Welcome to our fourth annual Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series and Giveaway! We are excited to announce our second annual Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month Blog Series. See our main page for a full schedule. Be sure to scroll down on this post to enter the giveaways.
This post is about two Cherry Blossom books for children as well as a craft idea to to make cherry blossoms. My free instant download is here, and includes Pre-K cutting strips as well as the flower pattern for the craft.
The two books we read include a board book entitled The Tiny Traveler Japan: A Book of Nature. It was written and illustrated by Misti Kenison. Each two page spread has a short sentence on one side with a full page, full color illustration on the opposite side. The pictures are simple and large for the very young to best enjoy. The illustrations include a Zen garden, cherry blossoms, and Mt. Fuji. It is a perfect introduction to Japan. I had not previously heard of the tiny traveler series before I began looking for books for this post. Note: I selected and purchased my own books.
The second book we read was an “I Can Read” book entitled Pinkalicious Cherry Blossom, by Victoria Kann. Pink is our current favorite color around here and so that worked. This is a fun book with a magical trip to a cherry blossom festival in Japan. Leaves swirl as Pinkalicious flies a kits and twirls around. Suddenly she is in Japan! Everything everywhere is pink! What could be better. Pinkalicious experiences meets Sakura, a Japanese girl, and helps her hang festival lanterns. She sees a parade, hears drums, and eats Mochi. She doesn’t reveal her secret trip when she returns and sees her parents.
This all led to some painting and a craft that had a cherry blossom craft. First we found a branch that looked interesting, and found our pink and white cupcake liners. We found the paints. This is what we made.
This is how we made the flowers. We cut out the flower shapes, drew lines, painting the circle, and painted the dots before taping the flowers from their backs to the branch.
We also tried our hand at painting. I put artist tape around the edges of the water color paper before the painting. When the painting was dry, I removed the tape which created a frame for the finished painting. I did use masking so the flower petals could have some highlights when painted a second time.
Here is our finished painting with our branch when everything was complete!
Isn’t it fun to take photos of all the cherry blossoms and other flowering spring trees?
Here are images of the two pages of Pre-K sequencing cutting strips included in the printable.
Each row has 4 pictures to be sequenced. The answer key is the PDF as the images are in order. 
Each blog post will have more ideas for readers. You can follow along all month for ideas about sharing with kids the rich cultures of this vast and varied region. Also, be sure to enter the giveaway below and link up your posts at the bottom of the page.
For even more ideas, visit our blog hops from last year, 2015 and 2014. You can also follow our Asia and Australia & Oceania boards on Pinterest.
May 1
Miss Panda Chinese on Multicultural Kid Blogs: 10 Fun Facts About Taiwan for Kids
May 2
Kori at Home
May 4
All Done Monkey
May 5
Chinese American Family
May 11
The Art Curator for Kids
May 12
Kori at Home
May 15
Crafty Moms Share
May 17
Bicultural Mama
May 19
Wise Owl Factory
May 22
Ketchup Moms on Multicultural Kid Blogs
May 25
Miss Panda Chinese
May 30
All Done Monkey
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Giveaway
Enter below for a chance to win one of our great prize packages in our annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month giveaway! The giveaway goes from May 1 to May 31, 2017, at midnight PT. If the winner falls outside the shipping area of a prize, that prize will revert to the next lower prize package. Read our full giveaway rules.
And for all of our readers, here is a special offer from our sponsor Tingomo! Use the code TENOFFTINGOMO to get 10% off any pre-order! (first kits to ship in July)
Grand Prize
From One Dear World: Set of 4 plush multicultural dolls, each with its own passport, plus the story book The Adventure of Hat Hunting in London, starring the dolls as the main characters
From Tuttle Publishing: Adventures in Asian Art
From Wisdom Tales: Rock Maiden – US Shipping Only
From Bollywood Groove: Go on a fun adventure with Maya & Neel and learn about famous festivals and places in India! In this very colorful, three-picture-book series, kids will learn about festival of lights – Diwali (Amazon best-seller), festival of colors – Holi and the home of Bollywood – city of Mumbai. US Shipping Only
From Miss Panda Chinese: Winner’s choice of an “Everyday” learning unit with audio links
From Tingomo: Passport Craft™ Kit: Make Your Own NEPAL Paper Lanterns US Shipping Only, will ship in July
1st Prize
From World Music with Daria: set of tingsha (handbells) US Shipping Only
From Quarto Knows: Summer Under the Tamarind Tree, I is for Iran, and 50 Things You Should Know About the Vietnam War – US Shipping Only
From Monika Schröder: Saraswati’s Way – US Shipping Only
From Miss Panda Chinese: Winner’s choice of an “Everyday” learning unit with audio links
From Tingomo: Passport Craft™ Kit: Make Your Own NEPAL Paper Prayer Flags US Shipping Only, will ship in July
2nd Prize
From The Dumpling Mama: Pack of 20 good luck envelopes: Give good luck wishes with money in a red envelope. Perfect for Lunar New Year, birthdays, graduations, and holidays US/Canada Shipping Only
From Kathleen Burkinshaw: The Last Cherry Blossom – US Shipping Only
From Candlewick Press: A Piece of Home and Bronze and Sunflower – US Shipping Only
From Miss Panda Chinese: Winner’s choice of an “Everyday” learning unit with audio links
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