WELCOME TO 2017! TORI DOSHI…Year of the ROOSTER

Welcome back to a new year of Nihongo (Japanese) at Woodend.

This year we, Vinall sensei and Keiko sensei, will continue to teach a wide range of both language and culture to the enthusiastic bunch of Woodend students.

Term 1 is a busy one of us here at Woodend as we welcome 20 students and 4 teachers from Myojo, our sister school in Japan, for nearly 2 weeks. They will stay with host families during this time and join our Year 4-7 classes. It is a fun and wonderful time when they are here and already everyone is excited about their upcoming visit. Thank you to the host families for taking up this opportunity.

In our classes this term,  many began the year by learning a bit about TORI DOSHI ~ Year of the Rooster. Below you can see some very cute TORI made by the Year 2 students in Rooms 7,8 and 27.

Our Reception classes are learning basic greetings as well as finding out where Japan is in the world. It has been wonderful to hear lots of “Sensei konnichiwa” as we walk around. Great remembering Reception students!

Through the book HARAPEKO AOMUSHI (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), The Year 1 classes will be focussing on learning fruit names, revising colours and learning to say they ate something. The Year 2 classes will cover this also but work also on learning the days of the week and extra food names. We have had a fun start listening to the story read in Japanese and watching a video version of it done through song.  See the link below. Vinall sensei is teaching these classes.

The Year 3/4/5 classes, working with Keiko sensei, are looking at school life in Japan. This is a good lead up to our visiting Myojo students so our students can have a better understanding of their school life and talk about differences with our visitors. Students also started the year by looking at the Year of the Rooster ideas and finding out what animal represents the year they were born. There is a fabulous display in Keiko sensei’s room of the students and their animal.

The Year 6/7 students have started the year by making TEGATA (hand prints). Tegata are done by sumo wrestlers as the “autograph” and include their name written in calligraphy ink. Our students have written their names on their hand prints also and they are on display outside of Vinall sensei’s room. Students are now focussing on a shopping topic. We have started off by looking at convenience stores and vending machines in Japan. Students have found out some new an interesting facts about these things.

We have had an excellent start to the year with classes settling in well to new routines and lots of positives.

Below are some photos of activities so far this year. Here is the link for the video of the Hungry Caterpillar song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n7ReD9o-4U

Thanks for reading,

Sarah and Keiko

 

All Year 2 class’s chickens

Miss Bolt’s class and their tori in the background

Autograph done!

The final display

Getting ready to stamp their hands