Continents Boxes Blog Hop - Day 4 - Asia

Blog Hop Day 4 - Asia is here!
Hello folks, if you read through this post and have any additional items for Asia that you would like to swap, either electronically or else through the mail, we would be interested in swapping with you.
we have amassed a pretty nice collection of items from Asia, but there are some areas of Asia that are very underrepresented in what we have, so if you look through this post and you have something that you would be willing to swap that is different than what we have, please let me know and we would be up for a swap with you.

Well, hope that you will enjoy looking through our items for Asia.

Here are the contents of our continents boxes for Asia.

Made the Korean mask page into a matching work. Sent this to swapmates.

The Chinese New Year envelope can be used as an item in the continents box, but also can be placed into an open and close containers work or when discussing Chinese New Year traditions.

The next photo shows children from various Asian countries saying hello.

This shows the Asian paper dolls we have. For the swap, I reduced these and made them into stick puppets. Ended up adding a set of the  stick puppets to our continents boxes. The stick puppets are more popular than the paper dolls for work...

More lovely fabric from Asia from a fabric swap.

Spoons. Sent one to every person in our swap.

Slip covers from Thailand...these work great to use as work mats when we study Asia..thanks to Uncle Bob for these....

Batik from Indonesia. From a swap a while ago.

Chinese fabric with ties. Not sure of their original purpose, but they work great as decorative aprons for children.

Boy dolls from China. Each person in the swap got one of these dolls. Made a variety of files for Asia to go with the swap and linked those to the Mondorfment Swaps Yahoo Group. For this swap, we found that it was effective to post files to the Yahoo Group, although not sure if  folks have had the time to see all of the cool files that have been posted there. Hopefully, will be a great resource for all of the swapmates in the future, as they have time to print out the materials, though.

Chinese New Year greeting. Each person in the most recent swap got one of these from me, although I laminated them to make them long lasting.

Some of our fans...

Boxes from China. They open when you squeeze them and can be used to place small coins inside of them. Sometimes, these are in a basket for open and close containers work...

Korean mask art work...from one of my former students.

Frog instruments from Thailand. Boys love playing these handmade wooden instruments.

Beaded wall hanging from Thailand.Thanks to Uncle Bob for this...

Animals of Asia.

Panda finger puppets. Made up a finger puppet play about Five Little Pandas. Little Bro loves these.

Items from Japan. Wooden dolls, candies, and a little cat. Thanks to Mr. Doug's family for the wooden dolls.

Sushi in a Bento style box. This actually is a toy made by Melissa and Doug, but we use it for our Asia studies.

Paper lantern from Japan. This is from our Japanese pen pals from a few years ago...

Indian girl paper doll and tray from India.

Decorative items from Asia.

Hand painted fan...

Handmade, hand painted musical instrument from Indonesia.

Zip purse and Giant Panda stuffed animal. We got this at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

Terracotta Army replica and box.
Here is a link to more info. about the Terracotta Army. 

Interactive banner of Asian animals. Made these for a recent swap. Sent my swapmates a package explaining how to assemble this banner and how to use it, along with the various extra items for this work...Can be used to do ordinal numbers work, can be used to do alphabetical order work, can be used for sentence structure work, can be used for spelling out the names of the animals with the movable alphabet...many possible options to use this both as a cultural item in the continents boxes, but also as a hands on, interactive item in the classroom...

Thai Harvest Festival interactive, multi-sensory page. Made this for our recent swap. This is meant to be not only an item to look at and feel in the continents box, but also as an interactive work when discussing Thai culture. The bull in the middle is removable. The child decides what the bull should eat, to replicate what happens during this festival. Normally, during the harvest festival, they lay out plates of food containing rice, beans, corn, and sesame seeds.
Can be used in conjunction with a dry transfer of any of the following: beans, corn, rice, sesame seeds. Children can make their own and then, they can glue the various seeds and such onto their own sheets...

Whatever food items the bulls eat is thought to be a blessed crop and means a bountiful season for this crop.
Kind of a twist on the idea of the groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, predicting the length of winter in the USA...this can also help to inspire children to do a creative writing work, where they have to come up with their own name for the bull...would need to select a city in Thailand and then, would need to select a name that starts with the same letter as the city's name.

Merit Making Day  - Thai tradition. Made this for the swap.Have one of these made up as an item in our swap box, but when we discuss Thailand, the boys will get to make their own. The bird can be removed. Attached with Velcro so that it is more interactive and goes with the idea behind this of releasing the birds. Can also work to foster a creative writing work, where the child might choose to write about the bird's release or the release of the fish...

Loy Krathong. Thai holiday where they float flowers filled with candles on water. Made this for the swap. We have one that is made up in our continents box, but then, when we discuss Thailand more in depth, the boys will each get to make one of these pages. Great, as it works with the same concepts as using metal insets, only it is made into a combo. art project and cultural item...

Decorative chopsticks. Sent some like these to my swapmates.

Gum from Japan. Sent a pack to each of my swapmates.

Stamps from various Asian countries. Backed stamps in yellow and laminated these to go with the stamp work we already have. Did the same for my swapmates, as have found that backing the stamps and laminating them makes them much more durable in humid weather and when children are handling them.

These are game pieces from a Chinese game. Sent some game pieces to each swapmate.

Chinese chopsticks, cup, and platter. This can also be used for transfer work...




Well, that pretty much wraps up what we have for Asia. We do have some nice children's books, but I am going to do a blog post following this blog hop with the various books and additional resources we have for the various continents, in case any of you would like additional resources for your children...