Friendship Day
A Collaborative Story by First Graders
at Henry Barnard School

We went to a Japan celebration. It's called Friendship Day. It's about American and Japan people because Friendship Dolls came to our school from Japan. They shared their friendship. We're going to do the same thing to share our friendship back to them.

We celebrated Japan and we learned some things about Japan. The Japanese flag is red and white, and Japan is in Asia. We learned to say a couple of words in Japanese like "Ohayo gozaimasu" and "Konnichiwa." Before you eat you say "Itadakimasu." The people in Japan sit on their knees so that is what we're doing. People in Japan eat rice at every meal.

On Friendship Day we dressed up to look like we were from Japan. Everybody had to wear a robe as a kimono or a big shirt like a yukata. We took off our shoes and put on our socks or our slippers. When we saw someone we bowed and said, "Konnichiwa."

On Friendship Day everybody in the school went to the gym. First, the principal made some announcements. He talked on a microphone. He said something about being friends and how to be friends. We sang a song called Love Can Build a Bridge. Then some of the teachers showed the Japanese dolls. One of their names was Sakura, one was Toshihiro, and the other was Kumiko.

American students and three Japanese Friendship Dolls saying "good-bye" to Hope, the American Friendship Doll soon to leave for Japan.

We had a U.S.A. doll. Her name was Hope. We met our new doll. She is a girl. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Then the fifth grade did a dance from the U.S.A., and the third graders did a poem about friendship. Then it was our turn to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Japanese. The first grade and the kindergarten and the Child Care sang it. We all sang another song called Make New Friends. When we got back to our classroom, our teacher gave us Japanese rice crackers. For lunch we had Japanese food. We had rice.

We had Friendship Day to celebrate our friendship between Japan and Rhode Island. We made friendship dolls out of cardboard folders and wrote a note of friendship inside for children in Japan. Stuff that we made is going to Japan. Dolls are going too. The Japanese dolls are going to stay with us for a long time. Hope will stay in Japan for a long time too.

The Japanese gave us friendship and we are giving friendship to them. We had a fun time. Friendship Day is a lot of fun!

Japanese Friendship Dolls Help Teach Students About Japan