Thursday, March 12, 2009

Easter baskets...and FRUIT BASKET!!

Even though Easter is a month away, I was asked to teach the students at Edanarisawa Elementary School about Easter traditions.

So I told them about how my dad hides Easter baskets--full of candy and other little gifts--around the house for us to find. I also taught them how to dye eggs...

Until I came to Japan, I never though the concept of dying eggs was abnormal...kind of like how carving pumpkins is strange, too.

What a little cutie pie!!

All nine students at the (very small!) school display their eggs.

A basket of beautiful eggs. :)

In addition to talking about baskets, I've been playing the "fruit basket game." It's a really popular activity at elementary schools, and I've played it every single day this week! Instead of explaining how to play, let me just give an example of the madness that ensues by showing you this video...


Whew, fun times! During the class shown in this video, we played the game using fruit. But I've also used this game to teach about weather (stormy, rainy, sunny, etc.), animals, other kinds of food, letters in the alphabet, sports, the list continues to grow
...

Who knew there could be so many different kinds of "baskets!?"

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daaayna,
I am so glad that the eggs turned out well! Looks like you had a lot of fun!!!
Love you!

Dawn said...

Ah...when I was younger we used the plastic eggs that you could open and put stuff in for our Easter eggs hunts. Nice way to get both candy and money (it was always coins though).

I didn't really understand the game, but it did look like fun somewhat.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE IT!!! I wish I was there.
You are right about the oddness of the tradition...who ever came up with the idea of decorating them anyway?
I learned about a similar tradition that is done in Mexico (originated in Italy) and a few states in the U.S. Instead of Easter eggs, they are call Cascarones (cas.ca.rone.s). They are real eggs emptied of the inside through a small hole was would be poked in the top of the egg. Then, once the eggs have dried...they are filled with confetti. They are then broken over someone's head for good luck. Interesting, huh? Fun...but I don't believe in luck...it is all about GRACE!

HUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Anonymous said...

Sorry about all the errors in my last comment.

You gotta love me ;)

Kiley said...

Bah! Those eggs are so much better than any I ever made or could make! So cute!

Was that game an "upset the fruit basket" sort of deal? Ha! I love the idea of a basket of animals. I also love how Dana Sease managed to put weather in a basket :) All powerful Dana!

So cute!

Anonymous said...

amazing i love it i m very glad to see these eggs keep it up