富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

During summer vacation our ALT, Ms. Emily, will transfer to another school so in the last class before summer vacation all 5th grade classes gathered together. Ms. Emily thought it would be a normal class to practice the alphabet but actually the students and 5th grade teachers had prepared a surprise!

Ms. Emily gave a dot-to-dot quiz to the students.
They pretended to follow what she said but actually they were all acting. They are good actors!

Suddenly everyone started singing and dancing the alphabet song.
"Let's dance!"

Wow! What a surprise!

The students made a circle and held up their papers. Actually it was a letter from the students made up letter by letter.
Ms. Emily had to spell out the message in order to read it.

Next, everyone sang a song for Ms. Emily.
It was very moving!

Then Ms. Emily collected individual letters and messages from all the students in turn as the other students sang.
"Thank you so much!"

Lastly, Ms. Emily gave a speech to all the 5th grade students.
"Class with you was so fun! Do your best in English class! You can do it!"

Lastly we all took a picture together.
It was a great memory!

Earlier this year 5th grade students interviewed their classmates to find out the most popular shape in order to add it to their class flags for sports day. You can see that class here. We would like to show the results of that class.

In each of the three classes `stars` were the most popular shape. The theme for 5th grade at sports day was `Pirates of Tomizawa` so `crosses` were also popular.

Here are the completed flags:
Class 5-1 added a big star over their class number.

Class 5-2 added a star for each member of their class.

Class 5-3 added stars to the sail of their pirate ship.

Here are some pictures of the flags in action during sports day:
The flag holders led each class out on to the field.

The waving flags helped to encourage each team during the kibasen.

It was a great to use what we studied in English class to make something that each class can use for the rest of the year.

5th grade students had their third class studying the alphabet with Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?` as well as Let's Try!1 Unit 6 `ALPHABET`. In this class the students did the dot-to-dot alphabet activities to their friends that they prepared last week.

After our usual greetings we did the alphabet song and dance.
The students are now pros at this song!

Next, Ms. Emily and Ms. Mayumi gave a demonstration of the dot-to-dot activity. Ms. Mayumi said the alphabet letters and Ms. Emily joined them together to make the design that Ms. Mayumi had created.
Ms. Mayumi did some alphabet gestures to help with understanding.

Then, everyone got into pairs to do the activity for themselves.
The students did their best to give gesture hints if the alphabet letter was hard to understand.

Once one person in the pair had finished the activity we stopped for a break and asked everyone which alphabet letters were hard for everyone to understand. Ms. Emily gave everyone some tips to help them to tell the difference between the different letters.
"For B/V, G/Z and M/N if you look at the mouth of the person who is speaking you will be able to tell what letter they are saying!"

When we started the activity again everyone tried hard to watch the person speaking's mouth in order to understand what they were saying.
It's important to watch!

The students did their best to give hints such as `Up!` or `Right!` as well as doing gestures. Can you tell what letters these are?
This is an easy letter!

This hint is difficult!

The students could make many nice designs and shapes by listening to their friends alphabet dot-to-dot explanations.
It's a music note!

Finally, we had some extra time so we did a difficult A-Z alphabet dot-to-dot.
The students had to join the letters A-Z in order 5 times!

It made a picture in the end. Everyone tried really hard to finish the activity.

Once they finished they showed it to Ms. Emily to check.
"What letter is this?"

The students were proud when they managed to finish!
Good job!!

5th grade students have continued studying the alphabet with Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?` as well as Let's Try!1 Unit 6 `ALPHABET`.

We started class with `Teacher Talk`. The teachers wanted to go bowling but Ms. Mayumi had to write everyone's names down in order to bowl. She asked the question "How do you spell your name?". Students who wanted to bowl also did the same thing.
"How do you spell your name?"

Next, in pairs the students practiced asking each other about how to spell their names.
"M....I..."

The students used their alphabet cards in order to spell out their friends names.
"..S.."

Sometimes the students didn't have enough letters so they used the letters written in their textbook.
Nice idea!

After that, we played karuta with the alphabet cards.
The teachers tried to call letters that sound similar such as `G` and `Z` or `B` and `V`.

"V!"

