富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

Recently 6th grade students had their last class on the topic, `He is famous`. They have studied different adjectives to describe people and also the use of `He` and `She`.

As always we started class with a greeting game. This time we focused on the question "What did you do on Saturday and Sunday?". After summer vacation the students studied how to talk about what they did in the past so this phrase was review for them.
"I went to the mall. I ate udon. It was delicious."

After that we reviewed the different adjectives and the teachers gave quizzes using those adjectives.
"She is beautiful. She is smart. She is active. She can speak English well. Who is she?"
"Ms. Keiko?"
"Yes! That's right!

Some students also gave quizzes, too.
"He lives in Fukushima. He is active. He is honest. Who is he?"

Next, the students had to make quizzes about their classmates. Some students wanted to gather more information about their friends so we gave them a short time to ask each other questions.
"Do you like soccer?"
"Yes, I do!"

After that, the students got into groups and took turns to give each other quizzes. In previous topics they have given quizzes using `can`. It was very difficult to guess the person! This time they know much more English and can describe the person's personality, too. It was much easier to guess!
"Is it...?"

"I know! I know!"

Nice work everyone!

Before winter vacation 6th grade students started a new topic, `He is famous`. This is one of a number of topics that the students have been studying this year that are not part of Hi, friends!.

The first two classes in the topic followed a similar structure. As usual our classes started with a greeting game.
The students had to use any English that they know to speak to their friends.

Our 6th grade students are focusing on linking together English sentences and questions to make natural conversations.
"Nice blue shirt!"
"Thank you!"
"Do you like blue?"
"Yes, I do! What's your favorite color?"
"It's red."

Next, Ms.Emily and Ms. Keiko read a picture book.
6th grade students enjoy books and they are great for input.

The teachers gave some "Who is he/she?" quizzes about people. In the first class they used famous people and in the second class they used teachers in the school. "She is from Nagoya. She can jump. She can spin. She is very beautiful. She won a gold medal. Who is she?"
"Mao Asada?"
"Yes, that's right!"
In the first class we asked the students if they realised anything from the quiz.
"You used `He` when talking about boys and `She` when talking about girls!"
"Yes, that's right!"

"How about Ms. Emiko? When we talk about Ms. Emiko what word should we use?"
"He?"

"She?"
"She! She!"
"That's right!"

Next, we learnt a lot of different words to describe someone's personality. There were many words so it took two classes for us to learn them all. The teachers acted out the words and got the students to realise the meaning in Japanese. Then Ms. Emily taught everyone the English word.
Ms. Keiko is a good actor!

Good job 6th grade students!

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 6th grade students from class 6-3 had their third class on the topic "Junior High School Life". You can see the previous classes here:
Hour 1
Hour 2 (Class 6-1 Open School Event)

We had a special guest teacher, Mr. Yosuke, from Tomizawa Junior High School. He is an English teacher. He came to talk to the students about the clubs at Tomizawa J.H.S.
We started class with our usual greetings.
"Hello everyone!"

After the greetings we had `Teacher Talk`. The teachers had a `time slip` to become 6th grade students again. They showed us pictures of themselves when they were in 6th grade. Doing a `time slip` allows the teachers to talk about themselves in elementary school without using the past tense.
"What club do you want to join?"
"I want to join the baseball team."
"Nice. Can you play baseball?"
"Yes, I can. I am the captain of my school team."

One of the students really looks like Mr. Takeyuki's 6th grade picture. He became mini-Mr. Takeyuki.
"What club do you want to join?"
"I want to join the soccer club."

After the demonstration, we double checked all the clubs that are in Tomizawa Junior High School.
There are so many interesting clubs!

Next, it was time for everyone to ask each other.
"What club do you want to join?"
Nice eye contact!

Good gestures!

Half-way through the activity the teachers asked some students to give a demonstration. Everyone watched and thought about the good points.
Great smiles and gestures!

"Let's be careful about these good points while we continue the activity!"
Good eye contact!

Nice smile!

Great gestures!

The teachers picked some more students to give another good demonstration after the activity.
Good job!

Next, Mr. Yosuke talked to the students about life in junior high school. He had many interesting things to say in English.
The students tried hard to listen and ask questions.

Finally, the students reflected on the class in pairs.


They talked about what they had realised about their friends.

Everyone did their best! Well done!

