Bon Odori Dance

As we couldn’t go outside today we made sure to keep ourselves busy on this wonderfully wet Wednesday. We had an exciting day of crafting, dancing, slides and more!

On the first table we had colored construction paper and crayons. L immediately sat down and started drawing some long lines on the paper. It wasn’t long before she was joined by K, he asked for “purple” and “blue” crayons.

On the second table we worked on our fine motor skills by pushing match sticks into blocks of styrofoam. K was excited to give it a try and nicely picked up a match stick with his thumb and index finger and pushed it into the block. L sat for a long time and enjoyed choosing different colored match sticks to use. N also joined the table and enjoyed filing the blocks with sticks. On the other end of the table we had pipe cleaners to thread through the holes in baskets. S had fun pushing the pipe cleaners through and then pulling them out again.  

On the sensory table we had pinching clips to strengthen the muscles in our hands and cardboard animal shapes. A was so happy when she pinched the clip onto an animal and said “I did it” and held it up for everyone to see. 

Today we welcomed some special guests for international month, A (T’s mom, S (K’s mom), Y (K’s mom) and Y (S’s mom). We had a fun morning learning about Japan and the Bon Odori dance. Firstly we decorated an uchiwa (Japanese fan). On one side we used glue to stick colorful tissue paper and on the other side we used stickers. S had fun decorating his fan with colorful tissue paper and stickers together with mom. T enjoyed fanning his fan to make the colorful tissue paper fly.

Once our fans were completed we were ready to put on happi coats for the Bon odori dance. We tried our best to copy the dance moves of “dig, carry, back and push”. A was excited to put on a happi coat and use her fan while she danced. L loved hitting the taiko drum to the beat of the music. We had so much fun learning this traditional festival dance.

After snack we used the soft slide and tactile beams to work on our gross motor skills and to burn off as much energy as we could. R loved going down the slide on her bottom as well as on her tummy! T practiced walking on the  tactile beams together with a teacher. Y did a great job balancing on the beams by herself. We also danced to “Baby shark” and “Move” so we could get all our wiggles out. 

Once we felt we had moved our bodies enough we settled down to sing Happy Birthday to our friend Kodai who turned two today. Then we read “Happy Birthday Spot” by Eric Hill. After a busy morning we had worked up an appetite and were ready for our lunches and a nap.

Thank you all and have a wonderful evening and stay warm!

Love, Buds