Lesson Plan

Japanese New Year Lesson Plan

Ring 108 temple bells, write a New Year card, and find out why a shrimp on a plate is a wish for a long life.

This five-day unit study on Oshogatsu, the Japanese New Year, gives you a ready-to-teach plan for three levels, Littles (K-3), Middles (4-6) and Bigs (7-8), for siblings or a mixed classroom. Days run Reading, Writing and Words, Science and Math, Hands-on Project, then a Friday Show and Tell where your child or students present what they made. Littles count 108 bells in cups of ten, build a kagami mochi and play fukuwarai. Middles scale a mochi recipe with fractions, design a nengajo and make their own karuta deck. Bigs read a thousand-year-old primary source, use remainders to crack the twelve-animal zodiac, and argue whether paper New Year cards are worth saving.

Perfect for homeschool families, multi-age classrooms and holidays around the world units.

What's inside

• 5 ready-to-teach days for each of three levels
• Parts of a Kadomatsu label sheet with answer key
• Lab sheets: 108-bell count, mochi fractions, zodiac remainders
• Sequence cards, cut-and-sort pages and a writing page for every level
• Word search, crossword, maze, scramble and secret code puzzles
• Fact cards, vocabulary, a book list and a certificate per level

Instant PDF download after checkout. Print at home.