富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

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!

3rd grade students have been studying Let's try!1 Unit 4 `I like blue`. This week they had their fourth and last class on the topic. In this class they researched the most popular colors in their class in order to pick colors to decorate the signboard for our school festival. Some teachers came to watch the class, too.

After our usual greeting questions and doing the chant we had `Teacher Talk`. Ms. Emily talked about festivals in her country. The homeroom teachers told her about our school festival in Tomizawa.
"3rd grade students have to make a signboard for the festival but it's just plain white letters...do you have any ideas?"
"Let's interview each other and find out the most popular colors in the class! Then we can make the signboard with those colors!"
"Nice idea!"

Next, we reviewed the English names for colors.
"White!"

Then, the teachers gave a demonstration of how to do the interview.
"Do you like red?"
"No, I don't."
"Hint, please!"
"Lemon!"
"Do you like yellow?"
"Yes, I do! I like yellow!"

The students first guessed what would be the most popular color in their class. Then it was time to interview everyone!
"Do you like orange?"

"No, I don't!"

"Hint, please!"

"Sky!"
"Do you like blue?"

"Yes, I do! I like blue!"

"Thank you! See you!"
Great smiles!

After checking with the students about what was the most popular color out of the people they interviewed, everyone wrote their feedback cards. The teachers asked some students to annouce what they wrote.
"I want to use the English I learned to go aboard."
Wow! Nice dream! You can do it!

3-1 and 3-2's top two colors were green and blue.
3-3's top two colors were blue and yellow.
Here is the completed signboard:
Nice signboard!
Good job 3rd grade students!

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!

4th grade students have been studying Let's Try!1 Unit 4 "I like blue." In the last lesson they researched the top 3 popular colors in their class. In this lesson they will be designed t-shirts for our school character, Anerjiro, and picked the most popular t-shirt in their class to make into a poster.

After greetings and the chant, everyone started to design their t-shirt.
They used the top 3 popular colors and were free to design any kind of t-shirt.

Everyone thought hard about what other people would like.

They tried their best to make cool and interesting t-shirts.

Next, after a demonstration by the teachers, everyone got together in groups.
Each group asked another group "What's your favorite t-shirt?". The students had studied this phrase during Tomilish Time.

Each student could pick their favorite t-shirt from the other group.
"Hmmmm... I like number 2."

"I like this one."

Everyone enjoyed seeing all the t-shirt designs.

The most popular t-shirt from each group was put on the blackboard for everyone to see.
The students are looking at the t-shirts very closely.

The students could vote for their favorite t-shirt on the blackboard.
In this way we could chose the most popular t-shirt in the class.

We used the most popular designs to make a `Let's try!` card for our school mascot, Anejiro. We will use this card in class when there is a difficult activity to motivate the students.
Class 1's top 3 colours were:
1. Blue
2. Yellow
3. White
The most popular design looks like this:
Nice flowers!

Class 2's top 3 colours were:
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Red
The most popular design looks like this:
Great pattern!

Class 3's top 3 colours were::
1. Yellow
2. Purple and Black (draw)
The most popular design looks like this:
Great use of color!
Good job 4th grade students! We are looking forward to using the new `Let's try!` cards in class.

4th grade students have started studying Let's Try!1 Unit 4 "I like blue." In this unit they will be designing t-shirts for our school character, Anerjiro. In order to design their t-shirts they used this lesson to research the top 3 popular colors in their class.

We started class with our usual greetings and questions.
"Look at the sky. How is the weather today?"
"It's sunny!"
"That's right. It's sunnny!"

After our greetings we had `Teacher Talk`. The students had to listen to the teachers talking, try and catch some of the words and think about what they were saying.
"I like yellow. Do you like yellow?"
"Yes, I do! I like suzume odori. Do you like suzume odori?"
"No, I don't. I like soccer."
"Oh!"

After the chant, we reviewed the English words for colors.
Then we did the chant from Let's Try!1 Unit 4 "I like blue."

Next, the teachers did a demonstration for the main activity of the lesson.
"Do you like yellow?"
"Yes, I do!"

After the demonstration the teachers asked the students what was different about the two teachers ways of asking questions. Ms. Emily asked Ms. Keiko "Do you like~?" questions about all the colors in turn until Ms. Keiko said "Yes". However, Ms. Keiko thought about what color Ms. Emily might like before asking questions. Everyone decided that thinking about the person and then asking questions was the best way.

Next, it was the students turn to interview everyone in their class.
"Do you like purple?"
"Yes, I do!"

Nice smile!

"Do you like green?"
"No, I don't."

Good eye contact!

Half-way through the activity the teachers asked some of the students to give a good demonstration. They did great greetings after finishing questioning each other.
"Thank you! See you!"

After watching the good demonstration the teachers did a bad demonstration to further emphasise their point.
"Wait!"
It's important to properly greet!

The students continued the activity while thinking about the demonstrations.
Great smile!

Nice eye contact!

At the end of the activity we tried to find the student who talked to the most people. The student who talked to the most people told us their results. Each class had different results which was very interesting!

Class 1:
1. Blue
2. Yellow
3. White

Class 2:
1. Blue
2. Green
3. Red

Class 3:
1. Yellow
2. Purple and Black (draw)

In the next class the students will use these results in order to design t-shirts. We are looking forward to seeing their designs.
Good job everyone!

