The Lower School Isdell Center for Global Leadership (ICGL) Japan and Waste Teacher Cohort could not let the year end without recognizing students' hard work, so the Lower School celebrated Children's Week May 4-8. May 5 is Children's Day in Japan—a day to celebrate the happiness and joy of younger generations.  

Each day during the Lower School’s celebration, a teacher planned a video and lesson. On Monday, Pre-First teacher Patti Alexander led students through the origins of Children's Day and shared a Japanese fable. In addition, Robbi Hudgins’ second-grade class welcomed a special visitor—Jason Ferguson, second-grade associate teacher Scarlett Ferguson’s husband and an expert in Japanese language and culture. 

On Tuesday, Director of Curriculum and Professional Development Amy Underwood and fifth-grade teacher Hayley Hardwick taught Kanji, the Japanese character-writing system. On Wednesday, first-grade teacher Tara Hovan and her husband, Jason Hovan, a chef, showed students how to make candy sushi. 

Students learned origami from second-grade teacher Mary Pat McCallum and third-grade teacher Samantha Meiselman on Thursday, and the ICGL team rounded out the week with a STEAM lesson on making an island out of trash—like Japan’s Yumenoshima Island—with science teacher Katie Sandlin and Design Thinking teacher Janie Rowe. 

These ICGL activities were inspired by the teachers’ trip to Japan last year and provided students a way to celebrate their work.