We can finally feel that spring is in the air. It is an exciting season as we feel the temperature rising, and all around us there is excitement, energy and beautiful colors. today was a great day to walk outside, under the warmth of the sun and the clear, blue sky.
Today we would like to say a, Big “Thank You “ to Noriko San, Haruka San and Ayako San for celebrating Hinamatsuri with us.
Every year we celebrate Hinamatsuri in Japan, also known as Doll Festival or Girls Day, to wish and pray for the health and future happiness of all young girls. This event is celebrated by displaying traditional dolls and enjoying traditional dishes and dessert to bring good luck.
This morning, we displayed our Hina dolls, together with beautiful Sakura flowers, to decorate our classroom. As part of our celebration, we also had a special activity for Hinamatsuri. We made shiraishi sushi; this is a bright and colorful dish of sushi rice, mixed vegetables, fish and toppings sprinkled on top. For the ingredients and toppings choices for this activity, we used:
Cotton wool – Rice
Pre-cut paper vegetables – lotus root, shredded seaweed, mushrooms, and shrimps
Yellow yarn – shredded egg
When Noriko San asked what’s on top of the Shiraishi Sushi, some of us thought that the yellow yarn was spaghetti.
Green beans – Mame
Shredded Seaweed – chopsticks
It looked delicious and we even asked John if we could each have some to try. Some of us wanted to eat it and put it in our mouths. We felt hungry, so we all got ready for our snack time.
Thank you, Noriko San, for sharing how to make Shiraishi Sushi
We were fascinated by the book that Ayako San read to us. It was a story about Momo chan’s Hinamatsuri.
We were so happy and excited to take home a Hinamatsuri Card and special treats. And tomorrow we will make a Hina doll using origami with our friends and teachers.
Handmade Spring Tree
An old coat stand is now a handmade tree. We used some newspaper and twisted it and taped it onto the trunk and now it looks alike it has branches. It really looks amazing. Today, we added twigs onto the newspaper branches, that we picked up from Arisugawa park yesterday and we glued them together to make a beautiful trunk and branches. Now it looks like a spring tree. we did so much gluing and definitely developed our fine motor skills.
Some of us started to make some flowers using shades of pink tissue paper. When the flowers were ready, we glued them on each branch to make it look like a sakura tree; it ended up looking absolutely stunning.
Playdough And Nature Sensory
Yesterday we went for a nature scavenger hunt to collect natural materials in our sensory bin. On another table, there were tubs filled with natural treasures such as leaves, twigs, acorns, rocks, sand, and wood chips for us to discover and explore.
Sensory play helps us interact through our senses by seeing, smelling, and touching different textures. It also helps us build our skills through observation and abstract thinking.
Park Time
It was perfect weather; it was sunny and warm today. We had a nice walk to the park. On our way to the park, we saw some colorful flowers around our neighborhood. We also saw trees with lots of buds coming out. We had a fabulous time playing with our friends and teachers in the green area.
Thanks for a Terrific Thursday.
