Japanese Crafts

Last week while studying Japan, the children made some crafts related to Japan.All of the children had the opportunity to make a cherry blossom tree collage.  We used a piece of blue paper, glued on some twigs for the trees and then crumpled up the pink tissue paper and glued on the tree.

The afternoon children were able to experience more Japanese crafts.
We were able to make Koi Nobori kites. This was a great craft to make as the children could be quite independent. They only needed a little direction with the placement of the paper.

Here the child is gluing the scales to the paper. She puts down a large strip of glue and simply places the scales on the strip.

After several rows of scales are on the kite, glue on a long black strip of construction and two eyes.

Flip over the paper, glue strips of crepe paper for the tail. The children cut these idependently and glued them on the other side.

Finished kites!
Here is a link to the website: http://www.thecraftyclassroom.com/CraftJapanCarpKite.html

We also made Kokeshi dolls. We had prepared in advance by hot gluing a ping pong ball on top of an empty yogurt drink container.

First the children picked out the color they wanted to use. They painted it onto the doll. We forgot to leave the head white and so they all had the same color all over their body.

You can then paint on the clothes or use a marker to draw them on. Some children drew on hair with black marker.
Here is a link to this craft: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/japan/kokeshi/