Japanese Yokai Craft Paper Cubes | 6 Monster Cube Buddies with Swappable Faces | K-2 ESL Speaking and Writing

Ribbit — ESL/EFL Worksheet Resource

This 21-page paper craft has children build six yokai, spirits and monsters from Japanese folk stories, as hanging paper cubes, then use them to practise "It has… / It doesn't have…" in speaking and writing. It is written for kindergarten to 2nd grade English learners. The six yokai are the oni, kappa, yurei, tengu, kitsune and kasa-obake. There are seven full-colour sheets, because the oni comes in both red and blue, and six line-art sheets for children to colour themselves. Every yokai uses the same cube net and the same size face pieces, so the kappa's beak fits the oni and the fox's eyes fit the umbrella. Children describe their yokai, swap face parts with a partner, then describe the new face. A few models have one extra step: the kappa's water dish folds into a small paper bowl, and the kasa-obake's single leg hangs below the cube. The language pages are a Yokai Parts word bank (two horns, a club, a dish, a cucumber, one eye, a long tongue, one leg, tails and more, plus describing words), a Talk About It has/doesn't have grid with a partner frame, a Guess My Yokai! question game ("Does it have horns? Yes, it does."), and two writing pages: Describe Your Yokai and Swap the Faces! An About the Yokai page explains each one in a few child-friendly sentences: oni and the soybean throwing at Setsubun on 3 February, why cucumber sushi rolls are called kappa-maki, yurei stories told on hot summer nights, tengu masks at Mount Takao, the kitsune's nine tails and Inari shrines, and the old belief that objects reaching 100 years old get a spirit. The teacher notes suggest using the oni sheet for Setsubun and the yurei for Obon, and cover build time (40 to 50 minutes for 6 to 8 year olds), paper weight, a lesson sequence, support and stretch frames, and the Talk About It answers. CCSS links: SL.K.1, SL.1.1, SL.1.4, L.1.1c and W.1.2. The face pieces are the same size as those in the Halloween Monster Cubes, so the two packs can be mixed. This download is the A4 file, which makes a 5 cm cube. The A3 version (a 7 cm cube) is in the TpT listing. What's Included: • 21-page printable PDF (A4, 5 cm cubes) • 7 colour cube nets (6 yokai, with a red and a blue oni) • 6 line-art cube nets to colour • Yokai Parts word bank and Talk About It grid • Guess My Yokai! speaking game • 2 writing pages, teacher notes and About the Yokai Skills Practised: • Saying what something has and doesn't have • Yes/no questions with "Does it have…?" • Counting nouns: a dish, one eye, two horns, tails • Describing words in short written sentences • Cutting, folding and following numbered steps Perfect for: • Setsubun, Obon or a Japanese culture unit • English classes in Japan and international schools • ESL and EFL learners from kindergarten to 2nd grade