Gifted students get a taste of Japanese culture

Several hundred students at the Long Island School for the Gifted in Huntington Station didn't need to get on a plane or travel far to experience Japan's rich culture and history. They got a cultural immersion at a fair held right at their school.

The recent two-day fair was the culminating event of the Children's Japanese Cultural Immersion Project, funded in part by a grant from the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. Teacher Jayne Ameri and her second-grade students spearheaded the project, which aimed to expose students to Japanese culture through hands-on activities.

Students from Ameri's and Judith Stiller's class had been preparing for the fair for weeks with a host of activities, such as a workshop in origami, brush painting and an introduction to the tea ceremony.

Students were organized into groups to do their research from books, magazines, videos and DVDs and other sources. Supplementing their research with imagination, they designed the visuals and booths for their topics.

Going to the fair

When the fair opened on April 21, visitors were greeted in the gym by images of red dragons. At 14 tables, the second-graders shared their knowledge of topics they had researched in class, such as technology, transportation, art, music, theater, religion, holidays, sports, language, food and clothing.

At one table, Matthew Tallo, 7, of the transportation team, set a model bullet train in motion. "It's the fastest train in the world," he said. "It travels at 180 miles per hour" over Japan's high-speed rail network.

Teagan Vaughn, 7, at the technology table, showed off Arouki Wano - a conceptual service robot of the future. "I got the idea of a robot because Japan made most of our robots that we use today," she said. "He takes pictures with his camera for the police if he sees someone do a really bad thing. The sensors sense if someone is touching him in any way. Then he turns around to see who did it." Teammate Massimo Siracusano, 7, added, "Arouki Wano has his own brain, which is a microchip that senses other people's guilt." But the robot wasn't all high tech: "We used ribbon and string and clay to make him look like a real robot," Teagan said, along with tinfoil, buttons and sequins.

Avalon Fenster, 8, in a blue, floral kimono, and Madelyn Johnston, 7, in a golden kimono, displayed Japanese clothing. Pointing to a black kimono, Avalon said it's formal menswear, while the blue cotton kimono is for summer and an orange kimono with daisies for spring. Accessories such as getas (footwear), tabi (socks worn with geta), fans and purses were on display.

A stand near the art booth held 30 Japanese paper dolls that students had made. Nearby, students from the Westbury Friends School, a partner in the project, made origami cranes. Students' brush paintings were posted on the wall.

In their preparations, the second-graders learned about ink-brush painting from Diane Lundegaard, a visiting artist whose work has been featured at galleries.

Brush painting

Donning a kimono, she set the mood by playing a musical selection from a CD of the Japanese Koto Orchestra. She took out ink and brushes from a box, rolled out rice paper - actually made of natural fibers other than rice - and demonstrated different brush strokes. A bone stroke is "the basis of all strokes for brush painting," she said. Holding the paper horizontally, she dipped the brush into a saucer with water, then in ink and showed the bone stroke - press, pull, press. The children followed her instructions.

"I liked when we did the landscape, liked how it was relaxing," Sari Strizik, 8, said after class.

At the fair, she stood beside a miniature golden temple and explained that when she was picked for the religion group, "I didn't think it'd be fun." But she said she learned a lot: For instance, "that Shinto and Buddhism are the two main religions."

No fair is complete without food. Katherine Cardinale, 7, and her friends served up mock Japanese fare: white rice, sushi, snack rolls and other delicacies (all made of paper) and real raw soy beans in clay bowls.

Japan Foundation Center provided $2,637 for the program, which was supplemented from other sources, said Marguerite Ryan, development consultant for the school.

Culture continues

The cultural events continue this month. On May 20, students will visit the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden in Locust Valley to view its traditional Japanese garden design and partake in a tea ceremony. And on May 24, they will participate in a re-enactment of the 1912 planting of the cherry trees in Washington, D.C., by first lady Helen Herron Taft and the wife of the Japanese ambassador, in the front of the school building, Ryan said. The first cherry trees were sent from the mayor of Tokyo in 1912 as a friendship gift to the United States.

"This is the first time we have tried anything of this magnitude," said Principal Roberta Tropper. "It is wonderful to see how excited all the students are about sharing and learning from one another. This is the type of school activity that children never forget."