The Savanna class has finally moved forward to the next step of their inquiry: FINDING OUT, where they gather information, and engage in shared experiences to gather facts about their research.

This week they looked into three Japanese Cultural Events: Children’s Day, Tanabata Festival, and Obon.

One of the facts they have gathered about Children’s Day is the belief in keeping a child healthy and strong by using a Kabuto, a Samurai Hat, and eating Kashiwamochi(rice cake wrapped in oak leaf). The whole class made their hat and played with it, and experienced making kashiwamochi as a class and had it for snack.

For the Tanabata Festival, they gathered facts by listening to the love story of the couple Orihime and Hikoboshi. They sang a song about the festival, too, and made their 3D Tanabata Craft! They had fun make each character and comprehend why this festival is celebrated in Japan every year.

As we walk around the shrine we stumbled upon a cemetery then the teacher asked, what celebration does this place remind you off? The students answered: Obon Festival! We also, talked about this event in the class, and explored some traditional beliefs like using cucumber and eggplants to welcome back and send off our dead loved ones back to spirit realm. Also, we dance the Matsumoto Bon-bon in the classroom like what we do during the Obon Festival.

The inquiry has been nothing but interesting to everybody. We look forward to looking into more celebrations and from these, learn how we express ourselves!

See you in the next blog!

Here is the 12 months song in English and Spanish that we sing in class. Enjoy singing the song at home, too.