Learning Japanese and Symmetry

Elizabeth's big second semester project was based around the second grade class's study of Japan.  Elizabeth has been thrilled to study Japan since she's 1/4 Japanese.  Her great-grandparents, on her father's side, emigrated to Hawaii where her grandmother was born.  We watched The Little Traveler's Japan dvd to learn a little bit more about the country.  

Elizabeth chose to report on the Japanese language.  Her dad was able to help with this since he knows a bit of Japanese.  Her visual presentation hit a few key Japanese phrases she intended to teach the class, as well direction for writing the Japanese characters for the numerals 1-5.

Elizabeth's dad also allowed her to borrow a poetry book that her great-great-grandmother wrote in Japanese as well as photos of her great-great-grandmother.  She was so excited to share this bit of her history with her friends at school.

Philip has been learning about symmetry in his art class at school.  He came home with this collage of painting he had done, folded over after painting, of course, to make them symmetrical.  He asked me if I'd blog about his painting, then hang it on the "everything wall".  

(I'm not sure if I've ever blogged about the "everything wall" in our library.  All artwork, photos, posters that don't have a home somewhere else in the house, get hung on the "everything wall".  We semi-annually replace a significant portion of the art on that wall so it changes frequently.  Books and art, living together...definitely one of our favorite rooms in the house!)