Every weekend, Tualatin's Hazelbrook Middle School becomes Portland Japanese ...

TUALATIN -- It's a scene fit for any kindergarten class: a room full of chatty, laughing children. They've become distracted during the brief transition between activities.

Unfazed, the teacher turns to a well-used tool and begins a simple clap, clap, clap-clap-clap. The students follow suit.

The room falls silent.

It's time for a writing exercise. The students walk toward the chalkboard, each lining up to demonstrate the same task. But they're working on something you won't see in most Portland-area kindergarten classes -- they're all practicing the same Japanese character, one of about 50 they'll learn this year.

"(The) beginning of the year and end of the year is very different," said Yasuko Tavangari, one of two teachers in the room. "They master so many skills."

Portland Japanese School is a 363-student K-12 school that serves the entire Portland area and beyond. While its students come from as far away as Salem and Longview, Wash., a long-standing agreement with the Tigard-Tualatin School District brings them to Tualatin's Hazelbrook Middle School every Saturday, 50 weeks per year.

The private school, founded in 1971, operates under Shokookai of Portland , an organization of Japanese business leaders that provides resources for Japanese nationals here temporarily. Many of the school's students are the families of men and women who came to Oregon through work and might stay for a few years.

Portland Japanese School students enroll in their local districts during the week. Then they come to Hazelbrook each Saturday for a six-hour school day that focuses entirely on two subjects: Japanese and mathematics. Not a word of English is spoken as students connect with Japanese friends and keep their language skills sharp.

"When the children go back to Japan, they can get back into the school system smoothly," said Yasushi Yogo, chair of Shokookai's education committee, which oversees the school. "It works very well."


It takes some extra effort to transform Hazelbrook into a Japanese school every weekend. Volunteers and staff arrive about 8 a.m. to set up and reorganize spaces to fit their needs, said Shokookai Executive Director Yoshiko O'Brien. The school day begins at 9 a.m.

For students, Portland Japanese School is by no means a weekend vacation from the rest of the school week. The curriculum is focused and intense, and students have to earn their place in class.

A Look at Spiders: Thematic Units and Lesson Activities

By Melvin Berger

Insect or Spider?

Children often confuse insects and spiders, so spend a science lesson teaching them the difference.

Spiders - 8 legs, 2 body parts (abdomen, cephalothorax), no antennae and no wings Insects - 6 legs, 3 body parts (head, thorax and abdomen), antennae and most have wings

Once you have taught them the differences, show them pictures of different types of insects and spiders to classify or give them a Venn diagram to complete about the two creatures.

Parts of a Spider

Teach the children the parts of a spider and give them a diagram of a spider to label.

Spider Measuring

Add some measuring practice to your math center. Draw and cut out several spiders with different sized bodies and laminate them. Place them in your math center for your students to practice measuring. Provide rulers for standard measurements, but also provide items that the children can use for non-standard units of measurement, like snap cubes, dried beans or paper clips. Encourage them to measure the spiders several different ways.

Story Problems

Give your students some fun story problems about spiders to solve. Try a few of these problems or make up your own.

If three spiders are climbing on a wall, how many legs are there in all?

7 spiders are in a barn. Some are spinning webs and some are sleeping. How many of each could there be? (This problem has multiple answers.)

There are 12 spiders, but only 8 spider webs. How many more spiders than webs are there?

Spider Web Graphic Organizer

Read a book about spiders and then show the students how to create a spider web graphic organizer to record what they learned about spiders. On a large sheet of paper, have the children draw a large oval in the center with a smaller circle or oval on top. This will be the body of the spider. On the larger circle, have them write the title of the book and the author. Then have them draw 8 lines coming out from the body for the legs. On each line they can write a fact from the book about spiders.

Share this cute story, told from a spider's point of view, about a spider who just wants to be a pet. Unfortunately all of the humans are afraid of her. Use this book for a lesson on point of view. Discuss how it would be different if one of the humans was telling the story. For a writing connection, let the children write letters from the spider to the humans telling why she would make a great pet.