O-Shogatsu New Year Festival

Yesterday, at the Portland Japanese Gardens, we celebrated O-Shogatsu New Year Festival! "A" and I have been studying Japan a lot this year because my sister moved to Okinawa last year. We have had fun receiving care packages from her and researching here at home. You can see our Japan Lapbook in my post here. When I saw the New Year Festival I knew we had to go.

I don't know what the arraignment represents but my sister says all her neighbors have the same thing on their doors.

We had a great time. They offer a scavenger hunt for young kids with pictures of garden features. For the festival we saw a calligraphy demonstration, "A" got to write in Japanese "New Spring", and I got to try some traditional Matcha (Green Tea) with sugar cookies made in the traditional Japanese way and served by kimono wearing ladies. I love introducing the boys to different cultures and am so lucky to live in an area where that is a possibility.  Not to mention by learning about Japan it makes us feel a little closer to Aunt Katie!

ShiShi Dogs

Zen Garden

Learning Japanese Calligraphy

New Spring (or close too ;o)

Making Green Tea

Kimono in motion

I love these Cherry Blossom buds hanging on during Winter

Boys near Patagonia

Top 10 Books for Fall

1) The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger. A little yellow leaf clings is hesitant to let go of a giant oak tree. As he hangs on out of indecision he watches the signs of fall turning to winter unfolding. It isn't until he spies another leaf hanging on that he gets the courage to let go, now that he doesn't have to do it alone. The illustrations are fabulous mixed media.

2) Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.The wind has picked up a man made of leaves and carried him away. Follow his travels as you see leaf collages and die cut illustrations Ehlert is famous for.

3) Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson: A look into family tradition as a boy from the city goes to the farmer market with his family, buys apples, and makes homemade applesauce. A recipe is included. Perhaps it will encourage you to start a family tradition your own.

4) The Very Best Pumpkin by Mark Kimball Moulton: I just discovered this book a few weeks ago and fell in love. It is the story of a boy who lives on a farm with a pumpkin patch. The best pumpkin and grown far away from the others and the boy gives it special attention. The pumpkin helps form a friendship with a neighbor.A truly sweet and remarkable friendship. If you go to pumpkin patches during Harvest Season this will provide tons of text-to-self connections for your little ones. 

5) Goose by Molly Bang: A goose egg falls into a woodchuck's den. She loves her adoptive family and all the skills they taught her, but is sad knowing she doesn't totally fit in. It isn't until falling off a cliff and discovering she flies that she really embraces her uniqueness. Bang has such a talent to making books that make you think and leaves room for wonderful discussion.

6)Look What I Did With a Leaf by Morteza Sohi: This is actually a craft book that shows multiples of animal creatures you can make from leaf collecting. A great companion to Leaf Man. I pull this book out every year to create something with the freshly fallen Autumn leaves.

7) Thank You Sarah- The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson: Well, technically Thanksgiving is in the Fall and if you haven't heard of how it became a national holiday you must read this picture book. It was a woman named Sarah who petitioned to numerous Presidents over 38 years with numerous letters to make it a reality. Fun fact mentioned in the book: This Sarah is the same woman to create the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" rhyme.

8) Goose's Story by Cari Best: Based on a true story that happened to the author. The geese arrive every Spring and they notice one who is missing a foot. After the flock shuns it the little girl befriends it (without trying to interfere too greatly). Slowly the goose learns to survive with the missing limb. When it returns the following year the flock has had a change of heart. This story does take place in the Spring but in the Pacific Northwest Canadian Geese come in September/October for their migration. So here we associate Geese with Fall.

9) Pumpkin Town! Or, Nothing is Better or Worse Than Pumpkins by Katie McKy: A family of pumpkin farmers accidently scatter pumpkin seeds that the wind carry to the nearby town. When the town becomes overrun with pumpkins they try to fix the consequence of their actions. A great read-aloud with the coolest, funkiest illustrations.

10) How Many Days To America- A Thanksgiving Story by Eve Bunting: A modern tale of how a family a boards a boat for America to escape soldiers in his Caribbean country and finally be free. They arrive on Thanksgiving. This is great to read in conjunction to Molly's Pilgrim by Barabara Cohen.This is a very short chapter book about a Russian Immigrant child, who when asked to make a pilgrim doll for school makes it resemble her mother. She argues that since she game to America for religious freedom that makes her a pilgrim as well.

As I was writing this list I realized I could have kept going. Autumn is by far my favorite time of the year and I would love to hear your recommendations as well.

Miki from Oki

I had mentioned in earlier posts that my sister moved to Okinawa, Japan this year. She reconnected with a high school friend who was stationed over there and they got married over Christmas time. "A" and I have really missed his Aunt. We have had fun learning about Japan and getting fun gift-boxes from her with Japanese toys and coloring books-oh and lots of really weird chips and candy! This week we got the best gift of all from Japan-she is home visiting for 5 weeks!!!

My sister is always one to come bearing gifts and she bought "A" this cool picture book called Miki Mongoose and the Boy From Itoman by Clemente. We even got a plush Miki Mongoose to go along with the story. It is a cute story told in both English and Japanese about Miki, his parents, his best friend Hiro (a habu-snake in Japanese), and a boy name Kazuma. In the story the group travels from the Shuri Castle to Futenma Shrine. At the end of the book are photographs and facts about the two locations that are in Okinawa. Now I just need to come up with the money to visit her and the temples for myself. A girl can dream!!! What can I say... it is good to have my sister home-"A" thinks so too!