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 6th grade students from class 6-1 had their second class on the topic "Junior High School Life". You can see the previous class here:
Hour 1

After the usual greetings, the class started with `Teacher Talk`.
"This is K Junior High School. What club do you want to join?"
"I want to join the baseball team."
"I'm sorry. We don't have a baseball team."

K Junior High School has these five clubs:
The teachers showed the students some short videos and pictures of the sports. It was very interesting to see these sports.

"Let's research what clubs everyone would like to join!"
First the teachers gave a demonstration and after that, some students demonstrated, too. More that one demonstration helps the students to check what they have to do.
Good job!

After the demonstration it was time for everyone to try for themselves.
"What club do you want to join?"

"I want to join the cricket team."

Nice eye contact!

Half-way through the activity the teachers asked some students to give a demonstration. Everyone watched and thought about the good points.
Great eye contact and smiles!

"Let's be careful about these good points while we continue the activity!"
Great eye contact!

Good gestures!

After the activity the students talked about what club was most popular. We finished the class with the usual student reflections and greetings.
"Have a nice day! See you!"

Good job everyone!

This year 6th grade students have been studying some topics that are not in the current Hi,friends! textbook. They had their first class on the topic `Junior High School Life`. In this topic they will study about the different clubs in junior high school and they will talk about which club they would like to join next year.

First, we did Teacher Talk.
The teachers talked about the clubs in their junior high school when they were young. They used this to introduce the names of the different clubs to the students.

Next, we asked the students what clubs they knew were in Tomizawa Junior High School.
We practiced the names of each club.

There are many many clubs in Tomizawa Junior High School!
We asked the students if they noticed anything about the clubs. They realised that some are called `club` and others are called `team`: Art Club, Soccer Team. It was interesting!

Next, there was a special surprise. The students at Tomizawa Junior High School had prepared a video letter for us. They introduced the clubs in English!
We used the video to check if our guesses, about the clubs in Tomizawa Junior High School, were right. We also checked what the students had said. "What else did they say about the soccer team?"
"It's difficult but fun!"
"That's right!"

Lastly, the students wrote what they had realised during that class.
Many students wrote about the difference between `club` and `team`.

It was a very interesting class! Thank you to Tomizawa Junior High School students and teachers for preparing the video letter! We really enjoyed it!

6th grade students have been studying about introducing themselves. Since they have already introduced themselves to their classmates we decided to gather all the 6th grade students together so they had new people to talk to.

As always the class started with a greeting game. After asking each other "How are you?", they used the question "What do you like?" to find out more about each other.
3 classes of students in the same room means many people to greet!

Next, the teachers gave a demonstration. They introduced their nickname, where they are from and what they like.


For the main activity we used two different styles, donuts and free conversation. First the students did `donuts`. They made two circles, one inside the other, and the outer circle moved around after each conversation.
This style means that no one wastes any time searching for someone to talk to. Also, students talk to others that they might not chose to talk to on their own.

The students all tried very hard.
Great eye contact!

Good gestures!

Nice smiles!

After the `donuts` activity, the students could move freely around the room and chose who to talk to. They tried to find someone from another class that they hadn't already talked to.
Nice eye contact!

Good gesture!

Great job everyone! Thank you to 6th grade teachers for arranging to have English class together. It's much more interesting to talk to many people. Hopefully we can do classes like this again in the future.

6th grade students have been continuing to study the topic `This is me`. In this class they focused on speaking about where they are from.

First, we started with a greeting game. The students got into pairs and their aim was to use the English they had learned to have a conversation. The students worked hard to make the conversation flow.
"What did you do on Sunday?"
"I ate soba."
"Do you like soba?"
"Yes, I do."

The teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration.
Good job! The conversation was very smooth!

After the greeting game, the teachers gave a demonstration.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm from Scotland. So, I like smoked salmon."

The students listened to the demonstration and tried to understand what the teachers had talked about.
"They talked about where they live?"
"But, Ms. Emily said Scotland. She lives in Sendai now!"
"They talked about where they are from?"
"Yes!"

After practicing the new phrases as a class the students asked each other in pairs.
"Where are you from?"

Next, they walked around the classroom and talked to many people.
Good eye contact.

Nice gestures!

Then, the students went back to their own classroom so everyone could use their desks. In this unit we will make a book introducing ourselves.
Ms. Keiko showed us how to fold the paper.

Everyone watched carefully!

After folding the paper we could make the first page by drawing our own pictures.

