In February, 1st Grade began a unit on Japan. The kids have had a great opportunity to learn how to write their names in Japanese and many more things. The thing that most intrigued James was origami. It quickly became an obsession. We bought him a book and origami paper, we showed him videos on the computer. He decided he wanted make a crane but there were some challenging folds that neither I or John could figure out. We encouraged James to make something easier and that perhaps we should practice all the various folds first. Over those next few weeks James would periodically return to the crane and try to figure out the folds. Then the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit Japan. In the days following an organization, DoSomething.org created a page on Facebook asking for 100,000 pictures of cranes to be posted to their walls. These cranes would represent 100 wishes to Japan. Over the weekend this effort was recognized by another organization called studentsrebuild.org.From the Studentsrebuild.org website:
In response, Students Rebuild partnered with DoSomething.org, to ensure students worldwide have a way to support their Japanese peers.
Help Japan by making paper cranes. These simple yet powerful gestures will trigger a $200,000 donation from the Bezos Family Foundation - $2 for each crane received - to Architecture for Humanity's reconstruction efforts in Japan. Once we reach our goal of 100,000 submissions, the cranes will be woven into an art installation - a symbolic gift from students around the globe to Japanese youth.
After John and I saw this and a heartwarming video about the tale about 1000 cranes for 1 wish we decided it was time that we helped James figure out how to make those cranes. Once he got back from school I told him we figure it out. We found some videos on YouTube and then James figured it out. He made his first crane. That evening he taught John how to build cranes too. He was off and folding, getting better each time. I took some pictures and posted them to the Paper Cranes for Japan Facebook page.When we heard about StudentRebuild.org's efforts we decided we would participate. He decided that he wanted to build as many cranes as he could for Japan. On the first day of Spring Break he spent almost the entire day making cranes. He folded 24 cranes that day. Over the remainder of spring break he built an additional 18. James was able to send Students Rebuild 42 cranes to help the rebuilding efforts in Japan.
I am so proud of James!
