Mondays in Japan: A Global Adventure at St. Patrick
Japanese Culture Club at St. Patrick Catholic School
This year, students at St. Patrick Catholic School in Cedar Falls are getting a unique experience of the world—without ever leaving their school. The K–8 Catholic school offers a variety of enrichment activities each year, and for the 2025–26 academic year, Activities Coordinator Kristine Grimm has teamed up with Maoko Umeda, the JOI Coordinator from the University of Northern Iowa’s Office of International Engagement, to bring Japan to the classroom.
On the second Monday of each month, a group of ten curious St. Patrick School students gather to learn directly from Maoko about Japanese culture, traditions, and daily life. Each session highlights a different theme and provides the students with practical experiences. So far, the students have created origami (the traditional Japanese art of paper folding), made onigiri, (popular rice balls wrapped in nori - seaweed); practiced Japanese calligraphy with brush and ink, learned about Japanese education, and even participated in a daily stretching exercise common in Japanese schools.
Every Japanese Culture Club meeting brings new discoveries, which the students have embraced with enthusiasm. In upcoming sessions, Maoko Umeda plans to introduce additional aspects of Japanese culture, offering the students even more exciting opportunities for learning, creating, and connecting with the world beyond the classroom.
