Carp Streamers

5th of May is Children's Day in Japan. During April to early May, you will see Japanese flagging carp streamers, in honor of sons and in the hope that they will grow up healthy and strong. Today, we made carp streamers using colored papers and stickers for the eyes. The scales of the carp comprise of the finger prints of the kids and mothers. After completing their carp streamers, the kids ran around the room with it. One of the kid that has been attending POTATO playgroup since the first day it started turned 2 today. Everyone sang a birthday song to him and gave him a birthday card. As usual we read 2 English story books and danced and sang to some English songs. There will be no gathering next week but do come and join us on May 7th. Let's play with ballons and make a Mother's Day Card.

Cherry Blossom Collage

For today, we prepared cherry blossom collage and a flipping butterfly. However, sad to say, no participants came. For next week, we will be making carp streamers. Japanese have a custom of hanging out carp streamers for family who has boys when it nearing Boy's Day which is on May 5th. Do come and join us.

POTATO Schedule

Schedule for April and May is up.

Schedule

花見 Cherry Blossom Party

Cherry Blossom is in season. If you are in Japan, you would have heard of the word "Hanami" during the cherry blossom season. Literally translated "Hanami" means "flower viewing" but it usually refers to cherry blossom viewing. Hanami can be just a stroll in the park, but it traditionally also involves a picnic party under the blooming trees. POTATO play group joined the "Tabunka Tomodachi Center Japanese Class" cherry blossom party today. We are blessed with nice sunny weather. The kids had a nice time and played by the river bank after their lunch. Throwing rocks in the river, picking flowers, contemplating to build a bridge across the river are some of the fun that they had.

You may wonder about the Japanese class mentioned here. Well the place that Potato gathers is actually the venue for a voluntary Japanese class. Class fee is 2000 yen per month. Classes are held on Wednesday and Friday morning (10 a.m. to 12 p.m.) and afternoon (1 p.m. and 3 p.m.). Child care assistance is also available. For more information, you can refer to the link below.
Voluntary Japanese Class

Clay

One of the kid that joins the POTATO play group will be starting kindergarten from next week. We took a group photo together and made a photo frame for her as a farewell gift. We will miss her and her mum greatly but I am sure they will join us during holiday seasons. For today, the kids played with clay. They made snowman, cars, frogs, cookies, roll cake, Mickey Mouse, strawberries, grapes, etc. It is fun to see how imaginative the kids can be. As usual, we read 2 English story books and sang to some English songs. Do come and join us next week for some more fun activities.