Asia: Japan 

Do Now: Imagine you could cast a magic spell. What would your spell look like? Draw a picture and write a sentence. 

Today the 1st and 2nd graders began to learn about Asia, starting with the country of Japan. Japan is an island west of China and North and South Korea. 

After looking at a map of Japan, we read a short book by Rosemary Wells, "Yoko's Paper Cranes". In this story, a girl and her family move away from Japan to the United States and she keeps in touch with her grandparents by sending paper cranes back and forth from Japan to California. 

We then began our art project, decorating Japanese fans. It is very humid in Japan in the summer, so many Japanese people carry around beautifully decorated fans. 

Students chose a design and decorated their fan with colored pencils and watercolors.

While they worked, we read "The Way We Do It in Japan" by Geneva Cobb Iijima. The book describes a family that moves from California to Japan, following a little boy and his new experiences. 

The fans came out beautifully. If you would like to download your own fan template, click here.