BEYOND THE MOUNT

 During Term 4, the Year 5-6 students studied vocabulary for the seasons. They used these words to make traditional Japanese scrolls.

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The students in Years 5 and 6 used the iPads to produce digital storybooks. Each student wrote their own story using the Japanese characters and created pictures to accompany the story. The finished books were then placed in iBooks for all to share. The students really enjoyed using the iPads to create and publish their work.  Their enthusiasm is best summed up by the student who said, “I just want to keep using them!”

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We have been learning how to use a brush and ink. This is called “calligraphy”. The students in Years 5 and 6 practised writing oni while the students in Year 7 practised the kanji for Japan.

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Setsubun is a Japanese festival celebrated at the beginning of February. One of the main characters of Setsubun is the ONI. He is a demon representing bad spirits and bad luck. People throw beans at oni to make him go away as they only want good luck for the following year.

The students in Years 5 and 6 wrote some descriptive sentences about oni and then created a poster.

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Our new LOTE blog called “JUST JAPANESE” is now up and running. This blog will be a teaching tool containing work for the students in LOTE classes. The students in Years 5 and 6 are currently working on the first task, which is to research some of the places visited on my trip to Japan. Please have a look at the blog and the student responses by clicking on the link in the side column.

 Over the past few weeks, the students in Years 4 – 6 have been using our new iPod Touch to help them learn the Japanese characters. The students can learn about the characters on short videos, listen to hiragana songs and practise the characters by using applications on the ipods. The students have been really interested and seem to be enjoying this new way of learning the hiragana characters.

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During LOTE, the Year 6 students have been using the Flip video cameras to make a short introductory film about Derrinallum College. The following film shows various aspects of the school and is narrated in Japanese.

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Students in Years 4 to 6 began the year by listing as many words as they could about Japan. They were able to come up with lots of words about the country and culture. Using an application called “Wordle”, they created bright and colourful word clouds about Japan. Have a look at some of their wonderful creations!

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