Annual Events: ŌMISOKA

About "ŌMISOKA"

おおみそか is New Year’s Eve in Japan.

おおみそか is an important time to be thankful for the year past and to prepare to welcome the new year.

Many people spend おおみそか with their families, but nowadays some people go to countdown parties, travel over the vacation, and spend the day in many other ways.

おおみそか PPT

Through the slides, students will learn a lot about what people do before おおみそか to welcome the new year and how people spend that day.

You can change the language in the slides to suit your students’ Japanese level. There is also additional information in the slide notes. Please refer to it as needed.

Have fun learning about おおみそか!

ŌMISOKA PPT

Activity Ideas

Activity 1: Make your own ねんがじょう (a new year greeting card)!

Step1: Remind students what is typically found on ねんがじょう.

As already learned in the “Ōmisoka PPT”, teachers can ask students the following questions,

Q1. What is ねんがじょう? (A: New Year’s greeting card)

Q2. What contents are usually included in ねんがじょう? (A: New Year’s greetings “あけましておめでとうございます” and the zodiac animal of the year, etc.)

Useful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioSl2AQSfQ0

Useful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky0WvgC1BHw&t=2s

Step2: Learn about じゅうにし (zodiac animals) from each year.

Here are some materials to help.

This juni-shi PPT is for learning zodiac animals’ name in Japanese and contains a chart to find to find the zodiac animal for each year.

Juni-shi PPT

This juni-shi cards, which can be printed on both sides, are to help students practice じゅうにし names.

Junishi_card (PDF)

This juni-shi colouring-in sheet (PDF) is also for learning and reinforcing the animals’ name in Japanese by tracing the hiragana names and colouring-in the animals’ illustrations.