kodomo No Ie

KNI Newsletter

1: July – August 2013
2: Schedule for this month
3: Harvest of Summer Vegetables
4: Tanabata Festival
5: KNI Supermarket is Open!
6: Sleep Over
7: Grand Maze

July – August 2013

 
We hope you all are doing well despite the soaring summer heat.  One after another, kids who spent the summer in Japan have returned, and now it’s time for the new semester at KNI.
Our rabbit gave birth to bunnies again this summer and kids at the KNI summer camp took great care of them.   Our summer camp turned out to be a big success, filled with a variety of outdoor activities such as a kiddy pool, bubbles, finger painting, bouncy ball fishing, colored water play, body painting, and more.  
 

Schedule for this month

August 9 (Fri) Grand Maze/ End of Summer Camp
August 24 (Sat) Parent Orientation (for the new families)
September 4 (Wed) 5 (Thur) 6 (Fri)  First Day of School/ Class Pictures
Setember 7 (Sat)  Saturday Japanese school’s Back to School /Parent Orientation for the new families at 9am – 10am
 

Harvest of Summer Vegetables

Vegetables in our garden have grown very big this summer, thanks to the camp kids’ wild cheers showering them every morning.  At the beginning of Summer, cucumbers grew so big that they looked monstrous. We were able to enjoy them in salad and cucumber sticks in the cooking classes.  Tomatoes, eggplants and green peppers harvested next.  Tomatoes were most popular among the kids because of their super sweet flavor.  We cooked eggplants in miso or curry.   Kids were not familiar with shishito peppers at first, but they ate them fried. I was glad that those peppers turned out not spicy at all.  
Thank you to all the veggies in the garden!
 

Tanabata Festival

We hosted the annual Tanabata Festival at the Huntington Library on July 7th.  KNI kids came to the event wearing colorful Yukata (summer kimono), which added a festive atmosphere to the Japanese garden.  At different craft stations, kids folded, cut and glued Origami into their favorite Tanabata ornaments, and wrote their wishes and dreams on a strip of paper to hang on bamboo leaves.  Afterward, Encho sensei read a story about Tanabata and the kids went up to the stage and performed six songs they had been practicing for that day.  Many guests including KNI parents and grandparents and visitors to the Library, came and enjoyed the kids’ performance.  Kids received a branch of bamboo with ornaments as a gift to take home, and they looked very happy and proud.  (written by Ms. Hashiba)
 

KNI Supermarket is Open!

KNI Supermarket was open from July 17th to 19th!  Ever since the summer camp started, kids spent a lot of time making merchandise for a variety of shops for the store opening.
Kids were very excited to walk around and shop at the stores, including a restaurant, an electronics shop, a shoe store, a toy store, a candy store, etc..  They bought so many things that their shopping bags became full in the end.  “Irasshaimase (Welcome)!” “Kore Kudasai (I’d like to have this).” “Mata kite kudasai (Please come again)!” “Arigatou (Thank you)!” Everyone did such a good job role playing as a store clerk or a customer. The total sales for the three days was $400. Thank you very much for your cooperation.  We will send the money to the earthquake-affected areas in Japan.  (written by Iino)
 

Sleep Over

Kids arrived at KNI that day with much larger bag than usual. They were filled not only with personal belongings but with their excitement.  We started the day with grocery shopping, cooking dinner and lantern making.  Some kids noticed that it was getting dark outside while eating curry for dinner.  It must have been so special for the kids to spend a evening with their friends.  After dinner, kids had fun checking out the haunted house with KNI alumni camp leaders and enjoyed the sparklers.  Later, we all gathered under the night sky around candle lights, and listened to the music that Encho Sensei played with her harmonica.  Some kids closed their eyes, put their hands together and prayed.   They fell asleep soon after tucking themselves in the sleeping bags.   Next morning we woke up feeling fresh and had a breakfast of donuts and curry.  Kids went home smiling with fun memories that can only be shared by those who were there together.
Thank you very much, volunteers!  (written by Narikawa)
 

Grand Maze

On the last two days of the summer camp, August 8th and 9th, we played with a grand maze that was built with newspaper all over the church.  On Thursday, the 8th kids did an easy maze. Kids lined up at the entrance all pumped up and excited with a stamp card in hand.  They found dead-end streets and windy paths at every turn. “Are? Dokoda? (Well, where should I go?)” “Kocchi kana? (This way, right?)” “Yatta! Goal Dekita! (Yay! I made it to the goal!)”  The church hall was filled with their cheerful voices.  A sticker was given once a child made it to the goal, and five stickers meant a prize of popsicles!
 
On Friday the 9th kids took on a challenge in two courses: Easy and difficult.  In pairs, kids had to find three secret letters. Kids then dashed from the church hall to KNI to solve the mystery using those clues.  They worked hard to solve the mystery by doing crossword puzzle, riddle or finding codes.   Kids showed a great deal of teamwork with their partners and eventually were able to discover the letters “Me –I-Ro (Maze)” hidden in a piece of paper.   After winning and indulging in a popsicle treat, kids jumped back into the maze, ripped newspaper into pieces and cleaned them all up.  It was so much fun, the kids’ cheers went on for two days! 
 
I am very pleased to report these highlights of the camp. I believe that we were able to leave kids with a lot of fun memories through a variety of events and daily camp activities.   I’d like to give a special thanks to KNI alumni and alumni who volunteered for the camp.  Thank you, big brothers and sisters!  You were a tremendous help as always!  Thank you very much!
 



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