富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

In their last class on Let's Try!2 Unit 2 `Let's play cards.` the 4th grade students invited their friends to play together in a `Special Recess`. Thankfully it was sunny so the students could play the `sunny version` games.

They played many different games!
"Let's play soccer!"

"Let's play baseball!"

"Let's jump rope!"

"Let's play tag!"

It was so fun! This was a great result from English class!

4th grade students had their third and last class on Let's Try!2 Unit 2 `Let's play cards.` In this class they invited their friends to play games in a `special recess` that each class will have.

After our normal greetings we reviewed the goal for the class and the English for the different games that the students wanted to play during their `special recess`.
There are many fun games to play!

Next, the teachers gave a demonstration on how to invite people to play as well as how to answer that invite.
"Let's play basketball!"
"Sorry!"

Then, it was time for the students to actually invite their friends to play. Everyone planned what game they wanted to play and invited many people.
Wow! This group is very big! Maybe they will play soccer?

"Let's play tag!"
"Yes, let's!!"

After almost all the students had decided what to play they sat down in their groups. Some of the students hadn't decided on a game so each group invited them in turn until they found something they also wanted to play.
Everyone could find a game that they wanted to play! Good job everyone!

Next, we asked the students if there was anything that they had wanted to say but they didn't know the English.
Many people had something they wanted to say! Many of the students wanted to ask the reason why their friend had declined their invite or they wanted to decline in a nicer way.

Ms. Emily taught us how to do that in English.
"Let's play soccer!"
"Sorry!"
"Why?"
"I like tag!"
"Okay! See you!"

Then, we realized that the forecast for the special recess was for rain so we decided to invite our friends again, this time with a rainy day plan.
"Let's do origami!"

"Let's play table tennis!"

"Let's play hide and seek!"

After everyone had found a game to play it was time for feedback and reflection.
Many students wrote about the English they had learned.

"I learned that I could say `Why?` and it made me feel better about my friends declining an invite.`

Good job everyone! `Special Recess` will be so fun! Let's enjoy it!

4th grade students had their second class on Let's Try!2 Unit 2 `Let's play cards.` In this class they practiced inviting their friends to play something.

First, after greetings, we asked students to remember what sports and games they had talked about in the previous class.
Ms. Emily put them on the board and everyone practiced together.

Next, we practiced inviting our friends to play. We split the class in half with half of the students asking and the other half answering.
The students who were answering could reply depending on their feelings about that sport: `Yes, let's!` or `Sorry!`.

Some students also helped to demonstrate.
"Let's play soccer."
"Yes, let's!"

Next, we introduced the games that we would play in this class.

We wanted some games that the students could easily play right away.
We practiced the pronunciations together.

Next, after watching a teacher demonstration it was time for the main activity. Everyone invited their friends to play.
"Hello!"
It's always good to start with a greeting.

"Let's play janken."
"Yes, let's!"

There were many fun games to play together.
"Let's play!"

"Look at this!"

"This is fun!"

Half-way through the activity the teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration.
Nice gestures!
The students all tried again while thinking about the good points of the demonstration.

At the end of the activity the students talked about what had bothered them during the activity.
"When my friends said `Sorry!` I wanted to know the reason. I felt sad."
"Next time let's ask `Why?` then your friend can answer `I like ~` and tell you the reason."

Good job 4th grade. Let's do our best in the next class!

4th grade students have recently been studying a new topic. They have been studying Let's Try!2 Unit 2 `Let's play cards.` In the first class on this topic they learned about different games and weather.

After our usual greetings Ms. Emily told us about different games she played when she was in elementary school. Depending on the weather she did different things.
"On sunnny or cloudy days we played `What's the time Mr. Wolf`. It's like `daruma-san ga koronda`."

We told the students that at the end of this topic they will have a special recess time. We asked them what kinds of games they would like to play during this time.
Different classes had different ideas. 3-2 wanted to play many of the games that Ms. Emily had introduced.

3-1 wanted to play games like othello and shogi.

Next, we watched some videos from the digital textbook. We had to listen carefully to try and pick out the words that people used to invite their friends to play with them.
"They used the word `Let's ~`."
"That's right!

After watching the teachers do a demonstration some of the students also took turns to be invited to play games.
"Let's play dodgeball!"
"Yes, let's!"

"Let's read a book!"
"Sorry!"

