World Geography---Japan

Japan was the next country in Asia that we visited.  Again, we started by learning the basics, learning some words in Japanese and reading some books about children in Japan.

 Location: Asia
Capital: Tokyo
Population: 126,475,664
Main Language: Japanese
Main Religion: Buddhism and Shintoism
Currency: Yen
Government: Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary Government

You can't go to Japan without learning about origami--the art of folding paper.  The kids chose from 4 simple designs: fox, crane, cup and pig.  Paper folding is hard!

 

We learned about the Itsukushima Torii Shrine and made one out of play-doh. 

 

Many Japanese girls collect dolls and display them at the Doll Festival.  Braedi made a cute doll out of a water bottle and construction paper. 

Japanese boys are honored during the Boys' Festival.  They hang carp windsocks from poles.  Corbin made a carp kite.

 

We also made Mon-kiri cutouts.  Instead of making something from folded paper, we made something by cutting paper.  We folded coffee filters, drew designs (kind of like snowflakes) and cut, then glued the circles onto black squares.  We made a little math lesson out of it.  We wondered how many designs we would get if we folded the circle 2 times or 4 times or 6 times.  Pretty designs, but no pictures.

 

Our homeschool group happened to be hosting the annual geography fair at this time, so we decided to present Japan.  The kids each picked something to talk about and display.  Even though it was a super windy day and our display board got knocked down, the kids did a fantastic job.