The cafeteria at Powell Elementary in Northwest D.C. buzzed with chatter on Monday afternoon. Markers and thin bamboo sticks covered the tables as students drew cartoon characters, silly animals and bright, red hearts on small pentagon-shaped pieces of paper with red ribbon flowing from the bottom.
“If you can hear my voice, clap once,” said the teacher at the front of the lively room. “If you can hear me, clap two times.”
Most of the children complied. They were excited to take part in the age-old tradition of kite making.
“There are different types of kites,” said 8-year-old Ayo Wynn, a third grader at the school. “There’s one that’s like a square and one that’s three-dimensional.”
Ayo’s classmate, Joan Portillo, said bending kite bamboo is tricky.
“I have to put the stick in different directions,” he said. “I have to really make it go.”
Their teacher, Sensei Mikio Toki, is a true master. He traveled from Tokyo to teach the children through the National Cherry Blossom Festival’s Kites in the Classroom program.
Over a two-week span, students from Powell Elementary and several D.C. and Prince George’s County, Maryland, schools will learn how to design, build and fly their own kites while exploring the physics of flight and ancient Japanese art, Toki said.
“It’s very important. Kite flying is the same as airplane flying,” Toki told WTOP. “I teach the Tokyo-style of kite from 300 years ago.”
Cathy Moessner, one of the school’s science teachers, applied and won the program for her school.
She said students will learn about ancient Japanese culture and the country’s link to the nation’s capital.
“This is a fascinating way for the kids to get a little bit of that aspect of Japanese culture,” Moessner said. “And we have these cherry blossoms here in Washington, D.C. It’s such a part of our city. They’ll learn where did they come from? Why are they here?”
Some of the students may get a chance to test out their kites at the Blossom Kite Festival on the National Mall on Saturday.
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