We celebrated International Dot Day! We talked about making their mark and how they will be remembered. 

We celebrated International Dot Day in class. Here are the two videos I was able to make with my two Japanese classes. The first one is with my younger students and the second one is with my older students. Enjoy!

In this lesson both English and Japanese science class made a hypothesis as to what would happen to the Chinese cabbage when put in red and blue colored water. 

Today was the second class of Japanese, but the first math class. I plan to teach math on Tuesdays and social studies on Thursdays. So today, the girls learned how to do 1 ~ 10 on the abacus. It was a way to learn the numbers as well as a way to show it on the abacus. Hopefully they will be able to get to the point of being able to use the abacus for simple calculations.

In the younger class I taught them how to write 

く ku
へ he
て te
そ so
つ tsu

In the older class, I taught them the difference between hiragana and katakana. Since they learned how to write the above hiragana last week, they just needed to learn the katakana this week. 

They went home for the first time with homework so I hope they complete it and study!

Today was my first after school Japanese classes. I have 13 students in my Grades 1 to 3 class and 7 students in my Grades 4 to 6 class. Thursdays are for social studies and we are starting with family. Students learned the Japanese words for each family member. 

Father　お父さん otousan
Mother　お母さん okaasan
Older Brother　お兄さん oniisan
Older Sister　お姉さん onesan
Me　わたし watashi
Younger Brother　弟 otouto
Younger Sister　妹 imouto
Grandpa　おじいさん ojiisan
Grandma　おばあさん obasan
Pets　ペット petto

Both classes learned how to read あいうえお. 

あ　a
い　i
う　u
え　e
お　o

I also decided to teach ひらがな from what's easier to write as opposed to the あいうえお order. So, the older class was able to get to learning how to write くへてそつ. The そ was actually a bit hard for them to write so I don't know how the younger class will do. 

Today in science class the students documented what they saw in each of the bags. 

Everything (air, water, sunlight)
No Air
No Water
No Sunlight

They were really amazed how the one in the closet that got no sunlight was still able to grow. Since this class was a class to observe and document, both classes (Japanese and English class) were able to work well. 

Today we went to the Lyon Arboretum. They were asked about naming the plant parts and what plants need in order to survive. It was very interesting to see how the students in the Japanese science class were able to still answer in English even though they only get a little English during their science lesson. 

In today's class, the students had to make a hypothesis on what would happen if a seed didn't get sunlight/water/air. This was a very hard concept for first graders because they needed to think on their own what would happen and draw their guess or hypothesis. Despite the gestures and drawings, this was especially difficult for the Japanese class to understand because of the language barrier. Therefore, to ensure that the students understood what they did in science class today I made it a point during closing circle time to review what we did. I also made sure that the other first grade teacher did the same during her closing circle time so that the students understood we are experimenting to see what would happen to the seeds if it didn't get sunlight/water/air. 

In today's science class, students had to record what their Brassica plant looks like now. In English, students wrote in simple sentences to explain what they saw. In Japanese, students wrote めばえ if it was sprouting and せいちょう if it already sprouted before and now it's just growing. There is a difference in what they wrote, but the objective was for them to observe and record their observation.