We’re taking a trip to Japan this week.
My plan is to introduce my girls to some of the different countries of the world this year. Lizzie is already starting to show a fascination for different cultures, so I thought it would be fun to take this “trip around the world” with my girls.
This week, we’ve jetted off to Japan. I found a pile of great books from our library which gave me tons of ideas for activities. One such activity were these kokeshi dolls made from recycled materials.
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The prep was really easy. I took a toilet paper roll and cut two small slits at the top.I then cut circles out of an empty cereal box. I used one of our drinking glasses as a guide for the circle.
I then inserted the circle into the slits, set out paint, glue, tissue paper scraps and crayons. After reading about the dolls and looking at a few pictures, the girls got to work.
I’ve never seen Lizzie quite so careful and deliberate while she painted! Her creative juices were flowing and off she went working on making her doll beautiful.
AJ, well, she’s two. After slapping a bit of paint on her dolls, she discovered the joy of gluing tissue paper. Piece after piece after piece!
Here are the finished dolls. Don’t they look just like the picture?All in all, this was a fun project. They both had fun and the variety of materials suited both of their abilities. Needless to say, they are both quite proud of their dolls… and I am too!
The book we used as a reference was Japan ABCs: A Book About the People and Places of Japan (Country ABCs) by Sarah Heiman and Todd Ouren. It’s been a great starting point for all of our activities.
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