Asia Week: Japanese Bento Bowls

So it's the last day of our whirlwind adventure across the Asian continent and today my little Imaginators were in for a treat! We explored the wonderful country of Japan... and we talked about where it was on the map as well as what kind of animals you might find there and what people liked to eat! 

I focused on the food because the story for the day is called The Hungriest Boy in the World which is a funny little tale about a Japanese boy who had a bad habit of putting everything in his mouth. So I really wanted to give them a picture of what a child just like them might eat in Japan! They took in this little video of a girl having breakfast and most of them were amazed at how many different things she ate! "Soup for breakfast miss!" LOL! Not to mention those sticky beans! That got lots of groans and squeals! 

Then I told them we were going to make something called a Bento Box which really just means 'convenient box' and Japanese mothers spend lots of time and effort making lunches look very visually appealing. Take a look at the pics below to see just what I mean! 

We spoke about the elements of a healthy meal but most of my little campers made things they were familiar with and some of them made very, very random food items that I'm sure they never really ate in one sitting, but hey they mixed the play dough to make secondary colours so lots of fine motor exercises today, not to mention they had a whale of a time coming up with different ideas for food they could make! Take a look :) 

Check out what they did over at the Reading Garden.