January 2024 Edition Minato City Nanzan ES Principal Noriaki Kobayashi

Tokyo, Minato City, Motoazabu 3－8－15

TEL 03（3403）5773

FAX 03（3408）4532

MAIL：nanzan-es@minato-tky.ed.jp

2024, The Year of the Wood Dragon (Kinoetatsu)
Principal Noriaki Kobayashi
Happy New Year! I would like to express my sincere appreciation for yourunderstanding and cooperation in the academic activities of our school over the past
year. In particular, I was very happy to see the students' enthusiasm as we were able tohold the Sports Day and the School Performance as we did before the Covid pandemic.
2024 is the Chinese zodiac year of the Wood Dragon “Kinoetatsu.” This way of
calculating the time and date comes from the Shang Dynasty period in ancient China
and was found in the texts of the Oracle Bone Script. The “Wood” is one of the 10
heavenly stems (an ancient way to count ordinal numbers) and the “Dragon” comesfrom the 12 zodiac animals, also known as the 12 earthly branches.
The “Kinoe” is the first of the 12 heavenly branches and represents the number one andthe beginning of things. It is also said to represent other things such as dominance and alarge tree that stands straight and towering.
The "Tatsu" refers to the dragon, the only fictional creature in the twelve Chinese zodiac
signs. The dragon, which has been worshipped as the god of water and the sea,
symbolizes the dynamism of nature that causes natural phenomena such as tornadoes
and thunderstorms, and it has been said that "when the dragon appears, happy things
will happen. It is said that "Kinoetatsu," which combines these two symbols, represents theauspiciousness of "the bud of success growing and taking shape
As we begin the year 2024, the year of the Wood
Dragon, what kind of year do you hope to have? I hopethat the students of Nanzan can have a pleasant year,
leading the way like "Kinoe," and like "Tatsu," the dragon,
with has great momentum.
We ask for your understanding and cooperation in our.
academic activities this year as well.
Curriculum for the Next Academic Year
After receiving feedback at the third meeting of the Nanzan School Management
Meeting in December, we have begun work on the curriculum for the next schoolyear.
In accordance with the national policy, Minato City will further promote work stylereforms and reduce the number of extra hours during the next school year. In linewith this, we will devise class content and teaching methods to ensure that students
are able to consolidate what they have learned, and we will also review our school
events. In addition, we hope to allocate the time created by the reforms to timespent between teachers and students, time spent on class preparation, andteachers' mental health.
We will inform you of the decided curriculum for the next school year after it isapproved at the fourth meeting of the School Management Council.

School Performance
Head of the School Performance
The School Performance held on December 8 (Fri) and 9 (Sat) wasa great success, thanks to the students' hard work and the warm
applause of the audience. Regardless of whether their parts werelarge or small, they realized that even the slightest interruption in
their lines, movements, singing, or dancing would ruin theperformance, so they worked together as one to create a good
performance, even though they may have felt a sense ofnervousness. They felt a sense of accomplishment in conveying theworld of the story, and experienced the pleasure of laughter,emotion, and applause, and were able to experience and learn many things that are only possible atthe School Performance.
The parents' support and encouragement in preparing costumes and props, as well as watching
their children practice at home, gave them confidence and helped to make the day a great success.
Thank you very much.

Fureai Month～No Bullying in Nanzan～
Head of School Life Instruction
The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education
designates June, November, and February as"Fureai Months," to raise awareness of thecurrent situation and prevention of things likebullying and truancy, and efforts to addressthese issues.
At our school, we had the students spend timeto think about bullying. Based on what they thought about and the various efforts being maderegarding bullying, they created anti-bullying slogans according to their grade, and held two "FureaiMonth Presentations" on December 12 (Tue) and 15 (Fri).
Through the Fureai Month activities, we hope that students will use more kind (fuwa fuwa) words thatmake themselves and others happy when said, find good qualities in their classmates, and realize theimportance of treating others with consideration, and that this will lead to a better Nanzan ElementarySchool.

January Schedule of Events
9 (Tue)Opening Ceremony 3 Periods
Club

5 Periods

18 (Thu)Drug Use Prevention Lesson (G6)10 (Wed)School Lunch Starts

11 (Thu)Kakizomekai (Grades 1,2,3,5)

20 (Sat)Information Morals Lecture (G5,6)

12 (Fri)Kakizomekai (Grades 4,6)26 (Fri)Kanji Level Test (5th Period)

15 (Mon)

Step Starts

16 (Tue)Kakizome Exhibition (Until the 20th)

January Goal

Greet Others Pleasantly※5 Period Day