We hope you enjoyed another beautiful sunny Spring day and it was not just any day; it was indeed a happy day in celebration of the girl’s day, “Hinamatsuri” 🙂 We were so busy getting prepared for the special occasion – we decorated the Hina dolls, made beautiful colored Chirashi-zushi and pink and white flowers were ornamented onto our momo branches.
MOMO BRANCHES
You may have noticed that some impatient sakura trees are already showing pretty cherry blossoms but in Japan, we say the flowers blossom in order from the earliest to the latest: ume flowers →momo flowers→sakura flowers. Hence in the song about Hinamatsuri widely sung on this day, there is a line saying, “let’s put up the momo flowers too (ohana wo agemasho momo no hana).” With fresh branches of momo flowers to observe, we too tried to make our momo flowers using strips of brown construction paper and tissue paper (light/dark pink and white) over a long strip of contact sheet. Together with Kiki and Tamara, we practiced using our fine motor skills by tearing the tissue paper and rolling the pieces in our hands before sticking them on the sticky contact sheet. Our eyes were dazzled when all the branches were garnished with pretty Spring colors!
MAKING CHIRASHI-ZUSHI
There are many yummy platters of food that we eat on this special day. In Buds, we focused on one particular dish called the “Chirashi-zushi” which is a kind of sushi except that it is not made in small edible sizes with a slice of raw fish on top, it is usually made in a big bowl with sticky sweet, vinegary rice called “sumeshi” at the bottom and you can decorate on top with all the delicious seafood and wild plants (“sansai”) associated with Spring – it is delicious not only to our tummy but also to our nose and eyes! Though we couldn’t taste our pretend Chirashi-zushi, we surely enjoyed looking at our beautiful chirashi-zushi adorned with pink, white and yellow tissue paper. Alongside, being busy with ripping and tearing tissue paper into paper bowls, we were also expanding our imaginative creation at the kitchen counter using the kitchen tools and playdough.
OBSTACLE COURSE
Walking into the classroom, this spot was the first where we rushed to with an exciting obstacle course set up! There was a wiggly line of balance beams, stepping stones/cushions and a cushion slide. It was so much fun following the course together with our friends. Sometimes, another friend jumped in the middle of the course, and that’s okay too. The more the merrier 🙂
CIRCLE TIME
We started our circle time by looking at a picture. “Who is this?” We all looked and thought. We thought and looked. Yet, we couldn’t tell until we were given a hint, “It is a picture of somebody whose name starts with the sound of N”…Aha! But Really!? It was a picture of Nanako when she had turned 20 wearing a kimono and next to her were her mom and dad and one more person: her grandmother. Nanako explained that when she was born (years and years ago), her grandmother prepared her a handmade hina doll set. Sadly, she passed away two years after the picture was taken but her presence still remains in her heart whenever she opens up the boxes to decorate the dolls in her house – now, decorated for her daughter, Una. We each had a turn to set up the dolls, and the paper lanterns – we used such gentle hands and respectfully placed them on a platform (hinadan). We put on our wrist bells and ring-ringed in a circle listening to the hinamatsuri song called うれしいひな祭り (ureshi hinamatsuri).
How do we feel on this day? K said, “good!” Yes, just like the song goes, we feel happy to celebrate the bright future for girls as we also celebrate the arrival of Spring. For storytime, we read a story called, The Happy Day with Ruth Krauss. It was a beautiful story about all the sleepy animals in the woods waking up to the scent of Spring: a yellow flower! In the classroom, we also had a scent of Spring: the momo flowers. Sniff sniff. Can you also smell Spring? We were so lucky because we were offered to read one more book by Rina-san, one of the mothers from Flowers class. The book was called, “おばあちゃんのひなまつり(Obachan no Hina Matsuri)” by Fukiko Kera. The story was about a grandmother who was expecting to celebrate her own birthday which happened to be on March 3rd with her granddaughter but instead she was visited by children who she didn’t even know. Later she finds out that the children who kindly came to wish her a happy birthday and happy Hinamatsuri were the hina dolls decorated in her house 🙂
Thank you for another fabulous Friday!
Love,
Buds Class Children