Third Graders Bring 'Japan: Tradition and Innovation' to Rye Neck

May 26th had finally come when the excited F.E. Bellows third graders could give parents their presentations of "Japan: Tradition and Innovation."

In the past, the Japanese curriculum culminated in a festival held in the auditorium, where all the classes moved around to different stations featuring traditional food, origami, calligraphy and more. This year, Rye Neck moved the event into the individual classrooms and integrated the Japanese curriculum into the 21^st Century Learning Initiative, a program meant to identify and address the needs of students today.

For the past three months, the students, using a variety of resources including Web sites, video conferences, the school library and peer demonstrations, researched different topics to bring the Japanese culture to life. Valerie Feit, K-12 enrichment coordinator, said that the children learned how to collaborate, work on critical thinking skills, communicate and add their creativity to really immerse themselves in their particular area of research.

Rye Neck's many Japanese families actively participated to make their traditions real and tangible. Go Yoshida, whose mother Reiko was an integral part of leading many of the activities - including kimonos for all to wear – brought his grandmother, a tea ceremony master, to the presentations. At 75 years old, Mrs. Muto traveled all the way from Japan, let the class borrow a set of traditional tea ceremony items, and stayed up the night before making origami bookmarks for each student with his/her name in Japanese on the back.

Collaborating with Margo Schmidt, Bellows' library media specialist, some students used Web sites such as Toondo.com, Animoto.com, PhotoStory and PhotoPeach to enhance their presentations through video and anime. Another class used the ancient art of Kamishibai, or storytelling with picture cards, to present a Japanese holiday they studied. They also invented their own holiday, "Ancient Appreciation Day."

"This is a holiday that celebrates kids putting down their video games and celebrating old Japanese traditions," Joseph Catanzariti said.

But some parents miss the tradition of the festival aspect of the Japanese unit.

"I miss the culmination of all the classrooms being together and being able to celebrate a rich culture like Japan, considering we have such a large Japanese community that loved to put together a big festival," said  Denise Gutman-Tenner. Since all the classes covered different subjects in very different ways, she wondered if the children were missing out on something.

"I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely it was done," said Mary Ellen Chiera. Although she missed the feel of the old festival, "it was obvious that the children had a lot of hands on preparation and seemed to have learned a lot about their topic."

In response to parental concerns, Feit answered, "It's an entire mental shift in the way that we perceive education." The expectation of having a big celebration in the very first year of this transition, when "the teachers are taking risks and reshaping their entire perception of how they deliver educational objectives and knit activities to those objectives, is unrealistic," she explained. "With the teachers trying things for the first time, they honestly did not have the strength or energy to organize a celebration," she said.

The format may have been new, but all the third grade students and teachers have proven that even kids can master critical thinking. My third grade daughter, Olivia, may have said it best.

"I think they should change the festival to have a little bit of fun after three months of hard work and learning...to get all the hard work and pressure out," she said.

To see a video that class 3-FB made, click here. 

Editor's Note: The author is a parent of two third graders at F.E. Bellows.