3rd grade students have been studying Let's try!1 Unit 4 `I like blue`. In this class they used the question "Do you like~?" to try and find the most popular sport in their class.

We started class with our usual greeting questions.
"What day is it today?"
"Let's sing the song as a hint. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday..."
"Friday!"
"That's right! It's Friday!"

Next, the teachers did `Teacher Talk`. We like to show many different situations that the students can use the phrases that they have been studying. In this class they decided to go for a picnic. Ms. Emily brought a basket full of food and asked the other teachers questions such as "Do you like grapes?" before passing them the food. After talking the teachers asked the students what they had talked about.

After the teacher talk we did the chant from Let's Try!1. Everyone enjoyed singing along and doing gestures.

Next, the teachers did a demonstration of the interview activity to find the most popular sport in the class.
"Do you like swimming?"
"No, I don't!"
"Do you like soccer?"
"Yes, I do!"

After watching the demonstration the students all predicted what would be the most popular sport. "Hmmm...maybe soccer?"

Then, it was time for the students to interview as many of their classmates as they could.
"Do you like basketball?"

"No, I don't".

"Do you like soccer?"
"Yes, I do!"

"Ok! Let's write down one point for soccer!"

Half-way through the activity the teachers got some students to give a good demonstration.
Great eye contact! Nice gestures!

Everyone kept the good points of the demonstration in mind while continuing the activity.
Nice smiles!

Clear voice!

Good eye contact!

After the activity we tried to find the student who talked to the most people.
"If you talked to 11 people, raise your hand.."

The student who talked to the most people told us their results.
Swimming was surprisingly popular!

Good job 3rd grade students!

3rd grade students have started to study Let's try!1 Unit 4 `I like blue`. Last year they studied the question "Do you like~?" while learning about colors and vegetables etc. This year we will study sports and types of food, too.

After our usual greetings we listened to the teachers talking and tried to understand what they said.
"I like pink. Do you like pink?"
"No, I don't."

"Do you know what the teachers were talking about? What words did you catch?"
"I know! I know! They talked about what they like."

Next, in order to introduce some new vocabulary the teachers gave a 3 hint quiz. The students could answer the quiz in Japanese.
"Hint 1. Ball"
"Hint 2. Outside"
"Hint 3. 11 people vs. 11 people"
"Soccer!"

"Hint 1. Summer"
"Hint 2. Pool"
"Hint 3. Crawl"
"Swimming!"

After each new word was introduced through the quiz we praticed the English pronunciation with Ms. Emily.
"Swimming! Swimming!"

Next, we did the chant. First we listened twice. Then we chanted the words that we knew while doing gestures. We slowly built up until the students could try to say the whole chant.
"Red. Red. I like red. Wow! Beautiful!"

After the chant, the students did `Activity 1`. They had to color the rainbow in the textbook as they liked. The teachers were careful to not give them any directions.
Everyone colored their rainbows in different ways.

Some students picked their favorite colors.
Other students tried to remember the order that we see colors in a rainbow.

After that we did `Let's Watch and Think1'.
We watched students from around the world color in rainbows.

The students compared the rainbows in the video to the rainbows that they drew. They announced to everyone what they thought.
"The student from Kenya used the colors of the Kenyan flag. He used black! It was very different from my rainbow."

Good job 3rd grade students!

4th grade students had their second English class of the year this week. Their first class was an orientation so this class is their first proper lesson. In this class they studied a mix of Let's Try!1 Unit 1 "Hello!" and Unit 2 "How are you?".

We started the class with studying greetings from around the world in Let's Try!1 Unit 1 "Hello!" . After learning about the different greetings we played an evolution janken game.3rd grade students also did a very similar lesson so you can see a more detailed description of the game: here.
First, everyone watched the teachers do a demonstration. This meant everyone understood the rules without having to have it explained in Japanese.

The students were careful to remember to greet each other before playing janken.
"Hello!"

Everyone really enjoyed doing the janken game.
" Rock, scissors, paper. 1, 2, 3!"

Students who reached the top level first tried to help everyone else.
The teachers praised the students who held their papers up high for everyone to see. "You are thinking about other people. They can easily find you. Good job!"

After that, we did the `Let's Listen` activity on page 4 of Let's Try!1 Unit 1 "Hello!".
The students had to listen to the different characters and match them with the right country.

The students also tried to catch what the characters names were.
Some of the names were very difficult to hear! Everyone tried hard to listen.

After studying about greetings around the world we moved onto Let's Try!1 Unit 2 "How are you?". We learned about the different ways to answer the question "How are you?". This was review for the students as they have studied about this a little in Tomilish Time.
First, the students guessed how their teachers felt by looking at their gestures.
Next, we did a greeting game and everyone did their best to do gestures.
"How are you?"

"I'm fine! Thank you!"

"I'm hungry"

Everyone tried to match their expressions and gestures to what they were saying.

Lastly, we asked the students what they thought about the days class. Students mentioned that they used a lot of gestures. We used this as a chance to teach the students some gestures used in countries around the world. We taught them these gestures:
Ms. Emily did the gesture and the students tried to guess the meaning. Everyone was interested to know the different gestures.

It was a fun class! Well done 4th grade students!