For the last activity the students created quizzes. Last week Ms.Emily gave an alphabet quiz. The students connected the letters she said in order to make a shape. This week it was the students turn to create a quiz.
They had to use more than 10 letters.

Everyone tried to make an interesting shape.

Great quiz idea!

In the next class the students will give their alphabet quizzes to each other.

5th grade students also started a new topic last week. They have started Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?` and we will also be using some of Let's Try!1 Unit 6 `ALPHABET`. The students have already studied the phrase `What do you want?` when they were 3rd grade students and we also plan to include it later when talking about our birthdays, so for this topic we will mostly focus on becoming familiar the alphabet.

We started class with a greeting game. 5th grade students have recently been focusing on linking their conversations. In order to help demonstrate this Ms. Mayumi did a demonstration with one of the students.
"What's your favorite character?"
"I like Nebaru-kun."
"Oh, I see. Do you like natto?"
"Yes, I do! I love natto."

Then, it was time for everyone else to try, too.
Clear voices!

Good eye contact!

Nice smiles!

Next the teachers asked some students to come to the front of the room. We realized that they were all wear clothes with capital letters on them. We read the English letters together.
"A. T. H. L. E. T..."

"D. R. I.."

Many people were wearing English letters! Ms. Mayumi also showed us some pictures that she took in the area around our school. We all found a lot of English letters in the pictures.
"M. I. Y. A. G. I. It says Miyagi!"

Next, we did the alphbet chant. The students did this chant at the beginning of the year too so it was fun and familiar for everyone.
Everyone danced along with gestures. They are doing the `W` gesture in this picture.

Can you tell what gesture this is?
It's `V`!

Next, we did `Let's Play 1` from the Hi,friends!1 textbook.
The students had to find the capital letters hidden in the picture.

They circled all the letters that they found.

Then, we checked our answers together.
"R is here. Rabbit!"

After that, the students connected the alphabet letters in the order that Ms. Emily said.
"J. T. U..."

At the end all the letters joined together to make a shape. Here is the shape half-way completed:
Can you tell what it will be? It's a ribbon!

In the next class the students will make their own versions of this game and do it with their friends. It sounds like fun!

5th grade students have started a new topic. They will study a mix of Let's Try!1 Unit 4 `I like blue.` and Hi,friends!1 Lesson 4 `I like apples.` They have already studied `Do you like~?` a little as 4th grade students so we will only study it briefly this year. Since this phrase is not new to the students we decided to teach them some new vocabulary as well, the names for seasons.

As always, we started class with a greeting game.
"Do you like blue?"
"Yes, I do!"

After that, we sang the song `Do you like broccoli icecream?` from Super Simple Songs. First, the students just listened to the song. Next, during the second playing, the students tried to sing along and do gestures, too.
"Do you like ice cream?"
"Yes, I do."

"Do you like broccoli?"
"Yes, I do."


"Do you like broccoli icecream?"
"No, I don't. Yucky!"

Next, we had `Teacher Talk`. Ms. Mayumi showed Ms. Emily some pictures.
"Last week 5th grade students boiled vegetables for cooking class."
"Oh, it looks delicious!"

"What vegetables did you eat?"
"Carrots, cabbage and broccoli."
"Do you like carrots?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Do you know 旬? It means the `best season` for vegetables. What is the best season for carrots?"
"Hmm...maybe winter?"
"That's right!"
"Do you like winter?"
"Yes, I do! I like snow!"

The teachers used vegeables to introduce the names of the different seasons.
"Watermelon is best in summer!"

Next, the teachers demonstrated a conversation to the students.
"Do you like autumn?"
"Yes, I do. I llike autumn."
"Why?"
"I like imonikai."

After practicing first with the person sitting next to them, the students stood up and interviewed many different classmates.
"Do you like summer?"
"No, I don't."
"Why?"
"I don't like hot weather."

Half-way through the activity the teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration.
Great reactions and gestures!

Next, everyone tried again keeping the good demonstration in mind.
Great reaction!

Finally we ended with another good demonstration from some students picked by the teachers.
Good gestures!

Everyone enjoyed learning the English for seasons. It was an interesting class!

