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Sakura(3-5yrs.)
The
children from last year seem to have grown more mature over the
summer holiday, and they are such good big brothers and sisters for
the newcomers.
The 2 hours of Japanese school may be long for the
kids who spend all day at regular schools, but these 2 hours can be
used very efficiently with our carefully planned schedules. The
children are interacting with each other in a Japanese Language
situation, and they enjoy the Japanese songs and the story-times.
In the month of September, the children were encouraged to
memorize names of their classmates by playing the "Greeting
Game" using name cards. They also did a simple presentation
using their scrapbook. In their printing exercise, they practice 2
simple Hiragana per week. Starting this year, we are practicing
Japanese seasonal songs of the month, every week after the recess.
The books, stories and songs introduced for September are as
follows:
Books and stories:
- "I talked To The
Moon"
- Books By Dick Bruna
- "Usagi" (By John
Birmingham)
Sing and play:- "Hige-Jiisan"
- "Goo-Chokki-Paa"
- "One
Field Mice"
Craft:
- "Rabbit Paper-Art"
- Origami
- "A
Rabbit And The Moon"
- "Make Your Own Scrapbook"
A Song Of
The Month:
Primary1
There
are brand-new Grade 1 students who are anxious to be in our class
this year and one 2nd grade student who is a veteran from last year.
All of them are very excited to learn new things and their eyes are
twinkling with joy. We made sure that everybody
is aware of our classroom routine. We started our first month by
reviewing Hiragana using "Ahiru no akubi". By reading it
out loud and memorizing the easy rhyming sentences, I'm sure their
pronunciation is getting clearer and they find speaking the language
fun.
Primary2
The fun summer vacation is over, and it
was really nice to see all the happy faces again. We are studying a
story which is considered grade 3 level in Japan. This story is
called "Keshigomu Kororin". Students in the grade 3 level
are learning several new Kanji from this story and grade 2 students
are learning the kanji up to their level. This story is a little too
difficult to read and understand at first for the grade 2 level
students; however, the students have practiced reading it many times,
and they are now able to read it very accurately and clearly. They
are also able to sing the song for September called "Usagi
Usagi" by heart.
Level 1
The goal we set for
September was to learn Japanese greetings and customs. We did this
by introducing each other in Japanese. Every week we are practicing Hiragana to learn the correct pronunciation. So far we have
completed the first 3 rows of the Hiragana set.
Along with the Japanese
greetings, students have been learning some popular manga character names (such as Doraemon and Naruto). This helps students get used to
the sounds of Japanese names and accents. In our monthly song
lesson, we sang "Usagi, Usagi" which
is a song about Autumn Moon And Rabbits (to celebrate harvest).
Level 2
In the first class for the new academic
year, the students introduced themselves telling their classmates
their names, where they live, what they like, and so on. They are
learning new Kanji and vocabulary with the story called "Tanpopo
no Chie". We also play Karuta in the last 15 minutes of each
class. Karuta is an easy, simple game, but the students read and
listened to Karuta very carefully, and they have fun playing it.