Karate

Japan—Karate

Materials:
-Mr. Monahan (Karate instructor in Winona at Monahan Martial Arts).
http://www.monahanmartialarts.com/AboutUs.html
-school gym
-Winona Historical Society newspaper pictures of Karate in Winona.
(5 pictures all together)
-colored paper
-markers/colored pencils

Goals:
The students will understand karate and it's purpose.

Objectives:
1. The students will listen and observe Mr. Monahan's demonstrations,
where karate started and why, his personal karate history, and karate
safety.
2. The students will imitate some of the safe karate moves when instructed to.

Procedure:
1. Show picture of Shihan Fumio Demura. Ask the students if they know
who this man is. (The children probably will not recognize him).
Tell the class that this man is a very famous "world known karate
master"! He has won many Japanese karate awards and was honored by
the Japanese government for his skills in karate. He is one of the
early pioneers who introduced traditional martial arts in the United
States and was an instructor to famous movie and TV stars in many
films and shows. Mr. Demura has been to Winona several times to host
karate tournaments. Just think, one of the most famous karate masters
has been HERE in Winona! (8 minutes)
2. Show the children the other 4 pictures given from the Winona Daily
News. They are all from the '70s and 3 of them display different
types of karate moves. When showing the picture of the teacher with
the students kneeling in front of him tell the students that this is
the traditional way to begin a karate class: with meditation and a bow
exchange. "The bow signifies mutual respect, and the meditation at
the beginning of class helps clear the mind for the work at hand."
(Balogh). (7 minutes)
3. Introductory experience: The students will go to the gym and sit
in a semi-circle fashion near, but not to close to Mr. Monahan. He,
then, will do a karate demonstration of his own to engage the
students. (5 minutes)
4. He will then introduce himself and give a brief history of his
personal Karate experience. Some good topics to have him mention: How
he started, why he started, how many years, how many competitions, how
many awards won, where were the competitions. (5 minutes)
5. I would then like him to demonstrate a few things when learning the
Japanese martial art of karate. The children may imitate some moves
when instructed to do so by Mr. Monahan. Note: Make sure he tells the
children that karate is to be taken seriously and is not be used
unless supervised by a karate instructor. The children will NOT be
hitting or kicking each other in ANY of the demonstrations throughout
this experience NOR throughout the school grounds at anytime. (10
minutes)
6. Give students 5 minutes to ask questions. (5 minutes)
7. Take the children back to the classroom for a reflection on the lesson.
8. Have the students write individual thank you notes to Mr. Monahan.
They are to write one thing they learned or liked, a thank you, and
sign their name. (5 minutes)

Assessments:
-The thank you note will be a good assessment tool to see what the
children got from the experience.

Japanese Gardens

Japan—Japanese Garden

Materials:
-regular sized white paper
-markers
-5x5 wooden square plate per person
-a Ziploc bag of ¼ cup of white fine grain sand per person
-3 small rocks per person
-1 miniature Japanese temple
-1 miniature wooded rake
-Picture slide shows of different Japanese gardens:
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ryoan/ryoan-ji.html
http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/elements/sand/sand.html

Goals:
1. Students will learn about and understand Japanese Zen gardens.

Objectives:
1. Using the given materials above, the students will create their own
Japanese garden.
2. The students will understand what Zen is and it's relation to
Japanese gardens.
3. The students will realize that Zen Gardens are becoming very
popular in the U.S. and other countries in the world.

