🐞 Discover Insects in Japan with This Level 2 Japanese Reader
Insects (むし) is a Level 2 Japanese Reader that introduces beginning learners to common insects, simple descriptive Japanese, and counting through beautiful, authentic photographs taken in Japan.
The reader begins in the forest: ここは もりです。This is a forest.
Learners discover that many different insects live there before meeting them one by one through close-up photographs.
Butterflies, bees, praying mantises, grasshoppers, dragonflies and other small creatures become the focus for simple repeated reading patterns such as:
これは はちです。This is a bee. はちも あしが 6ぽん あります。A bee also has six legs.
The repetition makes the language predictable, allowing early readers to focus on understanding new vocabulary while gradually becoming comfortable reading complete Japanese sentences. The photographs give learners strong visual clues, so they can often understand the meaning before needing a translation.
At the same time, learners discover an important feature of Japanese: counters. Rather than simply learning numbers, students see how Japanese counts long, thin objects such as insect legs using ほん／ぽん.
Learners also notice the difference between は and も as new insects are introduced and compared.
Combining repeated sentence patterns, authentic nature photography, counting practice, and accessible hiragana, this Level 2 Japanese Reader gives beginners a successful and engaging early reading experience.
🎯 Language Features in This Level 2 Japanese Reader
Students will practise:
- Reading simple Japanese sentences written in hiragana
- Introducing insects using これは～です
- Describing what an insect has using ～は あしが～あります
- Understanding the difference between は and も
- Using あります to describe things that exist or are present
- Counting long, thin objects using ～ほん／～ぽん
- Recognising Japanese numbers in meaningful sentences
- Learning common insect and nature vocabulary
- Developing reading fluency through repeated, modeled sentence patterns
- Using photographs to predict and confirm meaning
📖 Level 2 Japanese Reader Details
Japanese Reader Level: Level 2
Recommended for: Early Beginners
Language Focus: です, あります, は／も, counting with ～ほん／～ぽん
Vocabulary Theme: Insects, nature, body parts, and numbers
Cultural Theme: Insects and nature in Japan
Script: Hiragana
Character Count: 201
Pages: 15 reading pages
Text Type: Information Report
Product Type: A5 saddle-stitched booklet
ISBN: 978-0-6481178-1-0
✅ Perfect For
- Learners ready to move from words into simple です・あります sentences
- Primary school Japanese programs
- Beginning secondary school students
- Adult beginners
- Home learning
- Japanese language classrooms
- Practising Japanese numbers and counters in context
- Developing understanding of は and も
- Building insect and nature vocabulary through authentic photographs
- Early independent reading and Extensive Reading (Tadoku)
📚 Teaching & Learning Resources
Every reader includes free access to our Resource Library.
Included with every reader:
🏫 Teaching a Class?
🐞 Bring Insects into Your Japanese Classroom
Use Insects (むし) for whole-class reading, number and counter practice, nature units, or early Japanese literacy.
The repeated sentence patterns make the book particularly suitable for modeled and shared reading, while the large, authentic photographs help students predict meaning before reading the Japanese text.
👉 Explore Insects (むし) Class Set & Online Flipbook
💜 A Note from Mariko Sensei
When I was growing up in Japan, insects seemed to be everywhere.
Compared with my childhood, I feel that we don’t see quite as many insects now, especially in the cities. But when you slow down and really look, they are still there—on flowers, leaves, trees, and in the quiet corners of nature.
All the insects in this reader were photographed in different places in Japan. I love the way the close-up photographs reveal details we might normally walk past without noticing.
I created this reader not only to help beginners practise simple Japanese, but also to encourage learners to look a little more closely at the natural world around them.
Perhaps after reading the book, you might go outside and see how many insects you can find too.
Happy reading!
— Mariko Sensei
📖 Your Next Japanese Reader
🐾 Animals (どうぶつ) — Continue with highly predictable sentences while learning animal vocabulary and practising です／じゃないです through authentic photographs.
🎨 What color Are the Body Parts? (からだは なにいろ？) — Continue at Level 2 with repeated descriptive sentences while learning body parts, colors, and useful Japanese vocabulary.
🐱 Chibi the Cat (ねこのちび) — Take the next step from factual sentences into a simple story, introducing everyday ます-form actions and expressions such as ～が すきです.
📚 Explore More Japanese Reader Packs
🌱 Beginner Hiragana Readers Starter Pack — Highly predictable readers with repetitive sentence patterns and strong visual support, helping beginners build confidence reading hiragana. Insects is included in this pack.
🏫 Primary & Elementary School Japanese Readers Pack — A broader Levels 1–4 collection with games, quizzes, descriptive texts, cultural readers and stories for primary learners. Insects is included as a Level 2 reader.
📚 All Japanese Readers Pack — Explore the complete graded collection, progressing from first Japanese reading through to longer and more advanced 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, scan, photograph, upload, transmit, or share any part of this book without the copyright holder’s prior permission.
English 
日本語
Fargonigas –
Expertly photographed