The Spider’s thread is a well-known story in Japan. It is a moral fable inspired by Buddhist beliefs about good, evil and redemption, written by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and published in 1918. This kamishibai is suitable for KS3 and above. 

In Japan, it is said that a rabbit lives on the moon and this folktale explains how that came to be. This kamishibai can be used to teach about Otsukimi, the autumn moon viewing festival. Visit the O Tsukimi page for more teaching resources.

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

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 this lesson, students will learn about the key elements of haiku: that they are seasonal poems which contain a ‘phrase’ and a ‘fragment’. Students will also have a chance to write their own haiku and read it aloud. 

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. 

In this lesson, students will practice how to read and write their kamishibai story.

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.