Enrichment Day 2: Japan
Today went so much better than Monday! Even though going into the afternoon I was really nervous and felt under-planned, the lesson went well! We planned a Venn diagram to compare what children do in the United States and Japan. To help with behavioral issues that we were having before, we decided that we should split up our kids. Rachael had George and Kevin. Jordan had Joshua and Tyra. I had Tamia. This seemed to work very well. I felt that we were really making the kids think. The results of the small group work were amazing! The students shared some awesome American characteristics.
Once we finished with our American children circle, we started reading a book to find out more about Japanese culture. After every page (which was a topic), we stopped to talk about each topic. We asked the students what they heard that was different from what we do. Some students didn’t quite understand. A few times, we had to look to the pictures to explain what the words meant. (The pictures in the book were actual photographs that had real people, places and things.) We also had the children find words in the text that might help them. We told them to “search for something that gives you a clue”. This strategy worked well.
Once we were finished with comparison charts and reading, we had the children move from the floor to the table to do an activity. The kids were really excited to be doing something completely new! None of them have ever experienced origami. They absolutely loved it! One of the students actually asked if we could do another animal next time.
One of the topics that we talked about were the differences between our written language and spoken language. A few of the students actually asked to write a letter to someone in Japan. I think that we will definitely try to do this!
This enrichment lesson was much better than the first. I believe that the students are really learning and excited to learn more about Japan.