Yesterday was a public holiday. We drove to Awaji Island, a large island between Shikoku and Honshu. It proved to be good practice for when we go to New Zealand at Christmas time, as if we do decide to drive, we will take the exact same route to get to Kobe, on the mainland (and take a ferry from there to Kansai airport).
Onokoro World Park is a small, rundown theme park - much like any in Japan. Travelling there was a mission in itself. We left very early - 7am, by the time we actually got away. We took our lunch with us and ate upon arrival. It was nice spending the afternoon walking around, looking at the miniature world wonder replicas, the world museum and going on some of the rides. Eddi really enjoyed herself - it was a great family outing.
The trip home was just as arduous as the trip there. But at least we got a sample of how it could well be come December and our travel to and from the airport.
Below is a slideshow of pictures that we took - there are about 50 pictures, so it may be a bit sporadic as they load. I'll get some video up at a later date.
Peace.
Timotheos
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Ōnaro Shougakkou - Class Summaries
Here is a summary of the lessons I did this morning. Every lesson started with a greeting: "How are you?" > "I'm fine, and you?", so there is no need to mention that.
Period: 2
Grades: 1-2 (6-8 year olds)
Number of students: 6
Focus
Animals.
Activity 1: Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Unlike yesterday, only three of the six students knew this song. But it was easy enough to teach E-I-E-I-O after introducing the animals and their sounds.
Activity 2: Song: B-I-N-G-O
We sang through it. Even though the same students who didn't know Old MacDonald also didn't know this song, it was easy enough with such a small class to teach them and get them to clap.
Activity 3: Game: Bingo
We played animal bingo. Probably the highlight of the lesson. I gave stickers to the winners in each of the two rounds we did.
Conclusion
Introducing the animals and their sounds and singing through the song took quite a while. Never assume that kids know something. I also want to try and reduce the amount of Japanese that I use. I need to use more gestures and actions and to let the pictures speak for themselves a lot more.
--
Period: 3
Grades: 5-6 (10-12 year olds)
Number of students: 10
Focus
Countries; the body (revision).
Activity 1: Body parts review
After the initial greeting we reviewed body parts for a while and tested that the students could listen and respond. The teacher says a body part and the students have to place their hand (or hands) on it as fast as possible*.
* Another suggestion for this is to just play Simon Says, but if students don't know the game, it can be difficult to explain it without using Japanese.
Activity 2: "I want to go to..."
The teacher put up pictures of flags and we reviewed country names in English. We then had the students suggest things in the nine countries that were on the board: landmarks, food etc. The target sentences were introduced: "I want to go to to..."; "I like..."; and "I want to see...". Each student chose a country and after some practice they used the target sentences.
Conclusion
Not a very exciting lesson. We could have had more fun with reviewing body parts and the country exercise could have been a bit more interactive. The teacher chose to not use Eigo Note 2; the lesson was simply based on the section on countries. Things could have been done differently, but at least the students got to practise talking about foreign countries.
--
Period: 4
Grades: 3-4 (8-10 year olds)
Number of students: 8
Focus
Numbers.
We reviewed the numbers 1-10 and then clapped through them a few times, starting out slow and getting faster.
Activity 1: Body Numbers
The students divided into their respective red and white teams*. I used my number playing cards to randomly select one number at a time and the groups tried to make each number on the ground using just their bodies. Everyone had to participate. I gave stickers to the members of the winning team.
* Japanese schools have their students divided up into a red team and a white team (akagumi and shirogumi), kinda like how we have houses. This makes splitting the class very easy, as you just need to ask them to get into their prearranged teams.
Activity 2: Memory Game
I gave the numbers 0-10 to the 3rd grade students and the numbers 11-20 to the 4th grade students. The cards were shuffled and spread out face down. Each student took turns to flip two cards to try and match the numbers. Each time someone got a pair, they held onto it and it moved onto the next person. At the end, total pairs are tallied and the person with the most is the winner. I gave a sticker to the winner in each group.
Conclusion
The body numbers game is great fun and can be used in just about any sized group. Children love competing against each other and it is interactive and engaging. The memory game is easy to implement, as most kids know how to play instinctively. It works a bit better when you have more cards (and more kids!). This lesson went well.
