Today I am going to share our exploration of cherries and the end of our exploration of Japan. At Hazel's request we have been exploring different fruit. She pulls out her magnifying glass and fruit journal and colored pencils for our exploration. We look at the outside of the fruit and record our observations and then I cut them open and we look at the inside and record our observations. Then of course we taste the fruit. We did this with the cherry.
Now we love cherries and Hazel is finally learning to eat around the pits. I hated having to cut the pits out for her. A servings of cherries is 138 grams. It has 87 calories and gives you 12% of the recommended daily allowance of dietary fiber, 16% of the vitamin C, and 9% of your daily potassium. (Source) Cherries also offer protection from diabetes, help to sleep (tart cherries contain melatonin), decrease belly fat, are considered memory boosters, reduce the risk of strokes, slow the signs of aging in skin, lower risks of gout, less muscle pain, good for the heart, help with osteoarthritis relief, and help prevent colon cancer. (Source)
As I was looking for books to read about cherries, I saw many on the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. This got me started to think about exploring Japan and contacting Tuttle Publishing for some books on Japan. The books pictured above are the books we reviewed thanks to Tuttle Publishing and if you would like to see the reviews the last one is here and has links to all of the others. They are amazing books and Hazel has been loving them!! We also found these books at the library when searching cherry. Look two of them are published by Tuttle as well! We have a type of cherry tree in our front yard and I love the pink blossoms of it in the spring. The description of the sakuri (cherry blossoms) in the books describing the festivals sounds so beautiful!!
Since we were exploring cherries and Japan now, I thought it would be fun to look into the Cherry Blossom Festival or Hanami. For Hazel's second birthday party I had made a cherry blossom branch, but I apparently did not take any pictures of it since it was pre-blog time. It was very easy. Using a branch from outside, I glued small pieces of pink tissue paper onto the branch to be the buds. It was pretty and did not take long. I am sorry I don't have a picture to show you. However with our study of Japan, I found a pattern to make an 18-inch doll kimono. I used McCall's Pattern 6670. I let Hazel choose the fabrics and trims. I think the fabric she picked looks a bit like cherry blossoms so it is perfect to share with this post.
I did not make the scarf, socks and shoes, but did make the hairpiece.
We are happy with how it came out. We also read other books about cherries from the library.
Hazel wants to make a cherry pie sometime soon after reading some of these books. We also read this one.
Now we always try to do a craft and/or recipe. It took me awhile to find a good craft and by the time we got around to doing it I could not find any cherries in the stores. I had wanted to try cherry painting based on the cherry glitter paint post shared by Mini Monets and Mommies at Sharing Saturday. Since we didn't have the cherries, I came up with another one. We used red pom poms and brown pipe cleaners and made cards.
We made them somewhat quickly and did not have patience that day for the glue to dry, so we used tape to keep the pipe cleaner down. I made the one on blue paper and then Hazel made the one on yellow paper. She had Daddy help her with the message she wrote in it so she could give it to me.
So sweet!! That is our exploration of cherries and ends our exploration of Japan. (We will be reading and reviewing books on Korea next!) I hope you will join us!! For more fruit explorations check out:
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