Japanese Cultural Exchange and Language Project
Michelle Schiffler,
the Japanese Language teacher, recently spent the day with Upton students,
introducing them to the customs and vocabulary of Japan. She returned for the
PTA Meeting to share books, costumes and recipes with parents, encouraging them
to help their children learn a second language by borrowing the Japanese
videotapes available in the library. Excited children have been checking them
out ever since.
Two integrated Internet sites to
explore are:
Kids' Japan
Kids can climb Mt. Fuji by
answering 15 questions that teach about the culture.
Kids Web Japan
http://www.jinjapan.org/kidsweb/japan/e.html
Tons of interesting information
about Japan
A
Japanese Story
Mrs. Carole Willis shares Tree
of Cranes
Upton students researching Christmas Customs Around the World enjoyed a
visit from Radcliff storyteller, Mrs. Carole Willis. Willis read Allen Say’s Tree
of Cranes, which relates the author’s own boyhood memories of
Japanese-American Christmas traditions. She also shared a cherished Japanese
ornament and taught the children how to make special diamond shaped origami
decorations for their trees at home.
Japanese
Cultural Exchange Project
Students at Western and Upton Elementary have been researching Japanese
culture using Hardin County Japanese Language tapes; visits with Japanese
Language teacher, Mrs. Michelle Shiffler; fiction and non-fiction books;
Internet sites; and video/e-mail exchanges with Mrs. Laura Mayer and her
students. Mrs. Mayer is formerly from Radcliff and now teaches English to
Japanese pupils in Sagamihara, Japan.
With the talented
assistance of Mrs. Shiffler, students have prepared videos of Japanese songs,
dialogues, exercises, dances and origami they have learned for Mrs. Mayer’s
students. Mrs. Mayer has sent back exciting video e-mails to both schools. To
read transcripts of the video e-mail messages from our Japanese Key-pals and
our answers to them, please click on E-mail to and
from Sagamihara, Japan.
Much knowledge has been gained from this cultural exchange project.
Students translated that knowledge into a Powerpoint project entitled Comparing
Japanese & American Cultures, a multimedia
presentation for this web page.
Upton students gather in the
library to watch
a video e-mail sent from
Sagamihara, Japan by Mrs. Laura Mayer.
Upton students and their
principal, Mrs. Liz Tabb, videotape a tour of their school
and deliver a hearty
"Konnichiwa!" to their new Japanese key-pals in Sagamihara, Japan.
Japanese Play
While researching Fables and Fairy Tales, students in Mrs. Vance's
Kindergaten acted out the Japanese fairy tales, Tsuru no On-gaeshi (A Repaying
Crane) and Kaguya Hime (Princess Kaguya), for their classmates. To find out how
the Repaying Crane got the material for her beautiful weavings and where
Princess Kaguya was really from, click on Japanese Fairy Tales
to read these stories and more.
The Stars of A Repaying Crane
Upton, Western, Japanese Cultural
Exchange
Mrs. Doty's Class at Upton
video-conferences
with Mrs. Bennett's Class at
Western
Upton and Western students have been using Net Meeting to survey each
other about their favorite foods, toys, hobbies, video games and music groups.
They think it is fun to see and hear the person to whom you are talking. They
have e-mailed their Japanese key-pals in Sagamihara to find out their favorite
things. A chart was made
of the results by Upton and Western's STLP Teams, while they were at their own schools which are 25 miles apart,
using a shared file in Net Meeting.
This entire project was named We Are the
Jetsons! It was picked at the Region 2 KYTLC Student Showcase at WKU in
Bowling Green, Ky. to be displayed at the KYTLC Conference 2000 in Louisville. Here is an article by
cyber-reporters from Krammerer Middle School about the booklets of favorite
Internet sites that were sold at the conference to raise money for needy
families across the globe.