Procedure:
1. Introductory experience: Give the students 5 minutes to draw and
color a simple (not too detailed) picture of a garden. (Don't expand
on the word "garden"—just "draw/color a garden") 5 minutes
2. Discuss the gardens that they drew. "How many of you drew flowers
in your garden? …Grass? …Vegetables?...Fruits? How many of you had
very colorful gardens? Ask the students: "What makes a garden a
garden?" The students might say: flowers, plants, animals, life,
soil, dirt, waterfalls, vines, bird baths, ponds, statues, vegetables,
fruits. (write this list on the board). ( 5 minutes)
3. On the overhead projector display the Winona Daily newspaper
article. Have 2 or 3 children read this article aloud to the class.
Ask them, "Has anyone every seen a Japanese garden before?" "What did
the article say that the garden would be used for?" "What does a
Japanese garden consist of?" (5 mintues)
4. There are actually many types of Japanese gardens, specifically
called "Zen Gardens". Some Zen gardens are similar to ones we have
seen here in Winona, but some are very different from what we think of
as a "garden". We will be discussing the dry rock gardens of Zen.
Here is a picture of the most famous Japanese dry garden of all the
Ryoan-ji: (show one photo of Ryoan-ji).
http://gallery.hd.org/_exhibits/places-and-sights/_more1999/_more04/Japan-Kyoto-Ryoanji-Sekitei-rock-garden-1-AJHD.jpg.
(5 minutes)
5. Ask the children to recall what yesterdays lesson was about.
(Buddhism-Zen) Go around the class and have each student mention one
thing they learned in the Buddhism lesson of yesterday. Responses may
be: it is Japan's religion, it is a philosophy, it began in India,
Siddharha Gautama is the Buddha, Buddha means "one who is awake",
philosophy: "change in nature is constant", meditation, monks, Zen
temples, Buddhism came to Japan and is known as Zen, satori is the aim
of all Zen Buddhists, satori is an awakening or understanding of the
creation of nature. (10 minutes)
6. A big part of Zen Buddhism is relaxation, meditation, calming, and
reaching "satori". Besides worshiping and meditating the Zen temples,
Buddhist Japanese often practice their religion in these Zen gardens.
Every person has his or her own way of relaxing. Have the students
close their eyes and think of their place that helps them relax the
most. (They will not have to share their special place, but just have
them think of it). Make sure that the students realize that everyone
has their own place of relaxation, their own way of winding down, it
may be saying a prayer in bed, listening to music, gardening, cooking,
singing, playing an instrument, drawing, painting, snuggling up to
your teddy bear. I would like to give you a tour of one of the very
important places that some Buddhists use to help them calm, relax, and
eventually reach their satori. Show virtual tour of the Ryoan-ji
garden: http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ryoan/ryoan-ji.html
Tell the students that this is not a garden that you see here in the
U.S. very often. Japanese dry gardens are quite different from our
list of what we thought a garden to be. Note: the careful raking of
the sand, the rocks, and the house that the garden is directly next
to. Mention that some of the rocks represent different things such
as: mountains and islands. (10 minutes)
7. Closure experience: Now have each student make his or her own Zen
Garden! Each student will get: 1 wooden plate, 1 Ziplock bag of sand,
3 rocks, 1 rake, and one temple. After each student has gotten his or
her materials have them spread out and find a place to sit by
themselves in the room. Tell the students they are to be quiet and
not say one word for 5 minutes. They are to sit quietly and create
their own Zen garden. They can put the objects (rocks and temple)
wherever they please and however they please (inside their garden
however), they can rake their sand in whatever designs they want (be
creative!), they can do as many creations as they want (erase and
recreate), but they MUST be quiet and not disturb anyone else (be
respectful to your classmates around). "Just as the Buddhist Japanese
use their gardens for relaxing, we are going to do the same." Tell
the students to carefully pour the bag of sand into the plate (be very
careful not to spill!), then they may go on from there and do what
they please with their garden to relax. (8 minutes including
directions). After this experience be calm in gathering the children
back together; quietly tell them to pour their garden contents (sand,
rocks, rake, temple) into their Ziploc and seal it tightly. Then
have them put their Zen gardens into their backpacks to take home.

Assessments:
-Walk around the room as the students are doing their Zen garden,
make sure all are participating and using this time as a quiet,
relaxation time.
-The drawing of the garden in the "introductory experience".
-The discussion about what they learned from the previous lesson
about Buddhism.