Otsukimi literally means “Moon Viewing” and is an autumn festival in Japan celebrating the Harvest Moon.

According to an old Japanese folktale, rabbits are associated with the Tsukimi festival in autumn. Follow this video to make your own moon rabbit!

In this lesson, students will explore the impact of different tenses in creative writing by writing prose about their journey to school and editing their own work.

In Lesson 1, students will respond creatively to images of Japan, using sensory language to write a description of a scene and will reflect on the concept of journeys. 

Haiku are a part of Japanese culture. Often mistakenly taught as just a three-line, 5-7-5 syllable poems, these lessons introduce students to the true essence of haiku.

For students at KS 1, or those who do not have time to pursue the whole Scheme of Work, these resources can be used to make Kamishibai using a story completely made up by the students. 

Students will practice their public speaking skills by using the illustrated cards they produced in the previous lesson to perform their own kamishibai. They will also give constructive feedback to peers and improve their performance based on feedback they receive.

In this lesson students illustrate their kamishibai cards, in preparation for their performance. The work is divided up between the class so that all students are working together to create a complete kamishibai set.

This optional art class combines Kamishibai with Manga, giving students a basic introduction to this popular artistic style and allowing them to experiment and create their own manga characters which can be included in their kamishibai. 

In Lesson 5 and 6, students will learn how to summarise key information by making a ‘skeleton story’ and then will create an illustrated storyboard.