Shichi-Go-San Celebration

Dear Flower Class parents, This morning on the table when we arrived we saw a huge pile of yarn. There were lots and lots of colors including pink, red, orange, green, yellow, purple and even black. Next to the yarn were some scissors and some wire made into star shapes. We are going to make something special for our mommies and daddies to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. First we had to choose a pipe-cleaner color we liked and make a loop with it. This was then joined to the wire star. We then chose which yarn we wanted to use for the decoration and laid it on the table next to a line of tape which showed us how long to cut the yarn. We needed 8 pieces of yarn and could choose 8 pieces the same color or 8 different colors. Two pieces of yarn were then glued to the tops of the star points. We then wound the yarn around the points and downwards to the center. We then glued the end to hold them in place and then moved onto the next point of the star. Once we had done all 4 points we left it to dry and will decorate it further tomorrow. A few of us made our rainbow pictures too today using the chalk pastels and circular objects to draw around. In the carpet and kitchen area the toy food, crockery and cutlery was very popular today too. After packing away the toys and materials we got ready for the park but did our monthly fire and earthquake drill before going downstairs. We all did a great job finding a safe space for the earthquake and walking down the stairs calmly while covering our mouths. It was very nice in the park and there was lots of sunshine. We could see all the puddles from the rain last night. When we arrived back at school it was time for us to celebrate a special Japanese holiday called Shichi-Go-San (7-5-3). This is a traditional holiday in Japan and Ayaka told us all about how 7-5-3 is counted in Japanese. She also told us how a long time ago many children didn’t get the chance to grow up and that the people in Japan would celebrate the little boys and girls getting to 3, 5 and 7 years old. To celebrate they would dress up in Kimonos, Haori (Jackets) and Hakama (Pants). People would visit the local shrine to pray for good health. At the shrine people would give a small donation, clap their hands twice and bow twice. Soon two of the class moms arrived to show us a special Shichi-Go-San craft activity. They showed us how to make a special bag for long candy to symbolize long life. The bags were decorated with either a rabbit face or a bear face. We drew in the eyes, ears, nose and mouth and glued it onto the bag. We then added a piece of colorful origami and put on the numbers 3, 5 and 7. We could then decorate the back of the bags by cutting further origami and sticking it on. We hope you all like the bags. Thank you to the mommies, who organized, prepared and presented this wonderful activity.

Have a great afternoon and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow

All our love, Darren, Ayaka, Goh San & Ryoan