So, yet another recap. It helps to reflect on the lessons that I'm involved with and to see how I can improve.
Peace.
Timotheos
Period: 2
Grades: 1-2 (6-8 year olds)
Number of students: 6
Focus
Animals.
Activity 1: Song: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Unlike yesterday, only three of the six students knew this song. But it was easy enough to teach E-I-E-I-O after introducing the animals and their sounds.
Activity 2: Song: B-I-N-G-O
We sang through it. Even though the same students who didn't know Old MacDonald also didn't know this song, it was easy enough with such a small class to teach them and get them to clap.
Activity 3: Game: Bingo
We played animal bingo. Probably the highlight of the lesson. I gave stickers to the winners in each of the two rounds we did.
Conclusion
Introducing the animals and their sounds and singing through the song took quite a while. Never assume that kids know something. I also want to try and reduce the amount of Japanese that I use. I need to use more gestures and actions and to let the pictures speak for themselves a lot more.
--
Period: 3
Grades: 5-6 (10-12 year olds)
Number of students: 10
Focus
Countries; the body (revision).
Activity 1: Body parts review
After the initial greeting we reviewed body parts for a while and tested that the students could listen and respond. The teacher says a body part and the students have to place their hand (or hands) on it as fast as possible*.
* Another suggestion for this is to just play Simon Says, but if students don't know the game, it can be difficult to explain it without using Japanese.
Activity 2: "I want to go to..."
The teacher put up pictures of flags and we reviewed country names in English. We then had the students suggest things in the nine countries that were on the board: landmarks, food etc. The target sentences were introduced: "I want to go to to..."; "I like..."; and "I want to see...". Each student chose a country and after some practice they used the target sentences.
Conclusion
Not a very exciting lesson. We could have had more fun with reviewing body parts and the country exercise could have been a bit more interactive. The teacher chose to not use Eigo Note 2; the lesson was simply based on the section on countries. Things could have been done differently, but at least the students got to practise talking about foreign countries.
--
Period: 4
Grades: 3-4 (8-10 year olds)
Number of students: 8
Focus
Numbers.
We reviewed the numbers 1-10 and then clapped through them a few times, starting out slow and getting faster.
Activity 1: Body Numbers
The students divided into their respective red and white teams*. I used my number playing cards to randomly select one number at a time and the groups tried to make each number on the ground using just their bodies. Everyone had to participate. I gave stickers to the members of the winning team.
* Japanese schools have their students divided up into a red team and a white team (akagumi and shirogumi), kinda like how we have houses. This makes splitting the class very easy, as you just need to ask them to get into their prearranged teams.
Activity 2: Memory Game
I gave the numbers 0-10 to the 3rd grade students and the numbers 11-20 to the 4th grade students. The cards were shuffled and spread out face down. Each student took turns to flip two cards to try and match the numbers. Each time someone got a pair, they held onto it and it moved onto the next person. At the end, total pairs are tallied and the person with the most is the winner. I gave a sticker to the winner in each group.
Conclusion
The body numbers game is great fun and can be used in just about any sized group. Children love competing against each other and it is interactive and engaging. The memory game is easy to implement, as most kids know how to play instinctively. It works a bit better when you have more cards (and more kids!). This lesson went well.
So, yet another recap. It helps to reflect on the lessons that I'm involved with and to see how I can improve.
Peace.
Timotheos
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Niida Shougakkou - Class Summaries
This is my first shougakkou English class recap. Hopefully I can consolidate lessons, activities and ideas from these summaries over time.
Period: 2
Grades: 3-4 (8-10 year olds)
Number of students: 19
Greeting and warmup
"Hi, how are you?" > "I'm fine." After the initial greeting, I asked each child in the front row, and had them turn to do a greeting with the student behind them, and so on to the back. This is a good way of getting individual responses and engaging with the kids from the start.
Focus
Animals and directions.
Activity 1: Animals at the Zoo
We had both this and the fourth period class in the gym, at the school's suggestion and my acknowledgement. It makes activities with this many kids a lot easier.
I wanted to mix a couple of things together today, that involved both animal names and giving and reacting to spoken directions. I started off by introducing Left, Right, Forward, and Back, and had the kids repeat them a few times before singling out random kids to respond and then testing them again together, speeding up until they were able to react well.
