This week in Junior Japanese we have been learning about the sakura (cherry blossom) festival, hanami. Cherry blossom festivals are an important custom and are held all over Japan during the spring. The students designed and decorated their own sakura trees. These are displayed in the Japanese classroom. I invite you to come and see our beautiful display.
Arigatou,
Walker Sensei

Last week in Senior Japanese class we learnt about the Hanami festival in Japan. We watched a very interesting video that taught us many Japanese keywords in which the Japanese people use to describe the sakura (cherry blossom) trees. We drew our own sakura tree and wrote the Japanese keywords on the branches of the tree. They look Sugoi (amazing)! We are also learning eight classroom instructions which help us to understand classroom directions from Miller Sensei.
These include: *Mou ichido kudasai (One more time please);
*Shizuki ni shite kudasai (Please be quiet);
*Mite kudasai (Please look);
*Kaite kudasai (Please write);
*Akete kudasai (Please open);
*Te o agete kudasai (Please raise your hand);
*Yonde kudasai (Please read);
*Kiite kudasai (Please listen).

We have also been studying an enquiry unit about the geography of Japan.
These are our key questions:
a) Where is Japan?
b) What does Japan look like?
c) What are some customs of Japan?
It would be great if you could please have a conversation with your child about the wonderful things that we are learning in Senior Japanese class each week. For example, ask them to sing for you the ‘Japanese Classroom Instruction song’ this Thursday, which is to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Arigatou Gozaimasu (thank you very much),
Miller Sensei.