kodomo No Ie

KNI Japanese School Newsletter

June 2015 - Review of 2014-15 school year

1: Class 1 (Kindergarten Level) - Ms. Ozeki
2: Class 2 (Kindergarten Level) - Ms. Umehata
3: Class 3 (Elementary Lower Grades) - Mr. Yamada
4: Class 4 (Elementary Middle Grades) - Ms. Sakamoto
5: Class 5 (Elementary Upper Grades) - Ms. Oota
6: Class 6 (Middle school and older) - Ms. Miyajima


KNI provides a Japanese supplemental education for students ranging from kindergartners to adolescents by weaving various annual events – a class presentation, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Japanese New Year, Setsu-bun Festival, Girl’s/Children’s Day Festivals as well as the introduction to a Japanese custom (flower arrangements in 2013; tea ceremony in 2012) into the study materials designed to improve the students’ Japanese skills.

Our goal is to help children maintain and develop the Japanese language skills, while being raised in America; our hope is that someday both the parents and children would say in retrospect, “we are glad we have studied Japanese.” Because we consider it valuable for your children to participate in various activities after entering middle and high schools here in America, our focus is to provide a foundation for Japanese reading and writing along with mastering 440 kanji characters (taught in 1st-3rd grades in Japan) by age twelve.

Although this number is less than half of what students in Japan learn in elementary schools, we believe it is the adequate amount for our students. Additional sets of characters (grade 4: 200, grade 5: 185 and grade 6: 181) could be overwhelming and create students’ negative attitude toward learning Japanese. We also would like to note that those 440 characters are comparable to 410 that are in the AP Japanese Language and Culture Exam for which we offer our original study materials.
Please visit http://jasakura.com/apj/ for details.

For those who might be wondering about our annual Candy House, please take a look at each of the class descriptions with the star symbol and use it as a reference for next year’s activities.

Class 1 (Kindergarten Level) - Ms. Ozeki

One of the most important lesson goals for this class's students is to learn to stay focused on listening until the end of sentences because of different grammatical structure Japanese has from English. This is imperative to learn Japanese in a big group and follow instructions from teachers.

Lesson Goals:
- Learn how to write one's own name with proper pressure.
- Get familiar with Japanese words including words with dakuon characters through hiragana card game
- Understand instructions in Japanese; this is imperative for safety control
★ Participate as a customer to ask for price.

Class 2 (Kindergarten Level) - Ms. Umehata

The amount of Japanese used at home is limited, therefore it's crucial to have communications with a native Japanese speaking teacher outside of home. Students will receive individualized lessons in this small size class.

Lesson Goals:
- Master the lessons from Class 1:'Seion' of Hiragana and Katakana (ie. あ、い、う、え、お).
- Prepare to be ready for Class 3.
★Participate as a customer to ask about price and number, such as " -- ko de inure?"

Class 3 (Elementary Lower Grades) - Mr. Yamada

By planting Daikon radishes, children will observe and experience the joy of growing vegetables and the value of life.

Lesson Goals:
- Present the experiences of making Takuan pickles in front of the classmates.
- Learn how to read and write words with 'dakuon' (" ゜", " ゛", ie: ぱ、ぴ、ぷ、ば、び、ぶ).
- Learn how to write 80 1st grade kanji in the collect stroke order and details.
- Make a "えにっき” journal with drawing of what she/he actually experienced.
★ Participate in Candy House to use Japanese that are related to buying and selling of candies.

Class 4 (Elementary Middle Grades) - Ms. Sakamoto

Lesson Goals:
- Read out loud clearly without breaking meaning blocks (the reading must be free from English pronunciation of 'th' or 'R' sounds)
- Listen to short sentences (around 15 letters) that include Kanji characters from Japanese 1st (80 characters) and 2nd (160 characters) grades, and write them down on notebook with grids. (This will eventually help them type Japanese and its conversion to the Kanji characters).
- - Learn how to write a journal from children's experiences in chronological order.
★ Participate in the Candy House project by composing solicitation and thank-you letters.

Class 5 (Elementary Upper Grades) - Ms. Oota

Lesson Goals:
- Grasp meaning of phrases or sentences from the punctuation symbols.
- Predict the meaning of certain Kanji characters from their parts.
- Listen to short sentences (around 20 letters) that include Kanji characters from Japanese 1st (80 characters), 2nd (160 characters) and 3rd (200 characters) grades and write them down on notebook with grids. (This practice will enable students to type Japanese from their dictation skills).
★ Write letters appropriate for different purposes such as solicitation, posters or thank you cards. Lead the Candy House project, and oversee the lower grades students.

Class 6 (Middle school and older) - Ms. Miyajima

Once you mastered the class 5 level of Japanese, students should be ready for a variety of Japanese language tests available in the U.S.. It will be depended on each individual's determination and effort to actually pass it.
If more than half of the students express interest, Japanese Language and Culture lessons will be offered. On the other hand, if less than half of the students are applying for AP, the class will advanced level of Class 5.




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