Specialists

This term, students have produced some wonderful work and shown great enthusiasm for learning Japanese. Pond Sensei is so proud of their effort and progress! To celebrate their achievements, here are a few examples of what students explored and created during the term. With so many fantastic pieces, it was truly hard to choose which ones to feature in the newsletter.

Foundation

Foundation students learned about one of Japan’s most celebrated artists, Yayoi Kusama. They explored her picture book Lots of Dots while learning colour words and how to describe objects as big or small in Japanese. To finish the unit, students created their own unique pumpkins and used Japanese to describe their creations.

Level One and Two

Students learned how to introduce themselves and share simple information in Japanese, including how to talk about their friends. They were introduced to the word for “friend,” 友達 (tomodachi), and practised using it in sentences such as “My friend is…”. To celebrate friendship and connection, students created friendship links to accompany their Japanese introductions.

Level Three

Level Three students “visited” a Japanese school and discovered they had forgotten their pencil cases! To solve this problem, they learned how to politely ask for classroom items in Japanese using the correct grammar. Students practised vocabulary for common objects, learned the appropriate counters, and applied these in sentences to make polite requests.

Level Four and Five

Students learned how to describe their families in Japanese, using correct vocabulary and grammar. They practised saying how many people are in their family by using person counters and learned how to introduce each family member in a simple sentence. Students also explored how these words are written in both hiragana and kanji.

Level Six

Students read the folk tale 大きいかぶ (Ookii Kabu - the Big Turnip) and explored the words and phrases. Using their knowledge, students then created their own unique story.