New Dragon Books

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide honest reviews. All opinions are my own.

Dragons in September always reminds me of Michaelmas. Michaelmas is on September 29th. It is a day that we learned about when we were in parent/child at the Waldorf School. For the Waldorf School, Michaelmas is a day celebrating the story of St. George defeating the dragon. The celebration is about facing our own dragons. Today we are sharing three books featuring dragons, so they are perfect for Michaelmas. The first book however is actually about the Chinese New Year or the lunar new year celebration in China. It is Where's Waldo? The Golden Dragon Chase by Candlewick Press. It is an early reader book and is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

New Fun Graphic Novels

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you read for fun? Do your kids? According to a flyer shared with one of the books: "Reading for fun in the US has fallen by nearly 40 percent!" For many kids reading has become a chore. It is not fun when you don't get to read what you want. For reluctant readers and others graphic novels bring some of the fun back to reading. Today we are sharing two middle grade novels that are fun and interesting and even have some facts in them! The first is A Fishboy Named Sashimi by Dan Santat. This book is recommended for ages 6 to 10 and is the first in a series.

Action Origami & New Bright Solid Origami Papers

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these products in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I haven't shared my origami lately, however this semester I have been running a lunch club for kids to create origami. Recently I brought in a new book and new packs of solid papers for them to try. The club has very different levels of origami creators. Some work on their own and others need help with every step. I handed my origami expert in the club Action Origami: Paper Toys that Fly, Hop, Twirl, Shake and Surprise! by Isamu Sasagawa. It is recommended for ages 9 and up. I would say it is more of an intermediate origami book and not great for beginners. 

Exploring Japan Part 4 -- Fun Facts & Resource Round-Up

For the last three Mondays we have been exploring Japan. We started with some picture books, then looked at crafts and artists and then origami. Today we are looking at fun facts about Japan and doing a resource and activity round-up. But first some facts about Japan itself. Japan is called Nihon or Nippon in Japanese. It means "land of the rising sun". It was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sun each morning. The country is made up of 6,582 islands, but has four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. Three tectonic plates meet near Japan and cause many earthquakes. Japan experiences 1,000 earthquakes in a year. Some of these cause tsunamis. There are also 200 volcanoes in Japan. Sixty of them are still active. Almost three quarters of the land is covered by mountains and forest which make the land hard to farm or use for industry or residential. The Japanese Alps run down the center of the island of Honshu. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain/volcano in Japan and is considered sacred by many Japanese people. 

Our Japanese Tea Party -- Exploring Japan with Tea Parties Around the World

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.


So last month our plan was to have a Japanese tea party for Tea Parties Around the World, but life interfered and our tea party happened in May instead, but this is perfect since it is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. So through April and into May we have been exploring Japan. Now Japan is known for its tea ceremony. It sounds so fancy and has an interesting history. To learn more about the tea ceremony we read Tea Ceremony by Shozo Sato.



This book covers everything from a brief history of tea and the types of tea in Japan to the history of the tea ceremony itself. It also gives steps on how to have a tea ceremony at home. We did not try this because I am a bit intimidated by the tea ceremony and I do not feel like we have the right space for it. I had hoped to find a local place that offers them, but I couldn't. The process of the making the tea is a huge part of the Japanese tea ceremony. It is about finding peace and harmony with one's guests. In Japan how the food and drink look is as important if not more important than how it tastes, so presentation is a huge thing in the ceremony. There are different supplies and displays for a traditional tea ceremony.


The book goes into the various utensils and types of them often used in the tea ceremony. There are also various steps to the ceremony with various spaces of each one. There are also various steps to making the actual tea. This book gives beautiful photograph tutorials to them.

It is a fun book to learn about this amazing tradition. It provides kids with what they need to know to try their own.


To learn more about Japan we checked out some DVDs from the library and of course turned to our favorite resource All About Japan. Unfortunately I can't seem to find the photos I took of our DVDs. We took the ones above as well as some folktale ones. We love to get the culture of the country through stories. In the past we have had the pleasure of reviewing The Last Kappa of Old Japan, The Peace Tree from Hiroshima, Once Upon a Time in Japan, Japanese Children's Favorite Stories and Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll.


Plus another favorite resource for us is The Magic Tree House series.


Now we know a bit about Japan and its culture so we will tell you about our tea party and our Japanese craft. For our tea party we went to David's Tea and asked our friend there for a good Japanese tea. He sold us Sencha Ashikubo.


He gave me the warning of not steeping too much because it will get a very grassy taste. It was too grassy for us, but we tried it. I used our Chinese tea cups and a tea pot I felt looked a bit Japanese. (It was a gift, so I do not know the history of it.)


We also found some instant Japanese soups to try. Since we were a bit busy we did not try to make anything from scratch this time.



We put a little of each soup into our regular tea cups so we could each try it. We liked the udon soup better than the miso.



To go with our tea party I wanted to do a craft. We found a fun craft making kokeshi dolls in this book.


They are usually simple wooden dolls.



Kokeshi By Kimivanil (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Ours are made from origami paper (ours is from Tuttle Publishing), a toilet paper roll and a ping pong ball. I made one but Hazel has not gotten around to making hers yet.


Hazel loves how mine came out though. What do you think? Now I also have sewn a kimono for Hazel's 18-inch dolls.



