Languages- Japanese

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2020, and welcome your input:

Sensei Masae Uekusa (Japanese) uekusa.masae.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

In the next edition of our newsletter, we will provide you with an overview of the curriculum focus for each level across our school. 

2020- Japan hosts the Olympics!

This year is very exciting for Japan, as they will host the Summer Olympics from Friday 24th July- Sunday 9th August. We are also very excited as a school, because the time difference between Australia and Japan is minimal. For information on this exciting event visit: https://www.olympic.org/tokyo-2020

An overview of our Learning

As a Japanese teacher, I am very fortunate to be working across three of our local schools; as part of the Dandenong Ranges Japanese Network.

The three schools I am based at are Upwey South PS, Upper Ferntree Gully PS, and Tecoma PS. Below is an overview of what our students will be learning throughout Term One.

Foundation:

Foundation students are first exposed to the Japanese language through learning about basic greetings, geography, colours, numbers and animals. As we begin to learn about Japan as a country, we sing lots of songs which are used by schools across Japan. 

Year One/ Two:

Under the unit ‘Totoro’(Studio Ghibli movie), students learn Hiragana script, to address family members and to express their preferences using a new sentence structure.  This is going to be a fun and engaging term, as it involves ‘Anime’ (cartoon) characters! 

Year Three/ Four: 

Throughout Term One, students are exposed to Japanese board games. Through this game unit, they play traditional Japanese board games, and then use their experiences to create and build their own board game for use in the classroom. 

Year Five/ Six:

Year Five/ Six students are learning about about history, traditional culture and people's lives in the 'Edo' period in Japan.  Many iconic Japanese things were created in this period, which have contributed towards the Japanese stereotypes viewed in the Western world. We will be unpacking stereotypes, and questioning if they are authentic or based upon modern media interpretations.