Pre-K: The Beauty of Japan and Shoe Making

May 11, 2018
2 min read

On Monday we pretended to fly to Japan and watched an "in flight" video that highlighted the wonders of Japan. Throughout the week students experienced the Japanese lifestyle through writing, traditional games, origami making, tasting seaweed, and exploring customs in a traditional Japanese home.

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Per tradition for a summer holiday, we wrote wishes for people in the world, painted them, and hung them on the tree outside. Friends wrote wishes such as, for people to be safe, happiness, enough food, and peace.

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Shoe making is an art. Though you've probably only heard about the pizza, goody bags, and dogs at Clarks, the children did get to do a lot more than that.

First stop was to meet the president and take over his office!

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Then we got to see how shoe design begins on the computer. The students got to design a shoe called, "Bowen Class 3000"... watch for it on the shelves in 2 years!

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Next, we met the man who makes the lass (the wooden form of a shoe to determine the dimensions and such). He showed us all of the machines used to begin creating a shoe concept into a reality.

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Next, we met the gentleman who brings the shoe to life by piecing together the various parts of a shoes and sewing on fabric to use a model for the design!

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Lastly, we explored all of the rooms and halls filled with model shoes and learned a little bit about the history of Clarks.

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If that's not enough we also had a blast discovering bugs and insects with Puddlestompers, have been observing the lifecycle of ladybugs in our own classroom, and learned more about rocks!