Madre to Many: The Weight of the World...: Around the World in 8 Days

Around the World in 8 Days - Japan (6/18/19)

Today we stopped in Japan on our journey around the world! During our background knowledge discussion we decided we knew that: Japan has been involved in a lot of historical events that they know about, the religious views are prevalent (not sure what), we think about the samurai and anime, the music is peaceful, and nature is very important. In this group of kids, we even have a student has a cousin in Japan and another that knows quite a bit of the Japanese language! Although we were not able to answer ALL of their questions, we did address nature, cuisine (sushi), anime and aspects of the music of Japan in today's session!

We started the morning listening to music of Japan. The students were split on whether they liked the peaceful sounds of Japan or the drum performance of China better. We then started our language lesson. Students learned how to say hello, my name is________, nice to meet you, and goodbye in Japanese. They are doing a wonderful job practicing sounds and intonations in languages that they are unfamiliar with. Language is a powerful tool and if your toolbox is full, you can build so many things! #LanguagesBuildBridges

After our language lesson, students learned a little about the history of anime. About half of the group was familiar with what anime is, but they were unsure of its history. Anime is one kind of Japanese cartoon/animation. It was started in Japan in 1917, but didn't really make its debut as an art until the 1940s when it was used primarily as anti-American propaganda. The kids thought this was interesting. In the 1970s and 1980s Disney got ahold of anime for the west and decided that it would make it more friendly and accessible and in the 2000s several anime films earned awards at many feature film festivals!

Students had an opportunity to design their own anime character using a web-based computer program on today's adventure! The goal was to design an anime character that represented themselves, but several of them decided to go a different route! I love the creativity and artistic skills that are shown in many of these anime characters and it made for great discussion.

Although anime is very popular in Japan and elsewhere, so is another type of art that has been around even longer. The haiku (syllabic poetry with a 5:7:5 pattern) was originally from Japan. These haikus were originally about nature, but have sense been written about a wide variety of topics! Check out some of the haikus that were written by our students in the images below. They were given about 25 minutes to complete this activity!

After a lot of hard thinking and usage of our creativity skills, it was time to try our hand at Japanese cuisine! Throughout the morning students had smelled the scent of vinegar from sushi rice and stared at the plates of ingredients on the main table in the room. It was time! We discussed their experiences with sushi and whether or not they liked it. Although two-thirds of our students had tried sushi before, no one had ever made it (including all of our teachers)! After a demonstration and short video about the history and ingredients used to make sushi, they did it!

The following ingredients were used to make our sushi:
-Suishi Rice (Made pre-camp in my insta-pot)
-Ham
-Imitation Crab (This is a school activity...salmon was a little expensive!)
-Cream Cheese
-Cucumber
-Carrots
-Avocado
*Students had access to all of these ingredients, but they were able to choose what they wanted to put in their sushi!

I had a student ask me if I thought it would be a great after-school job to be a sushi-chef at a local restaurant! The interest is there and how yummy would that be!?!? This summer academy is all about sparking an interest in cultures and communities outside of their own. #MissionAccomplished! #StayPutTravel

They looked so professional and tasted delicious!

Last but not least, we ended the day with a lesson on the Japanese children's game Ohajiki! This is a game played with marbles that looks really easy...until you attempt to play it! We had a couple of students play today and due to time, we decided that we needed to travel back to Japan after our trip on another day to play this game even more. One of the things that stood out to me was the students' answers when I asked, "How many of you think that you could get really addicted to this game and have a lot of fun with it if you played it at home?". Over 75% of our students raised their hands. As a society I worry that we give too much power to technology. Our kids will want to do what they are exposed to...don't forget to expose them to the games from the past! They were VERY excited to play with non-digital marbles!