kodomo No Ie

March Newsletter

1: March word "What happened? - Dou Shita no?-"
2: March Events
3: March Goals
4: Let’s Sing! Song of the Month
5: Girls’ Day Dolls made by our children
6: To all mothers
7: Thank you, Sakura students!


March word "What happened? - Dou Shita no?-"


Jasmine by the entrance gate is fully in bloom and their tiny pale pink flowers are delivering such wonderful aroma to us. Kids in the morning classes take off to "O hanami - flower viewing" tour after their morning exercises. After seeing Daisies, kids enjoy a variety of Camellias in deep pink, light pink and sparking white. Field is filled with dandelions and Sleeping Beauty. Also, many earthworms are showing their faces from the field where kids recently harvested Daikon radishes. It's the beginning of the season for kids to find bugs, such as Rolly Pollies and Earwigs. Why don't all of you, parents, join the kids to go find the sign of Spring?

March Events

3/2 (Sun) Girl’s Day Event at the Huntington Library (Sakura class)
3/3 (Mon) Open House for Girl’s Day (Renge, Kiku class)
3/12 (Wed), 3/13 (Thu), 3/14 (Fri) March birthday parties and
monthly offering
3/15 (Sat) Ms. Horiuchi’s story time at Japanese school
3/22 (Sat) Japanese school presentation
3/27 (Thu) – 4/8 (Tue) Spring Break
*4/9 (Wed) School will resume

March Goals

-To display your hand-made hina-ningyo. Enjoy the event through songs and listening to stories.
-To enjoy spring by looking at a real hina-ningyo, spring grass, and observing living things in the ground
-To enjoy the outdoors by completing jump-rope charts (kiku class) and ganbari charts (sakura class)
-After finishing the daikon harvest, develop a sense of appreciation for the garden which grew our vegetables.
-Foster a love of small animals through interactions with the fish, turtles, and rabbits.
-Continue to develop hand washing routines

Let’s Sing! Song of the Month


Renge ….. Shaberu de Hoi (Dig with a shovel)
Momo … Kawaii kakurenbo (Cute hide and seek)
Sumire … Haru desuyo (It’s spring)
Kiku …… Inu no omawarisan (Policeman dog)
Ume … Yuran bus (Bus)
Sakura … Utae ban ban (Sing)
All classes …. Ureshii Himawari (Happy sunflower)

Girls’ Day Dolls made by our children

☆ Would you like to try to make Girls’ Day dolls with daily ingredients from your home?
Renge・・・Yogurt cups wrapped with Japanese washi paper like a kimono, decorate the face made from Kleenex with yarn for hair, and other belongings can be made with gold paper.
Momo・・・Wrap Japanese paper around an empty toilet paper roll, connect a Kleenex ball face onto the tube body, and decorate it with a gold paper crown.
Kiku・・ Place newspaper on top of wrapping paper (2 layers) and roll them up like a roll cake. Position this roll so that the inner spiral is visable from the front side of the doll. Make a face with construction paper and decorate it with yarn hair and use gold paper for decorations and accessories
Sumire・・・Cut a circle out of construction paper. Fold the circle in half. Attach a face with decorated construction paper and yarn hair.
Ume・・・Put Kleenex on a wooden ball to make the face. Wrap it with Japanese Washi paper to make the kimono. Make decorations with gold paper and attach them.
Sakura・・・Make construction paper hakama pants and kimono dress, and top them with wash paper robes. Prepare Kleenex faces for the dolls, add long hair tied with Japanese mizuhiki string for the princess, and make a belt with decorative rope.

To all mothers

It was 26 years ago when I moved KNI to this location. There was nothing on the ground so I planted a lot of yellow daisies by myself. Those yellow daisies were almost like our symbol here, and they came out every year and kids loved playing with them. However 6 years ago, when we removed the garage and remodeled the school yard, they were all pulled out or covered by all the new safety sponge ground. After that happened, I felt like something was missing, so I planted the same yellow daisies again. The daisies grew strong again and started to come out every year with a lot of beautiful yellow flowers.

Kids use those flowers as their meal when they play family, make flower cakes out of them, and souvenirs for their moms. We at KNI do not prohibit them from picking flowers, but we do teach them to talk to those flowers first, “Please share your flowers.” If you see kids trying to yank them out of the ground, please remind them to talk to those flowers nicely before picking them.
(By Ms. Umehata)

Thank you, Sakura students!

On March 2nd, we held the annual event of “Hinamatsuri” at the Huntington Library. This annual musical was originally made by Mr. Yoshinaka from Aoyama Gakuin University. Sakura students introduced some traditional Japanese games, and also became real Human Hinaningyos and explained Hinamatsuri Day. Those costumes were all made by the children’s mothers, by hand, in the traditional way. We were pretty nervous about kids bumping into brand new shoji doors on accident and breaking them the whole time while students were in the Japanese Garden House performing the musical.
It was a perfect chance for our students to learn proper manners while in public and a great opportunity for them to learn and introduce our culture to the world. On top of that, Ms. Kawakami who is the mother of a Sakura student presented a Nichibu Dance, and Ms. Kuwata from Saturday school played the Koto Harp. It was very cheerful and successful. Thank you very much for all your support on a weekend. Thank you very much for attending our students’ play.





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