Once I was confident they could both say and listen to directions, I introduced the 12 animals I would use for the activity. Once I had them all up on the board, I asked them where you would find these animals together (I chose to use a little Japanese here to explain). None of them could get it, so I wrote the word Z-O-O up on the board. Usually with something like this you will have at least one person who clicks. It took a few seconds before one student called out "doubutsuen!" (zoo in Japanese).
While the teacher went to get a blindfold, I took my A4 animal cards off the board and had the kids stand at one end of the gym. I then went over the directions again and had them turn and move until everyone could do it. After that, I placed the animal cards in random places, spread across the floor of the gym. It was then a matter of choosing a volunteer to blindfold and having the rest of the kids call out directions to each animal that I chose.
Conclusion
It was noisy and fun and I was pleased with how the activity went. The entire period was spent having the kids yelling out directions and finding animals. This activity works well in any size group. The more kids, the louder and more confusing - and therefore fun - it will be. But even with just a handful of kids you can still have a boatload of fun. I have used the compass points (four, then eight) as an introduction to this game with a smaller group and it worked really well too. You can be more focused with a group of 5-10, with more specific directions, and in a larger group you can just let them go crazy because everyone is involved.
--
Period: 3
Grade: 6 (11-12 year olds)
Number of students: 9 (supposed to be 12; 3 were absent for that period)
Greeting and warmup
We skipped a warmup and went straight into the lesson after a brief greeting. For the senior primary school kids, there is a greater balance between their teacher leading the class and the ALT's involvement. This is especially workable with the use of Eigo Note 1 and 2, the 5th and 6th grade students' activity books that we use for these more focused English lessons. With the younger kids, the ALT tends to very predominantly lead the class, so a lot more preparation is necessary.
Focus
Today's focus was on the months of the year. We worked from Eigo Note 2.
Activities
Conclusion
Structured lessons like this are very easy. You just have to engage the students as best you can and allow the teacher to lead the lesson. Teachers have a lot more confidence when there is a textbook that is written in their native tongue, and the students are happy with the structure of the lesson and the physical presence of having a book to work through. Chanting along with a rhythm on the CD, filling in the blanks and the keyword game are all good activities that work better when the kids and their teacher have become familiar with the material. In the second term, as we are now, there is no need for the home teacher to explain very much anymore, and you can focus more on interactivity and enjoying the lesson.
--
Period: 4
Grades: 1-2 (6-8 year olds)
Number of students: 17
Greeting and warmup
Focus
English songs
Activity 1: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
I introduced six farm animals along with their sounds. I knew that the kids knew the song already, so when we sang, I had them fill in the E-I-E-I-O parts, the animal names and the sounds that they make. I had written the names and sounds up on the board using katakana, the Japanese syllabary mostly used for foreign words and sounds.
Activity 2: B-I-N-G-O
After E-I-E-I-O was B-I-N-G-O. The kids also knew this song, so it wasn't difficult to do. I had them fill in the letters and the clapping.
Activity 3: Bingo
Singing B-I-N-G-O was a good segue to the game of bingo. We did animal bingo and played through it twice. I gave stickers to the winners of both rounds.
Conclusion
Choose songs that the kids are likely to know. Having a CD is great because music helps, but I tend to make do without. It was fun just singing and doing animal noises, and giving stickers to kids is always a bonus, as it feels like such an accomplishment to them.
And those were my lessons this morning. I'll try and summarise a lot more if I do future recaps, with basic descriptions of activities. I will file these lesson summary entries under the categories taught.
Peace.
Timotheos
Period: 2
Grades: 3-4 (8-10 year olds)
Number of students: 19
Greeting and warmup
"Hi, how are you?" > "I'm fine." After the initial greeting, I asked each child in the front row, and had them turn to do a greeting with the student behind them, and so on to the back. This is a good way of getting individual responses and engaging with the kids from the start.
Focus
Animals and directions.
Activity 1: Animals at the Zoo
We had both this and the fourth period class in the gym, at the school's suggestion and my acknowledgement. It makes activities with this many kids a lot easier.
I wanted to mix a couple of things together today, that involved both animal names and giving and reacting to spoken directions. I started off by introducing Left, Right, Forward, and Back, and had the kids repeat them a few times before singling out random kids to respond and then testing them again together, speeding up until they were able to react well.
