Animals of Japan; Geology/Geography of Japan

We watched several "travel video"-type movies about Japan during this unit, and our favorite was probably this one from "The Little Travelers." It's made from the viewpoint of two little girls traveling (alone, they make it seem like) around Japan. Daisy and Junie especially liked it. There are funny parts where the little girls try new foods or play with other children, and it just gives a feel of "this is real life in Japan." It was cute.

We talked a lot about Japan's geology, since it is so exciting! Hot springs, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunami…all things the children are interested in. We had watched some videos of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami during our Natural Disasters Unit (you can find links here) so we looked up those and watched some of them again. The power of those huge waves is truly amazing.

We also thought the pictures of the earthquake's aftermath, here, were very interesting.

Here is an episode of Begin Japanology about Japan's volcanoes.

The children, naturally, also loved learning about the Shinkansen or bullet train. They've loved all kinds of high-speed trains ever since learning about them during our Train Unit, but we talked more about the TGV than we did the Shinkansen at that time, so it was fun to learn more about this specifically Japanese innovation. We learned that the Shinkansen was developed by a man who made kamikaze fighter planes (with no landing gear, but with streamlined fronts suited for dive-bombing ships) during World War II. He used the streamlined nose designs from the planes to inspire the distinctive front end of the Shinkansen. This was a good video about the Shinkansen, and this video about how the workers clean the trains in only seven minutes was interesting too.

Japan has many interesting animals, but we were most interested in a couple specific ones: the Japanese Macaques or snow monkeys (the ones that like to sit in the geothermal pools—we're always seeing pictures of them) and the bunnies of Bunny Island.

We quite enjoyed this movie about the Snow Monkeys. It's your typical kind of nerdily-dramatized nature documentary (narrated by Liam Neeson). Be aware that does show some monkeys mating. And a baby monkey dies. :( But the monkeys are so cute! We loved them.

Speaking of monkeys, my friend Carrie Ann told us about her visit to this monkey park near Kyoto. It was in one of the travel videos we watched too. It looks so fun! We would love to go there.

Bunny Island is a tiny island in Japan where there is a huge colony of semi-tame rabbits. They think some rabbits were maybe left there by schoolchildren a long time ago, and then multiplied? Here is some of the story behind it. It looks like a place I would love to visit. So many bunnies! There are lots more pictures and videos:  Here, here, here,  here and even more here.

Oregon Steam Train

When we went to Oregon, I was excited to see there was a steam train that ran through Rockaway Beach, because the children have always wanted to see a working steam locomotive! The Heber Valley Railway was fun, but its steam locomotive isn't running right now, and they were quite disappointed about that. I wanted them to ride this one so much that I specifically made sure we were staying through a weekend because the train only runs on Saturdays and Sundays (this time of year, anyway). It's a pretty short train ride, it just goes down the coast for a few miles and then back up, about an hour and a half total. But it's beautiful and even if it hadn't been, we were riding a train! Automatic fun.

We made sure to get there early so we could look the train over and see all the pistons and cylinders up close. We heard the train whistle from our cottage as the train came by, and I've never seen the kids get their shoes on and ready to go so fast! They were so excited.

The fireman was so nice! He saw how interested all the kids were in the train, and let them come up into the cab and look around at all the valves and pipes. We could feel the heat, and see the fire glowing yellow in the firebox! This steam locomotive runs on oil, the man told us.

Junie got all sooty in the cab, which seemed right somehow.

We walked through the indoor car, but decided we'd rather sit outside in the roofless car. It was cloudy and kind of misty, but not cold.

When the train started up, it was so loud and exciting! Whooshing and hissing and clouds of steam everywhere.

Such pretty scenery along the coast! I could never get tired of it.

At Garibaldi you can get off and look around at some of the other old trains. There's a little playground to play on, and boats in a harbor.

These little ones were always picking daisies and buttercups, everywhere we went!

Daisy was very impressed by the conductor and asked me to take her picture with him.

Marigold enjoyed the ride SO much! Lots of cars and people waved at the train as it went by, and Goldie just waved and waved back at them grandly, like she was royalty.

Every time the steam whistle blew, she laughed and laughed and laughed, and she loved the wind blowing through her hair (fuzz). She seemed to think everything had been arranged specifically for her personal enjoyment. It was so cute!

We just loved watching the steam drift up over the beautiful green forests. Oregon is such a great place!

Maglev Train

This magnetic-levitation train was made with this kit. It was a fun project for an afternoon, and the children were really pleased with it!

It levitates! Hooray!

More train drawings and paper models

Here is an update on this post about model paper trains. Seb is still loving to make them, and has done the paper models so many times, he can now make up his own. Above is the train he made for Malachi, with the very exotic and French-sounding name of "Lu Pinkx." :)

A model made with mostly glue instead of tape (it takes longer and is fussier to make, but it looks nicer)

I also really like these ink drawings Sebastian did of various types of trains. He got some greyscale markers for Christmas, and Sam showed him how to use them for shading. I love seeing what Seb draws with them!

And here's my favorite thing of all---this Bunny Train which Sebby made me for Mother's Day. I love it!!

Making paper model trains

These paper steam trains (printable files here, here, and here) were easy to make, since they are basically just paper boxes. But they started a larger trend. I told the boys I had seen more complicated paper models, but they took more time and precision to make, so we weren't going to do them right then. After they begged and begged, I finally said maybe we could try them another day. 

These more complicated models are of the TGV (high-speed train in France and other parts of Europe) and building them took a little more supervision from me at first. They are really cool, once built---much more detailed and realistic than the other paper trains we'd made.

Abe's TGV

Sebby, especially, became more and more obsessed with them. Once he had built a few, they weren't too hard, although he used tape instead of glue for the trickiest folds. For several weeks he was working on one of the TGV cars during every spare moment! He even added the pantograph to the top (the paper model omits that detail, to Seb's disapproval) . . .

and made a system of track and catenary wire for them to run on.

He experimented with making his own models too.

But eventually, he came back to printing out model after model from this site, which has dozens to choose from.

The models have all the different cars to print for each type of TGV, so eventually he got an entire train assembled, and then another. I think now he has made nearly every type on the website. It was really fun to watch him getting better and better at it as he went along.

Eventually Seb made a display case (with informational panel) to hold his favorite TGV power cars. He includes the proper pronunciation (we pronounce it the French way, "tae-zhae-vae") since he does NOT approve of saying "tee-gee-vee"! :)

Here are the power cars resting on their high-speed track, with lovely mountain scenery in the background.

Circus Train craft

On the day we talked about specialty trains, we also made this Circus Train out of butter boxes. (We also watched a Circus Train episode from Extreme Trains---very cool.) Each child made their own train car (and Seb also made the locomotive). We just cut out squares from both sides of each butter box, then drew animals to put inside. Last, we taped on straws to make bars so the animals wouldn't get out!

We read Curious George Rides A Bike to remember what circus train cars look like (although in that book, they are actually trailers pulled by a truck, not train cars):

Circus Bear

Circus Birds

Circus Monkey and Snake

Circus Penguins (Daisy made these---the Daddy Penguin, on the right, is working at his computer and wearing headphones.)