit for the glue to dry. J said we should count to twenty. We finished up our Oni hats by using tape to turn our flat paper into a cone and then tied elastic bands on them so they can stay on our heads! “Rawrrrrr!!!!” everyone in Petals was a cute little oni!

Once everyone was finished with their hats, we gathered together one more time to take a group photo. J and N gave everyone a small bag of soy beans to eat at home! A told us we should eat the same number of beans as our age. We thanked our guests and put our beans inside our back packs.

Before we had snack time, we did some show and tells! We started with S’s Lifebook! She started by showing us the picture when she was born.

S: My daddy, M and baby S.

The second picture was S holding Pooh bear.

S: I’m eating Pooh-san! Haha!

The last picture was a big family photo!

E: So many!

S: Grandpa, grandma, M!

We thanked S for the wonderful show and tell!

We learned a lot about our families this month and we finished up our topic about families with one last craft, “The Family House”! Inside the house we made, we had members of our family.

M sat down on the teacher’s chair and talked about his family house.

M: In my house I have, grandpa, mommy, daddy, M, and mommy’s sister. My mommy’s name is mama and daddy is papa. *With a little help from teachers* M and R!

R was next: House is green! Mommy, daddy, R, brother. C! Mommy is …C. Daddy is …M!

Last one for today was S: House is Orange. Mommy, Sunay, Daddy, sister A! Mommy is Nidhi and Daddy is S.

We clapped for our friends then had our snacks and went to Step park!

Thank you all for another great day! Have a great evening and see you again tomorrow!
Love,

Petals