[

Home

|

Japanese

|

English

]

[

San Gabriel FUMC

|

Sage Granada Park UMC

]

• What's New
• Preschool
• JPN Group Study
• Newsletters
• Blog
• Calendar
• Contact
• Parents assoc.

Newsletters

• To parents
• From parents
• To children
• JPN school
• Papas & Mamas

1: February’s word . . . Dozo-Here you go.
2: Schedule for February
3: Let's gargle after you come inside.
4: February goal for preschool
5: Parent-Teacher Conferences
6: Sakura-Class Finger Knitting
7: Setsubun
8: This Month’s Songs
9: A Request from the Staff:

Newsletter February 2017

February’s word . . . Dozo-Here you go.

On January 8th, we were blessed by nice weather and had a wonderful Mochitsuki day with many people attending the event. Lately, it has been cold with continuous rain. Thankfully, with the rain and the children's cheers, the daikon has been growing very well and a hint of white showing on top of the soil encourages the children to cheer even harder. We are looking forward to harvesting the daikon soon. Also, there are more colds going around. Let's gargle and wash our hands to fight off the germs along with the ogres of Setsubun.

Schedule for February

2/1 (Wed), 2/2(Thurs),2/3(Fri)
Renge, Kiki, Momo, Sakura, Sumire
Setsubun Celebration, children throw mame (dried soybeans) at ogres.

2/15(Wed), 2/16(Thurs), 2/17(Fri)
February Birthday Celebration

2/20(Mon)
President's Day
Renge, Kiku -No School

2/18 (Sat)
Bible storytelling time(Japanese School)
With Tanabe Sensei (Mission Valley FMC)

3/2 (Thurs)
3:30-4:00, 4:30-5:00 ( two performances)
Hinamatsuri (Girl's Day) Celebration
The Girl's Day Celebration, that has been performed by the Sakura class at the Huntington Library Japanese Gardens in the past years, will now be held in the Church auditorium. Please invite your family and friends and enjoy the performance.

Let's gargle after you come inside.

Let's wash our hands and sing the "Hand washing song ".

February goal for preschool

*To enjoy celebrating Setsubun by teaching
the students the story of Setsubun and by
having them wear the ogre masks they made.
*Enjoy ogre playing and singing Japanese
Children's folk song.
*Intermediate preschool classes
Make a jump roping chart and start to practice
jump roping.
*Advanced preschool classes
To challenge themselves to accomplish the
different skills listed on the Gambari chart.
(Jump roping, climbing the pole, doing hopscotch, monkey bars, bow tying, using
chopsticks, spinning a top on a string (bunbun goma ).
*To learn about Hinamatsuri(Girls Day)
through making Hina dolls in class.
*Continue to enforce sanitary measures such as gargling and washing hands.

Parent-Teacher Conferences

We are currently setting up parent-teacher conference dates/times for parents who would like to sign up. We’d like to use this time as an opportunity to collaborate with parents on how best to support their children in their development. To sign up, please note the day/time that you are available on the calendar by the attendance sheet. We look forward to meeting with you.

Sakura-Class Finger Knitting

The children in the Sakura-class are having a great time knitting their scarves. We frequently see them excitedly sharing their progress with their friends. Although they are using their “free play” time to complete their scarves, many are so wrapped up in their knitting they seem to hardly notice. When finger knitting, the children make loops using their left fingers then knit the yarn through those loops. This is a very repetitive process that requires a lot of patience. It is also a great fine motor activity that develops the children’s ability to pay attention to small details and use very refined finger movements. This may be why finger knitting has become so popular among the elderly in Japan. If you’d like to try finger knitting for yourselves, please let us know and we can teach you how it’s done.

Setsubun

February 3rd is Setsubun. Every year we celebrate this holiday by having our own “mame-maki” (“bean scattering”) in the school yard. Some students wear the “oni” (ogre) masks that they’ve made as their peers chase them around while throwing beans and chanting, “Oni wa soto, Fuku wa uchi” (“Go away evil spirits, welcome good fortune”). The word, setsubun, literally means the separation of the seasons; however Setsubun now commonly refers to the holiday which takes place the day before “risshun” which is the official first day of spring on the lunar calendar. In anticipation of the change in season, the various evil spirits that reside in our souls - such as the cowardly spirit, the disease-carrying spirit, the cluttered spirit, the mean spirit, the self-indulgent spirt – are warded off by beans, which the “oni” (evil spirits) do not like, in order to allow the goodness in our hearts to flourish. In the evening, as a way to welcome good health in the New Year the tradition is to eat the beans (roasted soybeans) - one bean for each year of one’s life. A fond memory that I have of my childhood is our family’s tradition of filling a bag with beans (as many as my age) then rubbing the bag on my body to rub away the evil spirits and wash them away by floating the bag down a river. At school, we have the children count out their beans to correspond to their age and eat them, one by one, out of a box that they’ve made with origami. We encourage you to try having a “mame-maki” at home, possibly with daddy playing the part of the “oni”!

This Month’s Songs

・Renge Class・・・Pon pon pon to te wo tatakou (Let’s Clap Our Hands, pon pon pon)
・Momo Class・・・Kon kon kon kon kushami (Cough, Cough, Cough, Sneeze)
・Sumire Class・・・Tsubomi (Flower Bud)

・Kiku Class・・・Pachiriko pachirin (Pachiriko Pachirin I Wonder What That Is)
・Ume Class・・・Hana wa saku (The Flowers Bloom)

・Sakura Class・・・Haru kaze to cha cha cha (Cha cha cha with the Spring Wind)
・All Classes・・・Mame maki (Bean Scattering), Ureshii hinamatsuri (A Joyful Girl’s Day)

A Request from the Staff:

A seesaw has been donated for use on our playground and the children are really enjoying using this new piece of equipment! However, we have found that the seesaw can also be dangerous at times. We’d like to ask that when your children are using the seesaw, as well as the small swings, that you always stand next to them and supervise them as they use the equipment.

© 2008-2024 Kodomo No Ie, All rights reserved.