Lesson Plan

Japanese New Year Lesson Plan: Bigs Edition

A thousand-year-old primary source, zodiac remainders, and an osechi box with meaning.

This is the Bigs Edition of Japanese New Year: one ready-to-teach week written just for grades 7-8. Every day follows the same rhythm: Reading on Monday, Writing and Words on Tuesday, Science and Math on Wednesday, a Hands-on Project on Thursday, and Show and Tell on Friday.

The big question: How does one holiday hold a thousand years of history, a calendar's math and a family's hopes all at once?

The Week

• Mon: The First Day, Then and Now (Reading) • Tue: Is the Paper Card Worth It? (Writing & Words) • Wed: Cycles and Remainders (Science & Math) • Thu: A Mini Osechi Box (Hands-on Project) • Fri: A New Year Program (Show & Tell)

Teaching more than one level? The all-levels edition of Japanese New Year has Littles (K-3), Middles (4-6) and Bigs (7-8) in one file, so siblings or a mixed classroom can study the same topic together.

Perfect for homeschool families, grade 7-8 classrooms, co-ops and substitute plans.

What's inside

• 5 ready-to-teach days for Bigs (grades 7-8), about 90 to 120 minutes a day
• Lab sheet: The Zodiac Remainder Lab
• Sequence cards (Life of a Kagami Mochi) and a cut-and-sort page (Why Is It Lucky?)
• Writing page: Is the Paper Nengajo Worth Saving?
• Hands-on project: A Mini Osechi Box
• Word search, crossword, scramble and secret code puzzles
• 8 fact cards, 9 vocabulary cards and a book list of 4 titles
• A certificate and an answer key for the grown-up

Instant PDF download after checkout. Print at home.