Japanese Term 3

The Japanese Program has successfully concluded Semester 1 with several exciting achievements and highlights.

High Ability Program

As part of their High Ability Japanese Program, our Year 5 and 6 students undertook an exciting School Introduction Video Project.

To begin the project, students watched several school introduction videos created by professional filmmakers. They discussed the videos and considered what they would like their own school introduction video to look like. After brainstorming ideas, they chose school facilities and places around the school as their main topic and created a list of the Japanese vocabulary they would need.

Mrs. Mori then conducted five Japanese language lessons based on the vocabulary students had identified. These lessons gave students the language skills and sentence structures they needed to create their own scripts in Japanese.

The students then divided into four groups. Each group selected three to four facilities or places to introduce. They collaboratively wrote their Japanese scripts and allocated different roles, including actors and camera operators. They then spent three weeks filming their scenes around the school.

Once filming was completed, the students worked on creating English subtitles so that the wider school community could understand their video. Mrs. Mori then completed the final editing and brought all the scenes together into one school introduction video.

The finished video was proudly broadcast at the school assembly in Week 2. It was wonderful to see the students use their Japanese language skills in such a creative and authentic project while also developing their collaboration, communication, planning and digital media skills.

Congratulations to all the students involved: Chelsea and Olive (56B); Keziah, Bree, Adeline, Cameron, Archie and James (56C); Dhanvir, Angad and Charlotte (56D); Kitarah (56E); Skye and Emily (56F); and Ruby and James (56G).

A special thank you to Ms. Nash for filming the opening and ending scenes using her drone. Her footage added a fantastic professional touch to the students' school introduction video!

In the Year 4 High Ability Program, students had the exciting opportunity to connect with a primary school in Japan. They enjoyed communicating with Japanese students who are learning English and sharing their experiences as language learners. The feedback from the Japanese students was extremely positive, and they were very impressed and surprised by how much Japanese our students could speak. It was a wonderful opportunity for our students to use their Japanese in an authentic communication setting.

To celebrate the completion of the program, the Year 4 High Ability and Year 5/6 High Ability students enjoyed a Japanese cooking class. YEar 5 and 6 students made a Japanese fluffy pancake and Year 4 students made a Japanese-style parfait with mochi. They had a lot of fun preparing and enjoying their creations.

Student Leader

During Term 2, James from 56G used his Dojo points to redeem an opportunity to assist with a Japanese lesson in 3A. As one of our Hiragana and Katakana Masters, James was able to quickly learn the vocabulary needed to support the class.

At the time, 3A students were learning how to describe the appearance of Pokémon characters in Japanese, using sentences such as 「あたまが大きいです。」 (The head is big.)

James took on a number of leadership roles during the lesson. He became a judge during the oral language games and sat at the conference table to support individual students as they completed their work.

As an extension activity, students chose a Pokémon and described its appearance in Japanese. James listened carefully to their sentences and successfully identified the Pokémon they were describing. His ability to understand the students' Japanese and respond appropriately demonstrated his strong listening and language skills.

The feedback from the 3A students was extremely positive. Many students were inspired by James' Japanese language ability and his confidence and leadership. It was a wonderful example of how older students can use their Japanese skills to support and inspire younger learners.

Semester 2 High Ability Program

The Year 3 High Ability Program and the second group of the Year 5/6 High Ability Program have now commenced. Both groups will focus on further developing their Japanese language skills by extending and enriching the topics currently being studied in their mainstream Japanese classes.

The High Ability Japanese Program continues to grow in popularity. This semester, 33 Year 5/6 students and 39 Year 3 students expressed interest in participating in the program. With more students wishing to join the program each year, the selection process has become increasingly competitive.

Students who are interested in participating in the High Ability Japanese Program in 2027 are strongly encouraged to work towards achieving their Hiragana Karate Black Belt. As the number of students wishing to participate continues to increase, achieving a Black Belt will be an important way for students to demonstrate their commitment to developing their Japanese language skills and will strengthen their opportunity to secure a place in the program.

Welcome to Lucas Primary School, Ayame!

We are very excited to welcome Ayame, a university student from Japan to Lucas Primary School for four weeks.

Ayame is very keen to gain teaching experience in Australia before beginning her teaching placement at a secondary school in Japan. During her time at Lucas Primary School, she will have the opportunity to observe and assist in a range of Japanese lessons and experience teaching and learning in an Australian primary school.

A special thank you to Stevie and Ange’s families for generously offering to host Ayame during her stay.

Ayame has already made a very positive start and has been enthusiastically assisting Ms Middy and Mrs Mori in their classes. We hope she enjoys her time at Lucas Primary School and takes away many wonderful experiences from her Australian teaching placement.