Five In A Row: A Pair of Red Clogs

The missing pair of smaller feet are in the background playing with her new birthday toys...
This week we read, "A Pair of Red Clogs" which is about a little girl in Japan who gets a new pair of shoes and then cracks them playing a game with her friends.  She plans to lie to her mother to get a new pair, but then realizes that would be wrong and remains honest.  We had not read this one before, but enjoyed it!  I think it might be LadyBear's newest favorite book :)

Finding Japan on our map and placing the story disk there...

We greeted Daddy with a hearty "Konnichiwa!" when he arrived home from work and learned about what life in Japan looks like for kids like LittleBear.  LittleBear happily realized this morning that he can now say hello in English, Spanish, French and Japanese!

LittleBear changing the date on our calendar board...

We also ate a Japanese meal with chopsticks that included shrimp & crab sushi (no worries mom and dad, it was cooked), ramen, Pocky and green tea, while sitting on pillows on the floor.  LittleBear loved the sushi, LadyBear loved the Pocky, I enjoyed the tea and everyone liked the ramen. 

 About as authentic as it gets here :)

 We all decided that we preferred sitting at our regular table, but enjoyed trying something different!

We also tried our hand at the Japanese arts of origami (paper folding) and writing haiku (a certain kind of poetry).  We folded an elephant, a frog head and a rabbit head.  LittleBear really enjoyed the origami!  I wish I had found some origami paper (cut and colored already), but as it was, I didn't know if he would be into it at all and so we just used computer paper. 

Folding the trunk of the elephant...

Pretty close!

We also took time every day to pray for our friends, Mr. C and Ms. K who are moving to Japan very soon and LittleBear said this afternoon at lunch that he hopes someday he will live there too.  He also really liked talking about the bullet train and watching a video about how the train works...that could have something to do with it. 

 Working on our math...

There were so many more things I wanted to do this week, but with starting BSF on Wednesday mornings and our Co-Op already going on Tuesday mornings, I have to figure out how to schedule school on those days and this week I didn't do that well (we did the basics each day, but didn't get to do any extras on Tuesday or Wednesday).  Momma's learning too, for sure!

Fun adventures with chopsticks!!!!

Resources and printables I used for A Pair of Red Clogs can be found at:

Five In A Row Teacher's Manual

My Five In A Row Pinterest Board

Go Along Books we used for A Pair of Red Clogs (* indicate ones we especially liked for this unit):*A True Book: Japan by Ann Heinrichs
*Count Your Way Through Japan by Jim Haskins
*Colors of Japan by Holly Littlefield
*We're From Japan by Victoria Parker
*We Live in Japan by Alexandre Messager
*Look What Came From Japan by Miles Harvey
*The Value of Honesty: The Story of Confucius by Spencer Johnson
*Super Quick Origami Animals by Nick Robinson
*Children Just Like Me by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley
This Place is Crowded: Japan by Vicki Cobb
K is for Kabuki: A Japan Alphabet by Gloria Whelan
Absolute Beginner's Origami by Nick Robinson
Japan by David F. Marx
Hill of Fire by Thomas P. Lewis (we talked about volcanoes too)
Hachiko Waits by Leslea Newman
Ninjas: Masters of Stealth and Secrecy by Joanne Mattern

 Our pile of books for the week...