From a CANVAS Facebook post

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[February 15 (Sun): Kids Creative Lab at the University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus]
On Sunday, February 15, we held the Kids Creative Lab at the University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus. For this session, we invited Hiroko Kikuchi,
an artist and community designer, to lead “How to Grow Up Well, Vol. 3.” The theme for
this session was “Environment.”

"What is the environment?
" When
asked, "You and everything around you make up your environment. What's around you all?
" the children give a variety of answers, such as "Air!", "The floor!", "The ceiling!", and "The bathroom!"

In the preschool class, we made “Me Ingredient Charts.”
What am I made of?
Happiness, dreams, people I like, things I like… What are the ingredients that make up
“me”?
After thinking about it in words, we went outside to collect our own ingredients.
Some picked up bricks, others collected nuts—everyone’s choices were different.
The items they chose themselves became part of their own “ingredients.” Once they put
their ingredients into jars and mixed them together… “Themselves” were complete.
The color of the contents in each jar was different for every child. Some colors looked
similar, but if you looked closely, you could see they were made from different ingredients. The
finished jars were treasures.
“Look at mine!” “Look at mine!”—they couldn’t wait to show them off.
Everyone took theirs home proudly, treating them with great care.

The elementary school class also did an activity where they reflected on themselves and thought about who they are.
They used color to express their feelings about a passage on a human figure about the same size as themselves.
In response to a passage about presenting in front of 300 people, one child even expressed the feeling of being so
nervous that their legs wouldn’t move.
The colors and lines they created seemed to reveal inner thoughts they couldn’t share with anyone else.
Then, they imagined: “If I were to go missing, what would I want people to know about me?” They
created “missing person” posters.
What should they write to help others find them?
It was hard to come up with anything without taking the time to really think deeply about themselves.

This was an activity where students reflected on their inner selves and
thought about their relationships with those around them.
I got the impression that more students than usual were struggling with it.
It was a day that left me
hoping this had been a time for them to really take the time to think deeply about their concerns and the things they didn’t understand.