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Saturday Japanese Class News

January 2013

1: Class l - Ms. Ozeki
2: Class 2 - Ms. Takakura
3: Class 3 - Ms. Umehata
4: Class 4 - Ms. Yamada
5: From the teachers

January's theme: New Year!

Class l - Ms. Ozeki

Study Objectives:
- Share the joy for the New Year with classmates
- Experience Japanese New Year's games

Class Activities:
- Experience Japanese traditional games for the New Year ( e.g. Karuta ( word card game
- Learn how to write Nengajo - Japanese new year’s cards, and write them to the family members or friends

Grammar & Vocabulary:
- Collect words that begin with た (ta), ち (chi), つ (tsp), て (te), と (to), and learn how to write those words in collect writing order

Class 2 - Ms. Takakura

Study Objectives:
- Learn how to write Nengajo - Japanese new year’s cards
- Experience Kakizome - First Calligraphy written at the beginning of the year
( In this class, we use pencils instead of ink brush )
- Memorize all the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac
- Learn the words relating to the Japanese new year customs

Class Activities:
- Experience Japanese new year’s tradition ( e.g. writing nengajo, playing Japanese new year’s games)

Grammar & Vocabulary:
- Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu ( Happy New Year )
- otoshidama ( a custom of giving money to children at the beginning of the year ), karuta ( word card game), koma ( spinning top ), hebidoshi ( the year of Snake )

Class 3 - Ms. Umehata

Study Objectives:
- Increase students’ vocabulary by participating in Japanese New Year games.
- Be familiar with twelve animal signs in the Chinese zodiac.
- Experience the Japanese culture through Mochi-tsuki (Mochi pounding)

Class Activities:
- Experience traditional Japanese New Year games (Karuta or picture cards, Fukuwarai or Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Kendama or cup-and-ball game.
- Read a story of the twelve animal signs in the Chinese zodiac.
- Participate in the Mochi-pounding event.
- Reflect the winter break.

Grammar & Vocabulary:
- Memorize the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac.
- Mochi pounding vocabulary - pound, shape into a round form、steam, wooden mortar, pounding hammer.
- Who did what, where and when.

Class 4 - Ms. Yamada

Study Objectives:
- Learn Eto (12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac).
- Increase students’ vocabulary through games typically played around the New Year.
- Learn the difference between E, He, Wo, O , Ha, Wa (post positions).

Class Activities:
- Read a story about the twelve animal signs in the Chinese zodiac.
- Play Karuta or picture cards, Fukuwarai or Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Kendama or cup-and-ball game and Daruma Otoshi or the Daruma doll game.
- A quiz, “Let’s find E, He, Wo, O, Ha, Wa.”

Grammar & Vocabulary:
- Names of the 12 animal signs, (Jyu-ni-shi), corresponding years for the animals (Eto).
- Up, down, right, left, in front, over there, diagonal.
- Who did what, where and when.

For effective language learning, it is important to read out loud daily at home because the children’s young ears are still developing.
At least once a day, please make time for your child to read Japanese out loud.

From the teachers

It can be challenging for the students to keep up Japanese since they speak and learn in English at school Monday thru Friday, but we can still help them maintain their Japanese with some ideas. In this Saturday class newsletter, we would like to share those ideas with you. We recommend you to read not just your child's class information, but those of other classes.

Some of you might think that your child doesn't need to learn about Eto, the Chinese 12 Animal Zodiac... But actually learning Eto is great exercise to study Japanese pronunciation. Japanese language has only five vowels: a, i, u, e, o, and doesn't have the sound r or th. Some words in the chinese zodiac can be difficult to pronounce for the children who are used to speak in English. Singing Japanese songs or reading Japanese words aloud is very effective especially for the younger children to acquire Japanese pronunciation properly since they have a great ability to differentiate the sounds.

We hope you will find this newsletter helpful to keep up your child's Japanese. Thank you.

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