Once I was confident they could both say and listen to directions, I introduced the 12 animals I would use for the activity. Once I had them all up on the board, I asked them where you would find these animals together (I chose to use a little Japanese here to explain). None of them could get it, so I wrote the word Z-O-O up on the board. Usually with something like this you will have at least one person who clicks. It took a few seconds before one student called out "doubutsuen!" (zoo in Japanese).
While the teacher went to get a blindfold, I took my A4 animal cards off the board and had the kids stand at one end of the gym. I then went over the directions again and had them turn and move until everyone could do it. After that, I placed the animal cards in random places, spread across the floor of the gym. It was then a matter of choosing a volunteer to blindfold and having the rest of the kids call out directions to each animal that I chose.
Conclusion
It was noisy and fun and I was pleased with how the activity went. The entire period was spent having the kids yelling out directions and finding animals. This activity works well in any size group. The more kids, the louder and more confusing - and therefore fun - it will be. But even with just a handful of kids you can still have a boatload of fun. I have used the compass points (four, then eight) as an introduction to this game with a smaller group and it worked really well too. You can be more focused with a group of 5-10, with more specific directions, and in a larger group you can just let them go crazy because everyone is involved.
--
Period: 3
Grade: 6 (11-12 year olds)
Number of students: 9 (supposed to be 12; 3 were absent for that period)
Greeting and warmup
We skipped a warmup and went straight into the lesson after a brief greeting. For the senior primary school kids, there is a greater balance between their teacher leading the class and the ALT's involvement. This is especially workable with the use of Eigo Note 1 and 2, the 5th and 6th grade students' activity books that we use for these more focused English lessons. With the younger kids, the ALT tends to very predominantly lead the class, so a lot more preparation is necessary.
Focus
Today's focus was on the months of the year. We worked from Eigo Note 2.
Activities
- Repeat after me: students repeated the names of the months in English as I placed them up on the board.
- Listen to the CD - a rhythmic chant: 12 months. We did this a few times.
- Listen to the CD - festivals activity: where and when are Christmas, New Year and Halloween celebrated? They worked in groups of three for this.
- Keyword game: a very handy device for any lesson. Students place an eraser between them and their partner. A keyword is place on the board and I will say the lesson's related words. If I say the keyword, the first person to grab the eraser wins that round. The second stage is where one student forms a mouth (like a crocodile) with their hand and their partner places their fingers, palm facing down, in the mouth. If the keyword is called, SNAP!
- Repeat after me: students repeated the days of the month (first, second, third... thiry-first).
- When is your birthday? Students worked out when their birthday was (March twenty-first, November eighth, etc), and reported back to the class.
Conclusion
Structured lessons like this are very easy. You just have to engage the students as best you can and allow the teacher to lead the lesson. Teachers have a lot more confidence when there is a textbook that is written in their native tongue, and the students are happy with the structure of the lesson and the physical presence of having a book to work through. Chanting along with a rhythm on the CD, filling in the blanks and the keyword game are all good activities that work better when the kids and their teacher have become familiar with the material. In the second term, as we are now, there is no need for the home teacher to explain very much anymore, and you can focus more on interactivity and enjoying the lesson.
--
Period: 4
Grades: 1-2 (6-8 year olds)
Number of students: 17
Greeting and warmup
- "How are you?" > "I'm fine."
- Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes: Children don't need to remember the names of body parts but they are always enthusiastic about doing this song. It is a great warmup and even more welcome as the weather gets colder. I start off by getting the kids to repeat each body part as I touch it (head > nose). We then start off slowly and build momentum until they can't keep up and half the kids fall to the floor in fits of laughter. :)
Focus
English songs
Activity 1: Old MacDonald Had a Farm
I introduced six farm animals along with their sounds. I knew that the kids knew the song already, so when we sang, I had them fill in the E-I-E-I-O parts, the animal names and the sounds that they make. I had written the names and sounds up on the board using katakana, the Japanese syllabary mostly used for foreign words and sounds.
Activity 2: B-I-N-G-O
After E-I-E-I-O was B-I-N-G-O. The kids also knew this song, so it wasn't difficult to do. I had them fill in the letters and the clapping.