"Let's do origami!"
"Yes, let's!"

Next, we had the whole class ask one student together. The students had to pick something that they thought their friend would agree to do.
"This one?"

"No no!"
"This one?"
"Yes!"
"Okay. Let's ask this one together!"

The students repeated the question after Ms.Emily until they were confident enough to answer by themselves.
"Let's play `What's the time Mr. Wolf?`!"
"Yes, let's!"

The students had to answer with their true feelings so sometimes they didn't want to play the game suggested.
"Sorry!"

After that everyone wrote what they thought about the class.
"We learned about some new games in Scotland. I want to play those games with my class!"

Good job everyone!

4th grade students had their fifth and last class on the topic is `This is my day.` using the `Good Morning` picture book. In previous classes the students learned how to talk about their daily routine and made picture story shows (kamishibai) in groups. In this class they performed those shows for the other students.

The groups took turns to perform for everyone.
The students had all drawn pictures about the same character.

Other members of the group held the picture while the student who drew it introduced it in English while doing gestures.
"I get up."

4th grade students have been focusing this year on improving their gestures so they all tried to do them while speaking.
Great gesture!!

The students introduced the daily routine of their character.
"I brush my teeth."

Some students showed great originality. In the storybook the character combs his hair, however Doraemon is a cat, so he is different.
"I comb my whiskers."

I wonder what they are eating.
"I have breakfast."

"I go to school."
The pictures and gestures made it easy for everyone to understand.

"I watch TV."
Souta-kun likes the same T.V. shows as the students!

"I dream a wonderful dream."
Nobita dreams about getting 100 on a test. Of course Doraemon dreams about dorayaki. Nice ideas!

It was very fun to see what the other students had created.
Good job everyone! Let's try hard in English class next year, too!

4th grade students had their third and fourth classes on the topic is `This is my day.` using the `Good Morning` picture book. In the first two classes we listened to the story and focused on learning how to talk about our daily routine. In the next two classses we had mixed English and art classes as the students made picture story shows (kamishibai) in groups.

After our usual greetings, we reviewed the daily routine phrases that we had studied in the previous classes.
"I study English."

Next, the students decided in their groups what pictures they would draw.
Each group had 4 or 5 members so the students each had to draw at least two pictures.

Each group decided on a character.
Some of the characters were famous cartoon characters and others were original characters that the students created.

The students could draw pictures that appeared in the story.
Some students also created their own original pictures for their character's daily routine such as snowboarding or playing baseball.

The students worked hard on their pictures in groups.
"Look! Our character looks like you!"

The students really enjoyed creating their own characters and drawing the pictures together.
Nice drawing!

Some of the students shared the work, too.One student was in charge of drawing the picture and the other student was in charge of coloring and adding details.
Nice teamwork!

Here are some examples of pictures that the students drew. They are still working on them so they are not finished yet.
"I wake up."

"I comb my hair."
The little green man has very little hair but he still combs it! Good job!

"I eat breakfast."
I wonder what Doraemon eats for breakfast.

"I finish my dinner."
Souta-kun eats ramen for dinner. It looks delicious!

The students all did their best to create good pictures.


It was a lot of fun to work together!
Good job!

In the next class the students will present their character's daily routine. It will be very interesting to watch!

4th grade students had their second class on the topic is `This is my day.` using the `Good Morning` picture book. In this first class we focused on the first half of the story. In this class we focused on the second half of the story.

As always we started class with a greeting game. The students have been practicing using the phrase "What is your favorite~?" that they studied in Tomilish Time.
Nice gestures!

Good eye contact!

Nice smile!

Good reaction!

After the greeting game we checked the goal for the class.
"Let's learn about Kazu's daily routine."

We used the digital version of the storybook to listen to the story again.
After listening to the story Ms. Emily asked many questions about the second half of the story.

"What's this?"
"It's a cat."
"That's right!"

Next, the students received small story cards and had to rearrange the cards into the correct order.
They put the cards in the same order as the story.

"Hmmm....what comes next?"
"Oh! It's this card! This one is next!"

After the students had put the cards in order, we checked the correct order together as a class.Ms. Emily helped us to pronounce each part of the `daily routine` in English. We also did gestures.
"I wash my face."

Some students were really good at doing the gestures.
"I comb my hair!"
Good job!

