Tree of Cranes

Jocelyn Woods
Grades: 9-12
Special Education: Functional Academics
Shady Spring High School
Shady Spring, WV
I would recommend reading "Tree of Cranes" to 4-6th graders, or in my case, high school special needs students.
I plan on reading the book in my class, and discussing family traditions with the students. However, one thing I was not very familiar with, and needed to research was the symbolism of the crane as the decorations for the tree. Cranes symbolize eternal youth and happiness in Japan, and good fortune and longevity in Korea. Since the story is about a child celebrating his first Christmas and the tree that was used as the Christmas Tree was the tree his parents had planted when he was born; which symbolizes him living a long life, just like the tree, it makes sense for the cranes to be the decorations for the tree, too.
Every year around the holidays I teach my students about various holiday traditions and customs, throughout the world. This book would be a great addition to my collection. In class, we discuss that families and countries have different traditions, and may celebrate the same cultural events in different ways. When we discuss traditions students are given a journal prompt to write about: What is a tradition? and What are some family traditions your family has? These are shared with the class and begin the lesson on various holiday traditions.
After reading the story to the class. We would discuss how the boy’s mother had a tradition that she celebrated when she lived in California, and she wanted to share her old tradition with her son, who had never seen a Christmas tree, or received a gift, that was found under the tree.
With every unit or large lesson, I teach I like to include a craft or art idea/lesson to help drive the point home with the students, and make the lesson a little more engaging. The students and I would make our own paper cranes, using silver or gold paper to hang in our classroom. Most of my students would be able to make the crane on their own, following teacher led instructions and modeling; however, one of the classroom aides I have would be available to help students one-on-one who may have difficulty completing their crane independently. The students would be able to then take their crane home, and place on their Christmas Tree, as part of their Christmas ornaments. Students would share their new knowledge about cranes and the symbolism it has by telling their parents about the story they read, and the meaning of the crane in Japan and Korea.

Each December, I teach my kindergarten students a unit on holiday traditions around the world. My students are always surprised to learn that there are different holidays celebrated around the world and how different they can be from what we celebrate here in America. As my students still believe in Santa, and I don't want to spoil that for them, I highly emphasize the fact that the different holiday traditions (ours, as well as those from other cultures) are celebrated all over the world. That families decide how they celebrate. This story would help emphasize that point as the mother decided to celebrate Christmas as she did as a child and introduced that tradition to her son even though they had never celebrated Christmas before.
In the unit I teach, I like to include a craft for each culture that we study. This story shows the mother creating origami paper cranes. While the cranes would be difficult for my 5 and 6 year old students to make, we could make some simple origami shapes. I would also offer a new center during our play center time offering the students origami paper and easy to follow patterns and help them further explore this art form if they are interested.
This story would be easy to incorporate into the Kindergarten classroom. The pictures are very colorful and illustrate the story nicely. The story isn't too long and would easily hold the attention of my students. They would be able to relate to the main character and his actions. It would open up the possibility of many beneficial discussions in the classroom.

Reviewed by: Janessa Noel, NBCT, First grade teacher, Conner Street Elementary School
"Tree of Cranes" is a great picture book to read with elementary age children. I read this book to my first grade students as an introduction to studying Christmas in Japan as a part of our "Christmas Around the World" unit. My students and I enjoyed the wonderful, colorful illustrations. My students easily related themselves to the boy in the story because he appears to be about the same age. Also the book triggered a wonderful conversation about how the boy didn't listen to his mother and how dangerous that can be for all children. I pointed out also the differences in what the mother from the story does for her son that is sick, and we talked about what our own mothers do when we are sick. Students were very interested to see similarities between the two.
The students also discussed similarities and differences in ways that they celebrate, traditions, etc. and compared and contrasted the Japanese traditions listed in the book. Students found that the boy one receives one gift, and is very happy with it, many of them typically received multiple gifts. As in the story, my class discussed how Christmas focuses on giving more than receiving when the boy makes a promise to his mother to never go tot the pond again.
After reading this book with my class, we made our own "Tree of Cranes" by creating a crane with origami, as the boy's mother used in the story. The origami was a challenge for some, but many turned out beautiful. We continued our discussion by having a guest speaker from Japan to continue to share with us Japanese traditions and customs at Christmas. Our guest was very pleased to see our trees of cranes.

"Tree of Cranes" is a great picture book to read with elementary age children. I read this book to my first grade students as an introduction to studying Christmas in Japan as a part of our "Christmas Around the World" unit. My students and I enjoyed the wonderful, colorful illustrations. My students easily related themselves to the boy in the story because he appears to be about the same age. Also the book triggered a wonderful conversation about how the boy didn't listen to his mother and how dangerous that can be for all children. I pointed out also the differences in what the mother from the story does for her son that is sick, and we talked about what our own mothers do when we are sick. Students were very interested to see similarities between the two.
The students also discussed similarities and differences in ways that they celebrate, traditions, etc. and compared and contrasted the Japanese traditions listed in the book. Students found that the boy one receives one gift, and is very happy with it, many of them typically received multiple gifts. As in the story, my class discussed how Christmas focuses on giving more than receiving when the boy makes a promise to his mother to never go tot the pond again.
After reading this book with my class, we made our own "Tree of Cranes" by creating a crane with origami, as the boy's mother used in the story. The origami was a challenge for some, but many turned out beautiful. We continued our discussion by having a guest speaker from Japan to continue to share with us Japanese traditions and customs at Christmas. OUr guest was very pleased to see our trees of cranes.

Personally, I would recommend reading this book to fourth or fifth graders. This book is filled with Japan culture and traditions that students will find interesting. In the story, one learns that people in Japan would plant a tree on the day their child was born. Also, one finds out that folding paper cranes indicates that a person is making a wish that he or she want to come true. What I really liked about this story is that the mother was from the United States, ans she was trying to find a way to bring Christmas into the household. One could use this story to introduce students to various aspects of Japanese traditions.

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say is a children's book about a Japanese boy celebrating his first Christmas. This story combines Japanese and American customs to incorporate the over arching themes of family/togetherness, giving, good will, and hope for peace. The beautiful watercolor illustrations show Japanese customs/traditional food: origami, tea cake, rice gruel, sour plums, yellow radishes, and samurai kites and the American customs of Christmas: twinkling lights, silver and gold ornaments, a pine Christmas tree, and wrapped gifts.
This book is recommended for elementary school students since the main character is young boy. It shows how people around the world marry traditions from different cultures.

Tree of Cranes by Allen Say
Reviewed by Kay Brady, 2nd Grade Teacher
This is a sweet, quiet story of a Japanese boy who learns about Christmas for the first time from his American-born mother. The boy comes home from playing in the cold, to find his mother folding paper cranes and acting a bit mysterious. Since he feels feverish, his mother makes him take a hot bath and get ready for bed in the middle of the afternoon. He worries that she is very angry with him when he spies her digging up “his” tree from the yard. But she is only bringing it inside. She decorates it with the paper cranes and some candles and tells the boy about how Christmas was celebrated in the faraway place where she was born.
I have read this story to my second grade class every year at Christmas time. The pictures show such wonderful details of Japanese life that it always leads to much discussion of Japanese homes, foods, and traditions. Afterwards, we decorate a small tree in our classroom with paper cranes. Before leaving for the holidays, my students each choose a crane from the tree to take home with them. The tree is beautiful every year and my students treasure their cranes. I would encourage everyone to use this book in their classrooms.