Saturday Japanese Class News
March 2016
1:
Class 1 (Kindergarten) - Ms. Ozeki
2:
Class 2 (Elementary Lower Grades) - Ms. Umehata
3:
Class 3 (Elementary middle grades) - Ms. Yamada
4:
Class 4 (Elementary Upper Grades) - Ms. Oota
5:
Class 5 (SAT AP Preparation) - Ms. Sakamoto
March 2016 – Hinamatsuri
Class 1 (Kindergarten) - Ms. Ozeki
Lesson Goals:
- Learn the origin of "Momo no Sekku", the Peach Festival and show interest in the Hinamatsuri.
- Enjoy and participate in preparation for the Spring Class Presentation
- Write Hiragana letters that they learned with a firm pressure of writing
- Be familiar with Katakana
Class Activities:
- Learn basic rules of origami-making through the Hinamatsuri-themed origami
- Get used to reading Hiragana and katakana by using the word cards
- Practice songs in order to sing clearly in front of people at the Spring Class Presentation
Grammar and Vocabulary:
- Collect the words that start with "ha, hi, fu, he, ho"
- Learn proper strokes of letters in beautiful handwriting, etc.
Class 2 (Elementary Lower Grades) - Ms. Umehata
Lesson Goals:
- Make ohinasama dolls with origami
- Practice for the spring class presentation
Class Activities:
- Make "Oni (demon)" mask and "Sanpou (a wooden tray used for Shinto rituals)" out of origami
- Listen to the history of Setsubun Festival
- Continue the observation of Daikon.
Grammar and Vocabulary:
- Hinamatsuri, Odairi-sama, ohinasama, bonbori, Hina Arare
- Find the Katakana words
- Daikon relatedwords: “nagasa (length)”, “futosa (thickness)”, ‘hanokazu (number of leaves)”, “Ookisa (size)”.
Class 3 (Elementary middle grades) - Ms. Yamada
Lesson Goals:
- Understand and distinguish conversation phases and presentation phrases.
- Participate in the spring class presentation practice.
Class Activities:
- Reading assignments include bunsetsuwakachikaki – lessons on sentence breaks, and hina-arare no yurai – stories behind the hina-arare. These reading assignments will enhance their understanding of punctuations.
- Practice speaking clearly for the spring class presentation.
Grammar and Vocabulary:
- Expand on their vocabulary by research – yurai, kegara, narawashi, daichi, mayoke, etc
Class 4 (Elementary Upper Grades) - Ms. Oota
Lesson Goals:
- Explain key points of long descriptive passages.
- Understand the meaning of the Hina-doll display unit (Hina-dan)
- Prepare for the class performance.
Class Activities:
- Divide long sentences into meaning blocks. Understand the gist of each paragraph, then summarize the author’s main points.
- Learn the proper way to display Hina-dan along with the names of parts to be placed on the unit.
Grammar and Vocabulary:
- Meaning breaks, paragraph
- Subject, Verb
- Various terms related to Hina-dan.
- Proper words to interact with audience.
Class 5 (SAT AP Preparation) - Ms. Sakamoto
Lesson Goals:
- Participate in the class presentation. (Discuss its theme and divide up the tasks).
- Contemplate on the topic, “Children’s Safe and Sound Growth,” which is the thought behind Girl’s Day (Hina-matsuri).
Class Activities:
- Practice for the class presentation.
- Capture the main point of a picture book, From a village in Africa- a story of Elena.
- Read a graph on the death rate of children under five that was published in Mother’s Index for Save the Children.
Grammar and Vocabulary:
- More/Less than, “Miman” (not including the cut-off number, e.g., five miman, meaning 4 or less.)
- Water fetching, Sanitation
- Death rate, rate of~
- Safe and sound growth