5th grade students had their third and last lesson on the topic, Hi, friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?`. In this class they introduced their favorite kanji to their friends through a quiz while using the question `How many strokes?`.

As always we started class with a greeting game and the teachers did a demonstration with one of the students.
"How many stars? Let's count!"
"1, 2, 3..."

After watching the demonstration, everyone else greeted each other and tried to ask questions using the phrase `How many~?`.
"How many stars?"

"How many letters?"

Next, we finished the janken activity in Hi,friends!1 Lesson3 `How many?`. The students did janken ten times with their first during the first class on this topic. This time we changed their pairs and they did janken another ten times.
"Rock, scissors, paper. 1, 2, 3!!"

"Yes, I won! I'll write a circle."
The students counted the number of circles and triangles they had written today and during the janken game overall, raising their hand when Ms. Emily asked, "How many circles? 1 circle? 2 circles?".

After that, the teachers did a demonstration of our main activity. They each wrote their favorite kanji on a piece of paper and had to guess the other person's favorite kanji.
"How many stokes?"
"9 strokes."
"Hmmm. The `mi` (美)　in Ms. Mayumi?"
"Nice idea but no."
"Hint, please!"
"Zzzzzzz" (It's a sleeping sound.)

"Do you like 眠?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Why?"
"I like sleeping!"

After watching the demonstration the students took some time to write out their favorite kanji and think of some hints. We had told the students the previous day to think about the kanji they like so they were prepared for this activity.

Next, the students gave their quizzes in pairs.
"How many strokes?"
"9 stokes."
"Hint, please."
"Flower...like this."
"咲?"
"That's right!"

Then, the students got into groups and did their quizzes together.
"What's your favorite kanji?"

"How many stokes?"

Lastly, the students walked around the room freely and talked to many people about the kanji they like.
It was interesting to hear about the different kanji and the reasons that people have for liking them. Many students like a kanji that is in their name the best.

Good job, 5th grade students!

5th grade students recently had their second lesson on the topic Hi, friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?`. These students studied telling the time last year as well as the numbers 1-60 so in this class we studied the numbers 1-100.

We started class with a greeting game. Ms. Emily and one of the students gave a demonstration using the phrase `How many?`.
"How many diamonds?"
"Let's count. 1, 2, 3, 4...oh! So many!"

After watching the demonstration it was time for the other students to ask each other.
"How many letters?"

"How many circles?"

After the greeting game Ms. Emily and Ms. Mayumi did Teacher Talk.
"Look at my pencil case."
"Wow! It's so big!"
"Guess! How many pens and pencils?"
"Hmmm... maybe 10?"
All the students also guessed the numbers of pens and pencils in Ms. Mayumi's pencil case.

Then, everyone checked together.
"Let's count!"
"1, 2, 3, 4..."

After that we decided to find out which student had the most pens and pencils in their pencil case. Everyone stood up and we counted together. When the student finished counting they sat down. The last person standing had the most pens and pencils.
"Hmmm...how many pens and pencils?"

After that, we did the chants from Let's Try!1 Unit 3 `How many?`.
The students tried to do actions while saying as much of the chant as they could.

Next, we counted the balls that the 1st grade students used during sports day. The four classes want to make the competition fair so they need four sets of the same number of balls. In order to do this the 5th grade students needed to count all the balls.
Everyone counted together in small groups. It was important to count as a group so everyone could practice counting.

The groups did their best to count carefully.

After each of the groups had finished we asked them "How many balls?".
We collected all the results together so we knew which colour of balls had the least amount.

This team had 44 balls!

We added all the numbers together in English.
"51 plus 49 equals?"
"100!"
"That's right!"
Then we asked all the students to count out 88 balls so that each class would have the same amount.

Everyone took turns at putting the balls into the box while counting together.
It was very easy to lose count so everyone had to count carefully together!

It was a fun activity to do together. Everyone felt happy when they counted everything perfectly!

Good job everyone! 1st grade students can now use the balls in their P.E. classes!

5th grade students had a class studying two different topics. Recently they have been studying Hi,friends!1 Lesson 5 `What do you like?` and since the students didn't finish their presentations of their T-shirts in the last class we used the first part of this class to complete that topic. We also started a new topic, Hi, friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?`. It was a very busy lesson!

