Sofia and I are very excited about today's school session. I was invited to speak to her class today about Japanese family traditions. Today March 3 is Girl's day in Japan. A day where families recognize and honor the daughters in our families and to greet Spring. I will be reading a book called "Thank you very Mochi". A book that centers on the New Year's tradition for Japanese families to make and eat mochi symbolizing good health and good luck for the new year. The book tells how one family works together to make mochi but more importantly the book teaches that no matter what is needed to make this special dish, the most important ingredient is "family". Being together, working together to make something good happen. An annual family tradition together. I will be zooming with Sofia's class at 9:00 this morning. Yesterday she was so excited and I told her "I'm so excited too!"
Here is how it went:
For
those that asked how yesterday's meeting with Sofia's Kindergarten
class went here's what happened. We started the zoom at 9:00 and ended
about 9:35. Sofia's teacher welcomed me and introduced me to the class. I
was not able to see the students but she was able to put the camera on
Sofia who was seated at the teacher's desk. Sofia had been so excited
and I could see she was very happy when we were on zoom. The teacher had
the book there so she could let the students see the pages as I read on
the big shared screen. There are about 15 students in the class and one
or two distance learning in their homes. I first talked a little about
myself, my grandparents and my mother. I told them my grandparents came
from Japan a long time ago to make their home in America. I said they
settled in Texas, the same state that they live. I gave them a little
background on the Japanese tea gardens and I told them my mom and her 7
siblings were born in Texas like some of them. I then told a funny story
about the monkey escaping from the zoo next to the tea gardens and
ending up in their backyard. One of my moms sisters gave the monkey a
piece of gum and he began to chew it. . Then the zookeeper caught the
monkey and returned it to its' cage. Thereafter we were told that
whenever the children cut through the zoo to get to school the monkey
would look at them and mimic chewing gum. The kids loved that story and
giggled. Then I talked about traditions and what that means. I gave
examples of the way traditions are celebrated with pomp and circumstance
or simply with certain foods, dressing up in certain ways and
celebrating as a people, a country, a family. That led to Girl's day
celebrations in Japan (yesterday was March 3 the day that holiday is
celebrated). I then gave them a vocabulary lesson for a few things in
the book. We learned "usu" is the big stone bowl the rice flour is
pounded in and "kine" is the long wooden mallet used in the pounding. I
taught them to count to four in Japanese as I would need their help
counting when we got to that part of the story. I talked about things we
put on mochi (the pounded rice) like furikake (seasoning, sho-yu (soy
sauce) and red beans. Then I read the story. Just before I ended the
teacher reversed the camera and she called each student up individually
to say hi. They all looked so cute as it was picture day and they were
dressed with pretty dresses, bows and super hero shirts. I said goodbye
to all the kids and thanked the teacher for this special opportunity
which meant so much to me. I blew Sofia a kiss. It was really a fun
time. Thanks to all of you for your nice comments.
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