Lunch at a Japanese School

Lunch at a Japanese School

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about reading to find information in an explanation text.
Lunch at a Japanese School
by Jenny Hames

Children at school in Japan learn many of the same things that New Zealand children learn at school. But their lunchtimes are very different. Their food is cooked for them at school, and they all eat together in their classrooms.

Japanese children

At the end of morning classes, the children all get up and bow to the teacher. Then, as soon as she tells them, they put on the white smocks they wear to eat their lunch. The children on lunch duty serve the food on to the plates. They wear masks over their mouths, to stop them breathing germs over the food.

Japanese children

No one starts eating until everyone has been served. Then one of the children gets up and says, "Now we shall eat." The children in this class are eating rice, fish, seaweed soup, and a mandarin. At the end of the meal, the child who gave the word to start gets up to say that lunch is over. They all scrape their plates clean and pile them up. Then the children on lunch duty take the plates back to the kitchen.
 
 
 
Read about lunchtime at a Japanese school to do the following tasks.
 
a)
The flowchart below shows what happens at lunchtime in a Japanese school.
Use the boxes to describe what happens next.
 
 
The children bow to the teacher.
i)
 The children put on white smocks.
 
 The children on lunch duty put masks on their faces.
ii)   
  
 
 
 
 One child says "Now we shall eat."
iii)   
 
 
 
 
 A child says "Lunch is over."
iv)   
 
 
 
 
 The children on lunch duty take the plates back to the kitchen.
 
 
b)

 
What is one way that lunchtime at a Japanese school is different from lunchtime at a New Zealand school?
 
_____________________________________________________________
 
c)

 
What is one way that lunchtime at a Japanese school is the same as lunchtime in a New Zealand school
 
_____________________________________________________________
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper.
Copyright: 
Lunch at a Japanese School - Text and photos was first published by Learning Media Limited in School Journal on behalf of the Ministry of Education. © Jenny Hames 1993.
Level:
2
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking
Keywords: 
reports, School Journal, comprehension, comparison, sequencing, flowchart construction
Description of task: 
Students are required to read an article and complete a flow chart, as well as make comparisons between Japanese and New Zealand school lunchtimes.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies

as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.

Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: processing system, set 3
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 

 

Y4 (11/1999)

a)

ii)
iii)
iv)

The children on lunch duty serve the food.
The children eat their lunch.
The children scrape and stack their plates.

easy
very easy
very easy

b)

 

Accept any difference mentioned in the article, e.g., "The food is cooked for them at school".

very easy

c)

 

Accept any similarity between a fact from the article and the child's own lunchtime rules, e.g., "We both sit down for lunch."

difficult