August Full Moon – Kaguyahime
We had the first “test run” of a new English club on Ogijima – the Ogi Moon Club! The goal of the club is to give children opportunities to hear English being spoken, and to engage in play together while practicing new English words and phrases. We listened to the story of Kaguyahime in English and watched it being acted out with small toys. Listening to the familiar story in English helps us make connections to new vocabulary and gain confidence with new words to tell a familiar story.
This month’s vocabulary from our story:
“Long, long ago” むかしむかし
Bamboo 竹
“grew very fast” とても早く成長しました
“just like bamboo” 竹のように
Full moon 満月
(Bonus vocabulary!) Blue moon and “once in a blue moon” ひと月に2回目の満月を表す英語フレーズです。 「一度ブルームーンで」とは、めったに起こらないことを意味します。
After reading and telling the story, we could choose to participate in different activities around the room. Children are naturally curious and eager to play and learn. Giving them free choice of the activities and how to spend their time honors the child’s interests and encourages them to be a willing participant.
The different activities were …
🌕Bamboo Character Station – where children could create their own character that is born out of bamboo. Using many different materials such as clay, wires, fabric, small bits of bamboo, and markers, children designed their characters. We talked about our characters as we worked – there were super heroes, princesses, and even a tiny baby Kaguyahime inside of clay bamboo.
🌕Moon Shapes Station – at this table we closely investigated pictures and print outs of the moon. We talked about finding pictures and images in the clouds; and that people also see images in the moon. We asked, “what do you see?” and traced shapes on our papers. Is it a crab claw? A rabbit? A cat? This activity not only helps increase our English vocabulary, but we are also building recognition and familiarity with the moon as we look at its light and dark spaces.
🌕Snack Station – children love snacks! This month we ate Oreo cookies and milk. We even licked off some icing to make different moon shapes (half moon, crescent moon) with our cookies. We observed the changing face of the moon as we learned the names of the phases of the moon in English.
New moon (no moon) – 新月
Crescent moon – 三日月
Half moon – 半月
🌕Bamboo bowling – we set up the bamboo forest, just like the one the bamboo cutter walked through, then we rolled the “ball” down the path and knocked them all down. If only the bamboo cutter’s job was this simple and fun! 😅 This kind of playful conversation with peers is an important part of gaining confidence in a second language.
Thank you for joining us this month for Ogi Moon Club! Don’t forget to peek outside on August 31st to observe this month’s Blue Moon. We hope to see you again for the next full moon!
English 
Japanese