Japanese 

Firstly, I would like to say a big thank you to our wonderful parents and a volunteer who gave up their time to help out with our lessons in Week 10. We couldn’t have done these activities without their help. Thank you Naho san, Tomoe san, Ryoko san and Rena san!

Grades 3/4

Students have been learning about seasons and celebrations as well as cultural activities. They have been learning how to describe what they do in a particular season. Some students can independently make a whole sentence, and many students have shown great care when writing Japanese scripts for this topic such as 花、見、月and they look beautiful! Well done, Grades 3/4!

In September, Japanese people admire the moon and celebrate 'The Moon Festival' by eating Dango (rice cake). Our students were lucky enough to try this rice cake themselves. Here are some comments from the students after the experience of making and tasting Dango.

‘This experience excites me even more about travelling to Japan!’

‘I’m in heaven!’

‘I ate this for the first time but I could eat 500 of these!’

‘I want to make this at home!’

Many children asked for a the recipe, so here it is!

Dango Recipe

Ingredients

• 100g glutinous rice flour
• 100ml to 120ml water or silken tofu
• 50g icing sugar (optional)

Method

1. Mix water little by little and knead the dough until you get the texture of soft playdough.
2. Make small balls and cook them in boiling water.
3. When the balls float to the top, they are cooked. Scoop them and place them in cold water.
4. Drain. Add rice syrup or other sweet sauce and serve.

Photo: Matilda 3/4B

Grades 5/6

Students have been working on reading and writing big numbers in Japanese through their Sumo Unit. They had to work out how tall the sumo wrestlers were by reading in Japanese or saying how tall they are in Japanese. They also looked at a typical day for Sumo Wrestlers and read what time they do each activity. We have celebrated the learning with Sumo Wrestling (safely done with the Sumo Suits) as well as the Sumo Wrestler’s staple dish ‘Chanko Nabe’, which was very popular! Chanko Nabe and Dango are both unfamiliar foods for them and it is wonderful to see so many students giving them a go! Well done, Monty students!

Photo: Isla Grade 5/6E 

Japanese Language Teacher

Junko Nichols