玉ねぎの皮での布染め。輪ゴムで縛って液につけ、広げるときれいな色と模様に！ ハンカチ結びやハンカチ落とし、ハンカチでお人形の服作りなど、遊び方もいろいろです。 寒～いミシガンでは、 濡らして振り回すと、ご覧の通り、凍ってしまいます！ Kids dyed their own cloth using onion skins. First, they tied with rubber bands, then soaked in a special liquid. They were happy to see them change their color and patterns! We enjoyed tying everywhere, playing games and making doll’s dresses with them (and watching them freeze in the cold winter air!).
一つひとつのシートにも色が塗られた素敵な飛行機の完成。ネコたちを乗せた満席の飛行機、出発いたしました。 Working together, students made and decorated this special airplane, which is full of kittens flying to Japan!
東京タワー作り | Making the Tokyo tower
手遊び「おてらのおしょうさん」にも出てくる東京タワーを作成！ Then we made Tokyo Tower, about which we’ve been singing in a hand-gesture song.
お花見 | Watching the Cherry blossoms
日本の春と言えばお花見。桜を作ると、早速ネコたちはお弁当を持ってお花見開始です。 Springtime in Japan means Cherry Blossom watching… Right after kids finish making cherry blossoms, the kittens came to see the flowers with their Obento boxes!
富士山 | Mt.Fuji
1月に、折り紙カレンダーで作った富士山。ネコたちも富士登山成功！ Here’s Mt. Fuji (which they’d already made using Origami on their January calendars). Kittens climbed up to the top!
車遊びが大好きなにじ組のこどもたち。ひまわり恒例の段ボールでの車作りは、今年はカーズ！車の製造から塗装、パンクの修理もお手の物です！ What can you find in Detroit? CARS!! Here at the Himawari Engineering And Design Studio (HEADS), we find some of our top engineers working on car testing and performance.
Making Big Oni (demon) together and throwing beans at them on Setsubun day (Feb 2).
Also making Oni masks using a decalcomania design transfer process.
After a long hiatus, Himawari Preschool has returned with our summer Japanese cultural immersion camp for kids ages 3-8 (with 9-10 year olds by arrangement); the ideal ages at which to start learning about other cultures and languages! Give your child a chance to become multicultural, and have fun playing with their new Japanese friends.
This is a difficult question that many parents are facing right now. Is it safe to send my preschool child to Himawari Preschool?
As of today (August 11) I think the best answer is to compare Covid-19 to something similar we have had in past school years: the Flu (Influenza).
Here is a link to the CDC website for Covid-19 For everyone tested in the US and having Covid, 1.6% were ages 0-4 and 5.9% were ages 5-17 (as of Aug 10). Only 0.025% of infected children ages 0-4 (30 kids) and 0.037% of infected children ages 5-17 (43 kids) have died from Covid so far. If we use March 10 as the beginning of the pandemic, then we’ve had 155 days, or 42.5% of a year: so yearly deaths could be estimated at 71 deaths ages 0-4, and 101 deaths ages 5-17.
Here is a link to the CDC website for Influenza The CDC thinks that there were 35.5 million cases of the Flu in the US in 2018-19. Of these, 10.2% were ages 0-4 and 21.6% were ages 5-17. 0.8% of infected children ages 0-4 (266 kids) and 0.6% of infected children ages 5-17 (211 kids) died from the Flu.
Comparing the US rates of these 2 diseases, kids ages 0-4 are much more likely to get the Flu and have serious complications, as well as kids age 5-17.
Also, the general population positive rates for Covid-19 tests in over a 7-day average in Wayne (4.7% as of 8/9/20) and Oakland (4.6% as of 8/9/20) are both below 5%. The statewide positivity rate is currently at 2.3%, and you can see an updated number at this link. This is a good (low) rate and acceptable for opening school.
So preschool age kids 3-5 years old have more personal risk from the Flu than from Covid. This should help us understand the risk of sending our kids to Himawari Preschool this year.