Thanks for the cool gift Aunt K!!!

Sand Art

This summer we have been going to Michael's Craft Store every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday for a free craft. They have a passport with different countries and a world map. Each day we get to do two crafts from a country, learn some facts, and stamp our passport. The books have instructions for each craft along with one to do at home. My mother-in-law told me about it halfway through summer, so sadly we missed the first few weeks. Luckily, I have the book with the instructions so I can create those country crafts later on.

The passport and map of countries we are doing crafts of

This week we have been studying water/ocean/beaches, so I was excited to see that we would be doing sand paintings with our study of China. Last winter we were lucky to have a group of Tibetan Monks visit our library to do a mandala sand ceremony, that lasted for three days. It was truly inspiring, and I was so happy they included it as an art form in the passport. Of course, they did not have the children make mandalas but they had four different sticky designs to choose from, which when you peel the paper away you could add colored sand. "A" chose the octopus to stick with our ocean theme. He loved it and I think it is his favorite craft we have done at Michael's so far.

Ancient Art Form of Sand Mandalas that represent peace

Drepung Loseling Phukhang Monks from South India

Our China Passport Page

"A" with his two China Crafts: Sand Painting and Tangram

Top 10 Juvenile Non-Fiction Books

1.) You Choose Interactive History Adventures by Capstone Press: Do you remember choose your own adventure book as kids? Well, this brilliant series (over 22 titles) takes that format but in true history scenarios instead. Each book gives you three characters to be (real people during that time) and you get to see what would happen if you played out that characters role in history. An example would be: for the Underground Railroad you could be a runaway slave, a slave catcher, or someone who lived in a railroad stop and helped slaves. There is great text features to help keep it engaging. The books cover wars, immigrants, pirates, Titanic, Westward Expansion, Gold Rush, and Exploration. Once I got students to read them (a lot of book talking) I couldn't keep them on the shelf.

2.) A Street Through Time by Dr. Anne Millard: I don't know if some of your questions from little ones begin "In the old times did..."? This book looks at one street over the course 12,000 years. It is really helpful for children to see the changes in a localized way. Each page highlights the scene, and ask children to look for some of the details.

3.) How to Clean a Hippopotamus by Steve Jenkins & Robin Page: As a general rule anything these two is brilliant. I am a HUGE Steve Jenkins fan. This is my most current favorite of theirs (of which there is many). It is a book about the symbiotic relationships between animals. For you Nemo fans there is some really interesting facts about clown fish and sea anemone that blew me away!

4.) The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry: This is my favorite children's anthology of poetry on the market right now. The 200 poems are arranged by themes of season, school, humor, animals, feelings and more. There are some old standbys but new poems to, and the illustrations are vibrant and inviting.

5.) A Seed is Sleepy and An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Huts Aston: These books are so beautiful written it is hard to describe. If you teach writing I would recommend these for lesson plans. Each book takes one thing from the natural word and finds one simple sentence to see that item in a new, creative light. Often times the page will have a piece of beautiful prose and then true facts as well. She just put out a new book about butterflies that I can't wait to get my hands on.

6.) Forest Explorer by Nic Bishop. Nic Bishop is a photographic genius. He takes life-size photos of animals, insects, spiders and other things you would find in the forest. Then he makes a photo collage of a scene. He follows up each photo landscape with field notes about what he as captured. His book Backyard Detective follows the same format and is worth checking out. The pictures in both are colorful and detailed and children can't stop staring!

7.) A Life Like Mine by UNICEF. This is my favorite from a group of books that look at children and compare their lives from all over the world. In A Life Like Mine it declares that all children should have the right to play, get an education, have shelter and food, not fight in wars, and other things we in America take for granted. The text features and photographs are amazing and I find children find the text accessible and not boring. Due to content I would wait until children are in 3rd grade for some pages (like war) but others are okay to share (play). Either way expect great discussions.

8.) If The World Were A Village by David Smith. This book looks at if you took all the people in the world and made them 100 people in a village what would that look like. It talks about how many people would be each nationality, what religion they would practice, what language they would speak, how much food, water, and money would they have. This is a great lesson plan to teach percentages and make pie charts to see the difference. Also brings up discussion about if we shared food we would all have enough, but we don't. Due to the math and content I don't know if primary age children would understand or even be interested. He has also made one about America that would be interesting.

9.) Wooden Teeth and Jelly Beans: The Tubberman Files edited by Ray Nelson. This is a funny book that looks at facts and tidbits of the Presidents of the United States of America. This book is simply for entertainment with facts strewn in and I wouldn't use to get all your Presidential facts but it definitely intrigues children (3rd-5th grade most likely). It was here that I learned that George Washington's teeth weren't made of wood, something I still here teachers say. Note to reader I think it ends with the first Bush or Clinton.

10.) Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival by Kirby Larson. This is about a cat and dog that were left behind in the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. The two animals meet and save each other's life, forming an impenetrable bond. Follow their inspirational story that has a happy ending, so even the youngest readers are inspired by the story.