🪁 Discover Traditional Japanese Kites with This Level 1 Japanese Reader

Kites (たこ) is a Level 1 Japanese Reader that introduces beginning learners to the Japanese zodiac animals through simple hiragana, repeated sentence patterns, and beautiful handmade traditional kites.

Meet the animals of the Japanese zodiac one by one as they fly across the sky on colorful handmade kites.

Learners encounter familiar animals such as the mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep and monkey through a simple repeated reading pattern:

ねずみさん、かわいい！Mouse, how cute!      うしさん、かわいい！Cow, how cute!

The predictable language allows absolute beginners to experience the satisfaction of successfully reading a Japanese book, while the photographs provide strong visual clues to meaning.

But this reader is more than an introduction to Japanese words.

The kites featured in the book were handmade in the traditional way by Yoshio Sakazawa of Utsunomiya City, Japan, who also shared his knowledge of kite flying with children through schools and local kite clubs.

Combining simple Japanese, repetition, visual support, and authentic cultural content, this Level 1 Japanese Reader gives new learners an accessible and memorable first experience of reading Japanese independently.

🎯 Language Features in This Level 1 Japanese Reader

Students will practise:

• Reading simple Japanese written in hiragana
• Recognising the names of Japanese zodiac animals
• Reading the repeated pattern ～さん、かわいい！
• Recognising さん after names and animal words
• Building familiarity with Japanese sounds through hiragana
• Identifying repeated patterns in Japanese words and phrases
• Using photographs and visual clues to understand simple Japanese
• Progressing from individual vocabulary to simple Japanese sentences

📖 Level 1 Japanese Reader Details

Japanese Reader Level: Level 1
Recommended for: Absolute Beginners
Language Focus: Hiragana, animal vocabulary, repetition and simple descriptive language
Vocabulary Theme: Japanese zodiac animals
Cultural Theme: Traditional Japanese kites and the Japanese zodiac
Script: Hiragana
Character Count: 221
Pages: 17
Text Type: Information report
Product Type: A5 saddle-stitched booklet
ISBN: 978-1-925808-14-8

✅ Perfect For

• Absolute beginners learning Japanese
• Learners beginning to read hiragana
• Primary and elementary Japanese students
• Learners progressing from words to simple Japanese sentences
• First Japanese extensive reading experiences
• Japanese culture lessons
• Units exploring animals and the Japanese zodiac
• Extensive Reading (Tadoku)
• Independent beginner reading

🎧 Teaching & Learning Resources

Every reader includes free access to our Resource Library.

Included with every reader — coming soon:

• 🎧 Audio recordings narrated by Mariko Sensei
• 📖 English translation
• 💻 Quizlet vocabulary activities

🏫 Teaching a Class?

Bring Kites (たこ) into your Japanese classroom with a Class Set & Online Flipbook.

Perfect for shared reading, whole-class teaching, and introducing hiragana, Japanese zodiac animals, and traditional Japanese culture through highly visual, predictable reading.

👉 Explore Kites (たこ) Class Set & Online Flipbook

💜 A Note from Mariko Sensei

One of the greatest joys in creating this book was the opportunity to feature the beautiful handmade kites of Yoshio Sakazawa from Utsunomiya City, Japan.

For many years, Yoshio handcrafted traditional Japanese kites and shared his passion with children through schools and local kite clubs, helping to pass on this wonderful cultural tradition.

When I showed him the finished book, he was delighted to see his kites being shared with Japanese language learners. His smile reminded me how special it is to share Japan’s cultural traditions with future generations.

I hope you enjoy discovering the beauty of traditional Japanese kites while learning about the Japanese zodiac animals.

Happy reading!
— Mariko Sensei

📚 Your Next Japanese Reader

❓ What Is It? (これなに？) — Continue with highly predictable question-and-answer patterns and strong visual clues, helping beginners build confidence through repetition.

🍫 Japanese Snacks (にほんのおかし) — Continue early Japanese reading through a fun guessing format with repeated patterns, simple descriptive clues, and authentic photographs.

🎨 What color Are the Body Parts? (からだはなにいろ？) — Take the next step from words and repeated phrases into simple descriptive sentences using colors and body parts.

📚 Explore More Japanese Reader Packs

🌱 Beginner Hiragana Readers Starter Pack — Designed especially for learners beginning to read hiragana, with highly predictable, repetitive, and modeled sentence patterns, strong visual support, and a gentle progression from words to short sentences and stories. Kites is included in this pack.

🏫 Primary & Elementary School Readers Pack — A broader Levels 1–4 collection for primary learners, offering a variety of word games, quizzes, descriptive texts, cultural readers, and stories, with increasing challenge for developing and more confident readers.

📚 All Japanese Readers Pack — Explore the complete Japanese Reader collection, progressing from first hiragana reading to longer Japanese texts.

📌 Important Information

This Japanese Reader is designed for individual use and extensive reading (Tadoku).

For classroom use, please purchase the Class Set with Online Flipbook.

Copyright © Mariko Earle. All rights reserved.

Please do not copy, reproduce, distribute, store, transmit, or share any part of this book without prior permission from the copyright holder.