Photo By Staff Sgt. Danielle Prentice | CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, Japan—Children play underneath a parachute during a...... read more read more
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The children from Kanasa Preschool and military community shyly gathered in the outdoor play area of the Chura Warabi Center Feb. 16 aboard Camp Courtney.
To kick off the friendship day, the children introduced themselves by singing songs in their native languages.
The local students from Kanasa Preschool sang the J-Pop song, “Umi no Koe by Kenta Kiritani”, in Japanese, and children from the center sang a song they learned earlier that week, to greet their new friends, in English.
Once the tension broke, the children picked a friend from the other school to be their buddy for the day.
To make it easier to learn names, each child had a nametag in the opposite language. Knowing their names was all it took for the kids to connect and bridge the culture gap.
Together each pair of children picked out two pieces of colored paper they liked to decorate and design for their kite.
The children decorated the kites with vibrant colors and stickers.
Once the kites were decorated, the kids waited eagerly in line for their kite strings.
They took off laughing and running throughout the playground saying “Look! It’s really flying!”
“It was wonderful to see the children playing with their kites together and making new friends,” said Peggy Vinyard, an English teacher at Kanasa Preschool, and a Stockton, Missouri, native.
The children’s faces lit up with smiles when they spotted the parachute being pulled into the open area beside the playground. The children each grabbed a handle, lifting the parachute. Balls were tossed onto the parachute while the children made waves in it, sending the balls flying.
The kids took turns running underneath the parachute, looking up at the colors, lit up by the sun.
“I like these events, they are so much fun,” said Hiromi Ishikawa, the supervisory technician at the Kanasa Preschool.
After the parachute was put away, the children found their buddy and their kite, and continued to play.
At the end of the day, the children honored Japanese and American culture by bowing to each other and shaking hands goodbye.
“More events like this in the future would be great,” said Vinyard. “It gives the children the opportunity to experience another culture and brings the community closer.”
| Date Taken: | 02.16.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2017 18:13 |
| Story ID: | 224686 |
| Location: | CAMP COURTNEY, OKINAWA, JP |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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