This week in Konnichiwa Kids Club Japanese classes in Brisbane Childcare centres we have been celebrating ‘Kodomo no Hi’ or ‘Children’s Day’! Children’s day is all about celebrating the health, happiness and success of children. You might remember that ‘Hina Matsuri’ celebrated GIRLS back in March. Well, Kodomo no Hi was for centuries celebrated as a day for boys, but in 1948 was renamed as Children’s Day. Despite this many of the traditions relate to boys, which is probably fair, since girls had a day in March 🙂

So what are the traditions? The main 2 that come to mind are Koinobori and Kabuto!

Koinobori
These are carp streamers that are hung in towns, on houses, at schools, above rivers and parks and so on. They represent carp. The ‘Koinobori’ song tells us that the Black carp or ‘koi’ represents the Father while the colourful koi represent the children. Where’s the mother? Well, I have heard also that the RED koi represents the mother. But in older traditions, since this celebration was about BOYS maybe the streamers only represented the father and sons. I’m not sure though! And why is it CARP streamers? Well, there is an ancient story about carp swimming upstream and when it became hard all of the other fish gave up but the carp endured and when they reached their destination they were transformed into dragons! So they are a symbol of strength and persistence.

Kabuto
Kodomo no Hi celebrates children growing up STRONG and resilient, and what better symbol of strength can you think of than Samurai! Families display Samurai Armour replicas in their house (small ones usually) or samurai helmets. The Armour is called Yoroi and the Helmet is Kabuto. Lots of kindys have fun making kabuto out of newspaper with the chidlren! You can try it at home.

So everybody… Happy Kodomo no Hi

If you want to have the Konnichiwa Kids Club experience at home, on an iPad, laptop or smart phone…. SOON YOU CAN! To be the first to know when these become live click on the below link and sign up to this exclusive mailing list. And STAY TUNED! (ps you may want to check your ‘Promotions’ folder if an email from Konnichiwa Kids Club doesn’t arrive straight away!)

https://mailchi.mp/abf6e9a1b60a/kkc

The last few weeks our Brisbane classes have been enjoying lots of sensory activities. The younger rooms have been learning to name their body parts and we have played ‘Doctors’ with some play doctors equipment. Children pointed to where the problem was, ‘atama’ or ‘Onaka’ or ‘hiza’ and the doctor checked and fixed it! This was really fun and the children engaged in the activity picking up on verbal clues in Japanese and repeating words that seemed appropriate!

The older children have been engaging in parachute activities. This is always REALLY enjoyable, and requires cooperation, listening really carefully to instructions and following them explicitly as a group. It’s a superb language learning opportunity! Over the years I have noticed that the ability to focus without distraction on the verbal instructions of an ‘expert’ (teacher, educator, coach, tour guide, lecturer) is a real contributor to successful learning and parachute activities practice this skill.

The boys and girls just thought they were having a great time! They didn’t know they were building skills!