Good job everyone! We're looking forward to seeing all the completed books!

Recently, 6th grade students have been studying some topics that are not in the current Hi,friends! textbook. They had their first class on the topic `This is me`. We want the students to be able to talk about themselves and learn more about their friends.

For our greeting game the students used their name cards. On the back of the name cards they had written their favorite animal, color, fruit and sport. They had to guess their friends favorite things. "Do you like blue?"
Some students guess all 4 categories correctly. Wow! They really know their friends well.

Other students were suprised that they liked the same things. It's fun to learn more about each other!

To introduce the topic `This is me.` we read the book `I like me` by Nancy Carlson.

The main character talks about all the things she likes about herself.
She can dance. She can draw pictures.
If she makes a mistake, she tries again.
The students talked about the message of the book.
We want the students to be able to talk about themselves, too.

Next, the teachers gave a demonstration. The students can already talk about their likes, dislikes and what they can do. The teachers showed some new phrases to talk about themselves.
"What's your nickname?"
"My nickname is Kei. Please call me Kei."

After watching the demonstration the students practiced in pairs. Some students had to think about what they wanted their friends to call them.

Lastly the students walked around the room and used the new phrases with many people.
Nice eye contact!

Since it was the first class for the topic the students wrote a reflection card.
They only answered the middle question. They will answer the other questions at the end of the last class on the topic.

Great job everyone!

6th grade students have been practicing talking about things they did and saw during summer vacation. Since they have talked about their summer vacation so much, in this last class we talked about the previous weekend.
This was our last full class on this topic. We will also practice this a few times during Tomilish Time in the future.

First we did our usual greeting game. We practiced using all the English we have studied so far. The teachers did a demonstration first.
"I can swim very well. Can you swim?"
"No, I can't."
"But, you can play basketball."
"Oh! That's right!"

The students did their best to continue the conversations with their friends using English for as long as possible.
"What do you study on Tuesday?"

"When is your birthday?"

Next, we practiced our original chant. Until now we've always used the same vocabulary but now the students are very used to the chant so we changed the words.
What did you do?
I went to my grandparents' house.
I ate rice.
I saw ghosts!
It was cold.
Thank you!

After the chant, the teachers demonstrated a conversation using today's new phrase, "I saw...", and talking about the weekend.
"What did you do at the weekend?"
"I went to a taiko shop. I saw a big taiko drum. It was great!"

The students have studied a lot of different phrases to talk about their past experiences.
Wow! That's a lot of flashcards! Don't worry. The flashcards are only to give the students ideas.

The students practiced the conversation in pairs first to give them confidence.
Nice eye contact!

Then, it was time to talk to their classmates.
Clear voices!

Nice smile!

Good job!

Lastly, the teachers picked some students to show a good demonstration.
Both students have great gestures and reactions! Well done!

Talking about our past experiences (summer vacation and the weekend) was very difficult for everyone but they did a great job!

6th grade students just finished their third class talking about their summer vacations. Today we focused on the phrase "I enjoyed..."

First, we did a greeting game. This time instead of telling the students what to say after asking "How are you?", they were free to ask anything that they had studied previously.
The teachers did a demonstration.
"I like LEGO. Do you like LEGO?"
"Yes, I do. Do you have LEGO?"
"No, I don't."

It was a challenge because everyone asked different questions.
"Can you swim?"
"Do you like soccer?"

"What do you want?"
"What's this?"

"When is your birthday?"
"How many?"

Everyone tried their best to talk to many people. The teachers picked some students to give a good example.
Great gestures! Nice reactions!

After the greeting game we practiced the original chant.
Let's do gestures, too! It helps us to remember.

Ms. Emily and Ms. Keiko demonstrated the new vocabulary.
"I went to Shibuya. I enjoyed shopping."
"I went to Matsushima. I enjoyed fishing."

We practiced some new vocabulary, too.
"I enjoyed swimming!"

First, we practiced the conversation in pairs.
Practicing in pairs gives everyone confidence. It's also a good time to check with the teachers if anyone has any questions.

Nice eye contact!

After speaking in pairs it was time to walk around the room and talk to many people. What did they enjoy doing in summer vacation?
Nice reaction!

Great smile!

Good gesture!

After the activity the teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration. Sometimes the students volunteered, too: "Our conversation was very good!".
Great gestures!

Brilliant smiles!

We have one more English class this week. Everyone is looking forward to it!