Activity 3: Bingo
Singing B-I-N-G-O was a good segue to the game of bingo. We did animal bingo and played through it twice. I gave stickers to the winners of both rounds.
Conclusion
Choose songs that the kids are likely to know. Having a CD is great because music helps, but I tend to make do without. It was fun just singing and doing animal noises, and giving stickers to kids is always a bonus, as it feels like such an accomplishment to them.
And those were my lessons this morning. I'll try and summarise a lot more if I do future recaps, with basic descriptions of activities. I will file these lesson summary entries under the categories taught.
Peace.
Timotheos
Omoshiroii Undoukai
Omoshiroi does not mean interesting. Look in any Japanese to English dictionary and you will find something similar to this: Omoshiroi (面白い): amusing; funny; interesting. Japanese people think of something omoshiroi as laughable; something that is silly. Interesting is quite the opposite. Things of interest engage the mind rather than the emotions.
Mathematics is interesting because the numbers, shapes and formulas are logical and involve brain activity. But maths is definitely not something we enjoy laughing about. Acts of nature are interesting because they are so very different from what we experience in the course of our normal human existence. It is this uniqueness that makes them interesting. But more often than not they are not funny in any way.
Japanese humour also differs to ours. What we find to be clever, witty or punny may not incite a humoured reaction from someone here. And things such as strange slapstick comedy or saying silly, redundant things that we would find inane and pointless, Japanese would laugh and say the situation is omoshiroi.
Don't let this word get lost in translation. Never apply it to something serious. Just remember that for something to be omoshiroi you have to be able to laugh about it. So next time a colleague does something weird, laugh quietly to yourself and whisper "omoshiroi".
A couple of weekends ago, we had Eddi's undoukai (school sports day). Undoukai is something that parents look forward to all year. The kids put in weeks of practice to make sure the whole day is perfectly memorised.
The weather was nice. Mika packed up enough lunch for us, Eddi's grandparents and her uncle and cousin. The kids had a lot of fun, with various running races and a lot of activities involving their parents. Mika and Eddi did a giant pants relay together, and there were other fun games that the various grades did, such as pushing a giant ball, firing water rockets into the air, and balloon popping.
[Video] Giant Pants Relay
I have decided to try and recap my shougakkou classes by posting blog entries. This will allow me to reflect on and critique my own classes, and will create a record of successful activities for future reference. Feel free to take ideas, as a lot of the things I do are ideas that have either been taken or adapted from other people's experiences. I will do my best to tag English class summary entries as accurately as possible for future reference and may even add an extra menu section for better searching.
Peace.
Timotheos
Mathematics is interesting because the numbers, shapes and formulas are logical and involve brain activity. But maths is definitely not something we enjoy laughing about. Acts of nature are interesting because they are so very different from what we experience in the course of our normal human existence. It is this uniqueness that makes them interesting. But more often than not they are not funny in any way.
Japanese humour also differs to ours. What we find to be clever, witty or punny may not incite a humoured reaction from someone here. And things such as strange slapstick comedy or saying silly, redundant things that we would find inane and pointless, Japanese would laugh and say the situation is omoshiroi.
Don't let this word get lost in translation. Never apply it to something serious. Just remember that for something to be omoshiroi you have to be able to laugh about it. So next time a colleague does something weird, laugh quietly to yourself and whisper "omoshiroi".
A couple of weekends ago, we had Eddi's undoukai (school sports day). Undoukai is something that parents look forward to all year. The kids put in weeks of practice to make sure the whole day is perfectly memorised.
The weather was nice. Mika packed up enough lunch for us, Eddi's grandparents and her uncle and cousin. The kids had a lot of fun, with various running races and a lot of activities involving their parents. Mika and Eddi did a giant pants relay together, and there were other fun games that the various grades did, such as pushing a giant ball, firing water rockets into the air, and balloon popping.
[Video] Giant Pants Relay
I have decided to try and recap my shougakkou classes by posting blog entries. This will allow me to reflect on and critique my own classes, and will create a record of successful activities for future reference. Feel free to take ideas, as a lot of the things I do are ideas that have either been taken or adapted from other people's experiences. I will do my best to tag English class summary entries as accurately as possible for future reference and may even add an extra menu section for better searching.
Peace.
Timotheos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)