富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

On December 6th, we had our open school event (公開研究会). Close to 500 people from all over Japan came to watch our classes. Thank you for coming! Thank you to everyone who helped with the preparations and smooth running of the event, too.

The 1st grade students had their eighth English class of the year. The topic was "Do you like Fukuwarai?". The students had already studied the English for body parts in the previous class. You can see that lesson here:
Hour 7

The class started with the usual greetings between the teachers and the students.
"Hello everyone!"

After that we did the greeting game. Everyone walked around and greeted many different people.
"How are you?"

"Good gestures!"

After greeting, everyone was excited to start the class.
"This line is very good! You are sitting nicely!"

First we sang the song `Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes`.
"Let's sing together!"

The song slowly got faster and faster.
It was very fun to sing!

Next, we played the `Please Game`. The students had to listen very carefully and only touch the body parts if Ms. Emily used the word `please`.
"Touch your mouth, please."

"Touch your ears, please."
"Touch your mouth!"
Ms. Emily didn't say please!! Did anyone move?

After the game, the teachers did `Teacher Talk`. Mr. Ryuta asked Ms. Emily if she liked many different kinds of Japanese New Year games.
"Do you like kites?" "Yes, I do!"

"Do you like karuta?"
"No, I don't. The kanji is difficult!"

"Do you like fukuwarai?"
"I don`t know. What's fukuwarai?"
"Ms. Emily doesn't know! Let's teach her!"

The students showed Ms. Emily how to do it.
The other students shouted instructions in Japanese.

"Wow! That looks fun!"
"I want to try! I want to try!"

Ms. Emily couldn't understand the Japanese instructions.
"We have to say them in English!"

After practicing the English words everyone tried very hard to give Ms. Emily instructions in English.
"Up! Up!"

"What's this?"
"Ear!"
"Thank you!"
"Right! Right! Stop!"

"You can do it, Ms. Emily!"
The students were very helpful! Thanks to them, Ms. Emily could do fukuwarai!

We used the new English we had learned to play the `Up, Down Game`.
The students had to listen to Ms. Emily's instructions and do what she said. "Down!"

Then, we read a book together.
The students really enjoy reading English picture books.

We read the book `What's in the Witch`s Kitchen?` by Nick Sharratt.
It's a lift-the-flaps picture book.

You could chose to open the flaps up or down, and left or right. You would either get something nice or something nasty.
If you open this flap down, it was a skeleton.

If you open it up, it was canned food.
The students thought hard about what direction to chose.

"What should we chose? Left? Right?"
"Right! Right!"

Lastly, the students gave their reactions to what they learned in the class and what they want to study in the future.
"I learned how to say `right` and `left`!"

Good job 1st grade! What a fun class!