Itadakimas

In Japan it is customary to say, "Itadakimas," before eating a meal. It is a phrase that people use to say "thank you," for the meal they are about to enjoy. At The World, we have a poem that the children always say before eating lunch.

It goes as follows:

"The sun shines in the sky. Clouds bring us rain and water to drink. Many people help to bring us our food from the earth. Itadakimas, thank you for the food."

Although the children have memorized it and repeat it daily, it occurred to me that they may not even understand what they are saying. Is their English level high enough to visualize what the poem is describing? Since I was unsure, I decided to embark on a project for the entire class to work on. Over the span of a week and a half we made a large mural that depicted the poem they had learned. I hoped the finished project would help with their understanding of English and the vocabulary they have learned.

First we started with each child choosing a picture from the mural to color. They could choose from clouds, the sun, people, food or flowers. As they each chose their picture we reviewed the vocabulary in the poem.

The second step was having the children use oil pastels and water color paints to create the earth and the water. On large pieces of paper they worked with blues and greens and painted anything they wanted. When the paint dried we ripped the paper into little peices that would be used like mosaics on the mural. This way everyones' artwork was being used equally, and it was a communal project from the entire class.

The final step was putting the mural together. When it was finished, I labeled the objects that are referred to in the poem, and then I let each student choose which person they wanted to be in the picture.