We started class with our usual greeting games. Ms. Emily and one of the students did a demonstration. We wanted to demonstration that you can have more than one answer to a "What ~ do you like?" question.
"What colors do you like?"
"I like red, yellow and purple."
"Nice!"

After watching the demonstration it was time for all the students to greet each other.
Good gestures! Gestures are a very important part of communication!

Nice smile! Good job!

Great eye contact! We need to look at each other when we talk.

The students enjoyed asking each other all sorts of questions.
"What animals do you like?"
"I like cats."

Some students even used phrases they had previously studied in Tomilish Time.
"What sports do you like?"
"Guess what?"
"Hmmm....."

Everyone tried hard to talk to many different people.

After the greeting game the teachers asked the students who they had talked to and what they said. This helps the students to realise the importance of listening carefully when they are speaking with each other.
"I asked about what colors she likes and she said that she likes purple and green."

Next, we had the remaining students, who had not talked about their T-shirt designs in the previous class, complete their presentations.
"Who designed this T-shirt?"

The students talked about how they designed their T-shirts.
"I thought about the shapes they said they like. They like stars the best so I made the star the biggest."

The students receiving the T-shirts also talked about what they liked.
"I like these colors."

"It's nice!"

After the presentations the students wrote their feedback about this topic.
Many students were happy to learn about what shapes and colors their friends like.

We had some students present what they wrote.
"It was fun to design t-shirts while thinking about the other person."

Next, we had `Teacher Talk` for the start of our new topic, Hi, friends!1 Unit 3 `How many?`. When Ms. Mayumi visited Rakuten with the 5th grade students she noticed that one of the students had many keychains on their backpack. She borrowed the backpack so everyone could count the keychains together.
"How many keychains?"
"18, 19, 20, 21! 21 keychains!"
"Wow! So many!"

After that, we did the chants from Let's Try!1 Unit 3 `How many?`.
Since it was the first time to hear the chant we listened a few times before trying to say as much of the chant as we could together.

Lastly, we played rock, paper, scissors (janken) in pairs. The teachers did a demonstration first. Everyone played ten times.
"Rock, paper, scissors. 1, 2, 3!"

The students really enjoyed this activity.

They wrote a circle if they won, a triangle if they drew and a cross if they lost. Then everyone counted their shapes.

"How many circles? Raise your hand. 1 circle!"
Good job everyone! It was a fun class!

5th grade students had their fourth class studying Hi,friends!1 Lesson 5 `What do you like?`. In the previous class the students had interviewed their friends and designed t-shirts for them. In this class the students presented the t-shirts that they had designed.

Here are some of the t-shirts that the students designed:
This t-shirt was designed for a student who likes starts, diamonds, circles, red, blue and yellow.
Oh! Nice Doraemon!

This t-shirt was designed for a student that likes circles, crosses, green and blue.
Great design!

After our usual greetings the students did the chant from Let's Try!1. They did the "What color do you like?" chant and then using the same chant's karaoke version everyone chanted "What shape do you like?".

Next, we confirmed our goal for the class.
"Let's give our friends the t-shirts we designed for them."

First, the teachers showed a picture on the screen and asked "Who designed this t-shirt?"
"Me!"

"Who is this t-shirt for?"
" It's for ~san."
"Come here, please"
In this way the students came to the front of the class in pairs to present their t-shirts.
"Let's watch!"

The students talked about why they chose their design. We aimed for the students to think a lot about what the other person would like.
"This is for you."
"Blue stars and pink circles."
The students could use Japanese to explain their reasoning.

Everyone checked with the student who would receive the t-shirt:
"What shapes/colors do you like?"
After answering those questions the student said what they thought about the t-shirt. "Great! I want 3 more t-shirts with this design!"

The students tried their best to create t-shirts that their friends would like.
"Wow! It could be sold in Uniqlo!"

The teachers would ask the students listening questions, too.
"What shapes does he like?"
"Stars!"
"That's right!"

The students used English to exchange their t-shirt designs.
"Here you are!"

"Thank you!"
"You are welcome!"

Nice work, 5th grade students!