3rd Grade Arithmetic – Circles

I recently saw this video from Haichi Toaru (@haichi_toaru) referenced online as an example of 3rd grade math in Japan. At first glance, the whiteboard looks a little intimidating, with so much kanji and geometry packed on screen at once, but I think Toaru-sensei is pretty great and this is not only appropriate for a 3rd grader, but a fun lesson for an adult learner of Japanese to pick up on some new geometry-related vocabulary.

Maybe it’s because we emphasize math at our house so much and because our 3rd grader happens to be a natural, but this seems totally appropriate for that age.

Let’s break it down. First, some vocabulary

KanjiHiraganaEnglish
算数さんすうarithmetic
えんcircle (or Japanese Yen)
かたちshape
てんpoint
半径はんけいradius
直径ちょっけいdiameter
赤いあかいred
青いあおいblue
せんline
まん中まんなかmiddle
中心ちゅうしんcenter
長さながさlength
2倍2ばいdouble

Now, let’s have a look at the white board in English:

English version of the circle lesson

After Toaru-sensei has gone through the lesson, the whiteboard looks something more like this:

Answers for the English version of the circle lesson

After seeing this video online, I’ve been going through Toaru-sensei’s other videos and plan on going through some with my children in the future.