So that is our exploration of Japan with a Japanese tea party. This post is part of the Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway!!



Welcome to our fourth annual Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway! Follow along all month for ideas about sharing with kids the rich cultures of this vast and varied region. Also, be sure to enter the giveaway below and link up your posts at the bottom of the page. For even more ideas, visit our blog hops from last year, 2015 and 2014. You can also follow our Asia and Australia & Oceania boards on Pinterest.

May 1 Miss Panda Chinese on Multicultural Kid Blogs: 10 Fun Facts About Taiwan for Kids
May 5 Chinese American Family: Visiting Locke and Connecting with California's Rural Chinese History
May 9 Kori at Home
May 11 The Art Curator for Kids: Chinese Bronze Vessels with Abstract Zoomorphic Designs
May 12 Kori at Home
May 15 Crafty Moms Share
May 17 Bicultural Mama
May 19 Wise Owl Factory
May 22 Ketchup Moms on Multicultural Kid Blogs
May 23 All Done Monkey
May 25 Miss Panda Chinese
May 30 All Done Monkey
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Giveaway Enter below for a chance to win one of our great prize packages in our annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month giveaway! The giveaway goes from May 1 to May 31, 2017, at midnight PT. If the winner falls outside the shipping area of a prize, that prize will revert to the next lower prize package. Read our full giveaway rules. And for all of our readers, here is a special offer from our sponsor Tingomo! Use the code TENOFFTINGOMO to get 10% off any pre-order! (first kits to ship in July)
Grand Prize
From One Dear World: Set of 4 plush multicultural dolls, each with its own passport, plus the story book The Adventure of Hat Hunting in London, starring the dolls as the main characters
From Tuttle Publishing: Adventures in Asian Art, Indonesian Children's Favorite Stories, Malaysian Children's Favorite Stories, and Filipino Children's Favorite Stories
From Wisdom Tales: Rock Maiden - US Shipping Only
From Bollywood Groove: Go on a fun adventure with Maya & Neel and learn about famous festivals and places in India! In this very colorful, three-picture-book series, kids will learn about festival of lights - Diwali (Amazon best-seller), festival of colors - Holi and the home of Bollywood - city of Mumbai. US Shipping Only
From Miss Panda Chinese: Winner's choice of an "Everyday" learning unit with audio links
From Tingomo: Passport Craft™ Kit: Make Your Own NEPAL Paper Lanterns US Shipping Only, will ship in July

1st Prize
From World Music with Daria: set of tingsha (handbells) US Shipping Only
From Quarto Knows: Summer Under the Tamarind Tree, I is for Iran, and 50 Things You Should Know About the Vietnam War - US Shipping Only
From Monika Schröder: Saraswati's Way - US Shipping Only
From Miss Panda Chinese: Winner's choice of an "Everyday" learning unit with audio links
From Tingomo: Passport Craft™ Kit: Make Your Own NEPAL Paper Prayer Flags US Shipping Only, will ship in July

2nd Prize
From The Dumpling Mama: Pack of 20 good luck envelopes: Give good luck wishes with money in a red envelope. Perfect for Lunar New Year, birthdays, graduations, and holidays US/Canada Shipping Only
From Kathleen Burkinshaw: The Last Cherry Blossom - US Shipping Only
From Candlewick Press: A Piece of Home and Bronze and Sunflower - US Shipping Only From Miss Panda Chinese:
Winner's choice of an "Everyday" learning unit with audio links a Rafflecopter giveaway
Share Your Posts!
An InLinkz Link-up

Global Learning for Kids

Have you entered my current giveaway? This is one you do not want to miss!!

 I am joining a group of Multicultural Kid Blogs to start a new series called Global Learning for Kids. Each month we will explore a country with books, music, crafts, lessons, food, etc. and share our exploration as well as have a link party so the posts will be a one-stop place to get many resources on the chosen country. This month we are starting with Japan! I wrote an introduction to the country of Japan over at Multicultural Kid Blogs to kick off Global Learning for Kids as well as the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway. (Make sure you stop by to enter the giveaway--there are some amazing prizes!!) We will be sharing posts about our exploration of Japan all month and later this month we will share two posts in the Blog Series and Giveaway (not having to do with just Japan). Make sure to follow this month!!

Since we are starting with Japan, I thought I would start with a round-up of everything we have already learned about Japan since we actually have quite a few posts with things about Japan in them.

Sharing Saturday 14-42

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week and a special thank you to everyone who took the time to visit some of the other posts shared!! Once again I found the ideas to be amazing!! There was not most clicked, so I picked some favorites. There are so many Halloween ideas, that I decided to go with non-Halloween, but you should check them out especially if you want some Halloween ideas!

Multicultural Monday: The Last Kappa of Old Japan By Sunny Seki Book Review and Craft

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Last week I reviewed a wonderful Japanese book, Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll for World Sight Day.  Tuttle Publishing sent me two copies of the book so I could offer one to giveaway and they included another book by the same author, Sunny Seki, called The Last Kappa of Old Japan for me to review. This is a wonderful book that introduces the popular Japanese legend of kappas. It is also a book I will pull out again for Earth Day. I actually enjoyed this one more than Yuko-Chan and the Daruma Doll and that is high praise since I really liked Yuko-Chan as well.