Introducing Japanese: Pre-School & Pre-K

こんにちは！　やっと春が来た！

Hello! Spring has finally come! 

I am very happy about the weather and the sun we've been getting--even some of the fantastic thunderstorms I've seen in my areas are great. Currently, to go along with the season, my job as encouraged me to promote spring in Japanese Class. I have been making sakura flowers and petals for weeks now. I get so excited when I plan these things! 

Geekin' out during Hanami decorating.

For now, though, I wanted to touch on simply introducing the world of Japan to young children. Prior to my employment, the early childhood education center in which I work at did not have such a program included in their tutoring and small-group learning courses. After working solely in Pre-school for a few months, I was offered a chance to teach Japanese to the children enrolled at the center. Wowza. I was very excited and said yes almost immediately, but then thought: "Oh my gosh. How am I going to teach Japanese to children so young? Wait, how am I gonna teach at all?!"

Introducing Japan(ese)

At this age, children don't even know where they live let a lone a little island across the world. So to start off, I stole a spare globe (I mean, borrowed) from a classroom and asked the children what they did know about our world. It helped that the kids had just finished learning about this subject a little in a unit called "My World" so I had something for them to reference them to. I asked questions such as:

1. What do I have in my hands? (They would answer "globe" of course, then I'd ask more.) What is on a globe?
2. Where do we live? 
3. What is the name of our country? 
4. What other countries do you know? 
5. Do you know what an island is?

The beginnings of a mini Japanese library.

Questions like these helped open the door to talking about Japan as well as open their minds a little. It led to a discussion about smaller parts of the world, the proximity of places, the surroundings, flags, etc. For more of a visual aid, I read a story called Kids Meet Japan. I wasn't a fan of the illustration style but the point was just to get some basic concepts across. (Besides, I have the books to the right and more coming as well...)

After our chat, I had the kids make mini Japanese flags to show off around the center and at home. But mostly, I just really wanted them to remember what the heck we talked about that day. I'm pretty new at this somewhat formal teaching, but the thing about this opportunity is that I get to make it my own and learn what does and does not work. And that's pretty すごい (great).

じゃまった,

茶色