Certification Ceremony marked the Grand Finale of our second term of the Japanese Club. Students were awarded Beginners and Intermediate level certificates. It was planned as a little surprise, and we were delighted to have the company of Mr. Stef Fleet, PYP Principal and Ms Chiara Giani, ASCP Coordinator. The students were very excited to receive their certificates and each of them had a special moment to share from the entire journey of 10 weeks. To make the ceremony feel a bit traditional and royal, the students were introduced to Green Tea, where they enjoyed tasting it. It was remarkable to see all of them so collaborated as a group. We discussed the plan for the next season and I am trying to include areas of their interests into the sessions to promote further learning.
Finally, I would like to thank Parents for their constant support.
I can't wait to share our lovely pictures from the grand sushi making episode. All the children were excited, cooperative and very well behaved in the kitchen. I am so proud to have a group like this.
Everyone gave a little hand in chopping and later in cleaning. Each student had an opportunity to build their own sushi roll, California roll with the option of rice inside or outside and choice of vegetables from carrots, avocados and cucumbers. I took homemade sushi ginger along with soya sauce as sides for our temaki sushi. Everyone had a chance to eat stomach full. It was a huge success and I feel so happy to see all the children satisfied.
Next week, will be our last session and I have a small surprise planned for the group.
This week, we worked with the idea of Spring Art, representing Sakura: Cherry Blossoms in our drawings. Each student was able to create a piece of work as their understanding of how a Cherry Blosssom tress or bush may look like. The Sakura Art technique used during the session was to create an embossed yet blurred look to show that the tree is in its full bloom. Student work is displayed in the ASCP.
Also, we had a guest speaker for the day. Ms Sun, is an intern at the school and comes from Korean. She has been a student of Japanese Language. She came and spoke about Korea as a neighboring country of Japan, and introduced us to some similarities and differences between the two countries. Students were excited to learn about Korea and we had free discussion on topics of their choice.
Next week, is our Sushi Making Class. The canteen kitchen is booked for the Japanese Club and I will have students for 2 hours, that is we will be covering lessons for week 8&9 together. The students have been looking forward to this for weeks now and I am excited to see their collaboration in the kitchen. I have bought and collected all the ingredients, so the students are bringing just a smile with them. I am hoping to be done by 16:45.
This week was all about our Senso fans. The class was engaged towards perfection to get their own masterpieces. We might collaborate in different ways but the end result is unique and complementing to our personalities. Everyone was proud of having built a fan, which actually works, and will be of some use during the summer!
Next week, we will be doing some Sakura: Cherry blossom prints, to welcome Spring. Please send your child equipped with a painting brush and I will take care of the colors and paper.
I look forward to yet another exciting session with all your children.
We had our session on calligraphy where the students wrote their names in Japanese script, using paint & brush or marker. It seemed like a new task and everyone showed great enthusiasm for it.
In our Notebooks, we work on further learning about days of the week and their symbols.
Next week, we will be making our very own Japanese fans, called as the senso.
I am planning for sushi making as the last activity for our club to make a grand finale.
Week 4 session was packed with loads of fun, activities, videos and food. Children designed their own fruits and vegetable placemats, which is fun way to remember the food vocabulary. Next, we learnt to use chopsticks with an in-class live challenge to eat Japanese nuts (with chopsticks). It was so much fun and we were surrounded by loads of laughter.
We also started planning for our sushi making class and the first step has been accomplished by watching different videos on how to make sushi. This has helped the students to get prepared for the upcoming tasks/ challenges for our kitchen time. Finally, we have been able to decide upon our ingredients. There were some common choices to pick from and I think we have been very agreeable.
I look forward to start calligraphy after the break. Please help you child come equipped with brush and paints or a bold black marker.
This week, we got familiar with the Japanese script and wrote our names in Japanese. We shall build upon this and begin with calligraphy after the winter break. For calligraphy, I would like the students to bring black paint and a thick brush. The other option is to bring a black marker.
Also, we learnt some common ways for greetings and gestures. The class worked collaboratively.
Next week, I will be introducing some sushi making videos, for us to start planning our cooking adventure in the ascp kitchen. We plan to learn about colors and staple food in Japan. I plan to bring some Japanese snacks along as I am sure everyone is going to get hungry!
The highlight of this week was making our origami dolls with the art of paper folding. Everyone came up with beautiful dolls which were then stuck to make book marks/cards. The students were excited and I feel each doll had its own unique touch of perfection and effort put into.
Time runs fast, when we are in the Japanese club. I wanted to do some common ways of greeting and gestures used in Japanese language. I will be taking that up for the next session. I think students will love to have an interactive session.
We will also start with the script and each student has been given out a laminated sheet of Japanese script. Please make sure your child brings that every week as we will use it often. I don't expect them to remember all the letters, but I surely want then to try using as many as possible. I believe it will be fun!
We had a great start with enthusiastic bunch of students, eager to know and learn about Japan.
We exchanged greetings in Japanese and learned about Japan as an island country. Also, the students created their family tree in Japanese.
Next week, we start building our Japanese dolls wearing Kimono as our 1st craft work of the season. These origami dolls could be used for bookmarks, greeting cards, etc.
I look forward to crafty afternoon with the children.