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Saturday Japanese Class News

April 2009

1: Bible study class
2: Class l
3: Class ll
4: JFL
5: Lower grade
6: Middle grade
7: Higher grade
8: Middle School

Bible study class

Since last October, on every first Saturday, all Saturday students have been gathering in the Church Hall to listen to Bible stories in Japanese by Rev. Tanabe from the Free Methodist Church. Rev. Tanabe speaks to the children about various challenges in daily life and shows them how Bible can offer guidance in dealing with them. I believe this is a great chance for the children at all ages to think at their own levels. Please join us if you are interested. Upcoming classes will be on April 5th, and May 2nd. We will have an open-house class on June 6th.
(Ms. Umehata)

Class l

Some new students joined our class this month. I am preparing various activities, such as a game introducing each other's name, so that they can get used to the new environment.
Although we have fewer classes due to spring break, this month's goal is the same as last: to read hiragana aloud one by one.
Spring break will start next week. I am sure you have planned lots of fun activities for the children. I am looking forward to hearing detailed reports from them. Have a wonderful spring break!
(Ms. Nakatake)

Class ll

Having new students seems to have refreshed the atmosphere in the class. In April, each student will make a story book. In the book, they explain the story with "who", "where", and "what" and draw pictures. I hope they learn how fun it is to develop their own stories and get used to writing longer sentences.
(Ms. Ozeki)

JFL

In March, we finally accomplished the last step of the "Takuan Project". Last November, JFL students planted daikon seeds in the school garden and daikon grew big enough to make takuan pickles. This was the first time for JFL students to work on this project, and they enjoyed every stage of the process. They followed four steps - planting, harvesting, pickling, and tasting - which provided them wonderful hands-on experiences.
They also learned words and expressions Japanese use to talk about the weather. For example, the word "zah zah" (to indicate heavy rain) and "piu piu" (to indicate strong wind) are onomatopoetic words that sound like the things they represent.
In April, students will review compound consonants, double consonants, voiced consonants.
(Ms. Yamada)

Lower grade

I believe Japanese education in the US for early childhood is a 1,000 mile journey. I think our class is just around the corner of 300 miles point at this time. You can learn about the materials we are using in the class on our website, http://sakamotosanchi.spaces.live.com. This website is updated every Monday. You can view and download JPG/PDF files for classroom materials, homework materials, and letters to parents. You can also find a comprehensive list for kanji practice at the "Photos" section. Proper and effective parental support by the Japanese speaking parents is crucial in our children's bilingual education. I believe the excellent educational environment at Kodomo no Ie help our bilingual children tremendously.
(Ms. Sakamoto)

Middle grade

We have been working on a new topic "Family" since last month. While we observe the similarity of the modern family structure around the world, parents and a few children, we notice some countries have quite different structures. For example, it is quite common to have three-generations in a family in China. Typical Ecuadorian families have as many as 7 children. Although it may not be very easy, I would like my students to think why there are different structures of families around the world. We will find out if our reasoning is accurate in the books we will read in the class. I would also like to take this opportunity to ask my students to think about each of their family members' roles in their families. "What are the roles of my father and mother? What are my roles?" I would like my students to ask themselves and recognize each person's roles.
(Ms. Shrecker)

Higher grade

In March, after researching what kinds of bread exist around the world, we researched and identified the main meal of each country listed in the photo materials of the Hungry Planet (United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Japan, China, Bhutan, India, Germany, Kuwait, Republique du Tchad, Mali). When we observed the photographs very closely, we noticed that quite a few counties live on relatively easy-to-prepare and easy-to-eat main meal as opposed to the traditional menu, such as rice, bread, and pasta. Especially, it was particularly interesting to us that many counties live on fast foods.
In the mini-presentation of our class early this month, we would like to invite parents to listen to our research results on McDonald, the fast food chain that everybody knows, and to review the photographs of the Hungry Planet together.
(Ms. Miyajima)

Middle School

When we were discussing the theme "richness" in February, my students' initial answer as to what "richness" means was "to have money". After we studied the statistics and other facts concerning people's richness in the third-world countries and the counties that are not economically well-off, they wrote in their essay that "Money cannot make us rich. There is something else which makes us rich. It is family which makes us rich". We also put some thoughts on what we can do to help various problems around the world, such as obesity, satiated with foods, wasted foods of the developed countries and famine and food-shortage of the underdeveloped countries (Are you familiar with the group called "Table for Two"? Please look it up with google.com.).
In April, we will study the Republique du Tchad in the Hungry Planet and learn about refugee issues. In the developed counties, we take it for granted to be provided with water, foods, and safety. On the other hand, in the underdeveloped countries, it is not uncommon to observe people who used to live just like us all the sudden lose their homes and foods and become refugees due to wars and civil wars. I would like our children who grow up in the today's global society to be able to recognize the problems that they themselves don't have in their own countries and care to think what they can to help others. We will also study the activities of the UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).
(Ms. Douglas)

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