Finally, we listen to the chant. It's very fast!
Everyone did their best to at least do the gestures. Since it was the second time for the students to hear the chant some students also started singing along, too.

We all stood up and did the gestures together.
"I play with my friends."
Ms. Mayumi is going a great soccer gesture! Nice!

Good job everyone!

4th grade students have recently had their first class on a new topic. The topic is `This is my day.` and we are using the `Good Morning` picture book.

As usual, we started by greeting as a class.


Next, we had a greeting game. Before starting, the teachers did a demonstration.
"Let's watch!"

"Nice jacket. Do you like black?"
"Yes, I do."
"What's your favorite color?"
"Guess what?"
"Blue?"
"No."
"Red?"
"Yes! It's red!"

After watching the demonstration all the students stood up and did the greeting game, too.
Good eye contact!

Nice smiles!

After the greeting game we all confirmed the goal for the class.
"Let's listen to the story!"

The main part of the class was listening to the story `Good Morning`.


Ms. Emily used the digital version of the story to read to everyone.
In the first class we focused on the first half of the story. After Ms. Emily had read us the whole story once, she went through the first half of the story again asking questions.
"What color is this?"
"What animal is this?"
"How many?"

Next, we reviewed the story together.
"The pages are all out of order. Let's remember the story and put them back in order!"

The students used mini cards.
"Hmmm...what comes next?"

"Maybe this one?"

Then we checked the answers together as a class.
"I think this one is next."

Everyone said whether they had the same answer or not.
"Is it okay? Good job!"
Ms. Emily read each page as we put it in order and everyone repeated after her.

Next, we played the pointing game.
We had to point to the right page as Ms. Emily read them.

Lastly we did the chant. It was super fast so everyone just did gestures with the chant. Can you tell what gesture this it?
"I wash my face!"

In the next class we will focus more on the second part of the story. Everyone is interested in learning more! Good work!

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 4th grade students had their fourth class on the topic "What time is it?". You can see the previous three classes here:
Hour 1
Hour 2
Hour 3

The class started with greetings and some simple questions.
"How is the weather?" "It's sunny."
"What day is it today?" "It's Wednesday."

After that, the students played `Time Bingo`.
"What time is it?"
"It's 9:30."

"What time is it?"
"It's 11:30."

After that we did the karaoke version of the chant.
Ms. Atsuko pointed to the times for everyone to chant.

Next, the teachers talked about their favorite times.
"What time do you like?"
"I like 7am."
"Why?"
"I like the sunrise. It's very beautiful!"
"Oh, wonderful!"

Next, we checked the goal for the class together.
"Let's read together!"

The teachers gave a demonstration for the first activity. Everyone had made schedules for winter vacation. They covered the times so other people had to guess.
"It's lunch time. What time is it?"
"It's 11:30a.m."
"No."
"It's 1p.m."
"Yes. That's right!"

The students quizzed each other in pairs.
"It's snack time. What time is it?"

"It's bath time. What time is it?"
"Hmm... It's 8p.m."
"That's right!"

After the activity the students talked about the good points their friends had shown. Then, it was time for the second activity. Everyone picked up their schedules and moved to the back of the room.
Ms. Atsuko and Ms. Mayumi did a demonstration.
"What time do you like?"
"I like 10p.m."
"Why?"
"I like bed time."

After the Teacher-Teacher demonstration, Ms. Atsuko did another demonstration with one of the students.
A Teacher-Student demonstration helps the review what they have to do without needing Japanese instructions.

Then, we had a Student-Student demonstration to really check if the students had understood.
"What time do you like?"
"I like 4p.m."
"Why?"
"I like snack time."

After the demonstrations it was time for the students to try for themselves.
Clear voice!

Nice eye contact!

Half-way through the activity the teachers asked everyone to nominate some students who had done well.
"Who did a good job?"

The teachers asked those students to give a good demonstration.
Nice eye contact! It's important!

Clear voices! Good job!

Next, the students tried again without using their schedule paper. This made it easier to make eye contact but they had to remember what they wanted to say.
Good job!

Nice smile!

After the activity, the teachers picked some students to talk about their favorite time. Everyone asked them questions together.
"What time do you like?"
"I like 6p.m."
"Why?"
"It's dinner time."

The students wrote their feedback cards since this was the last lesson in this topic. We only use feedback cards in the first and last lessons for the upper grades.
The students wrote about what they had learned over the topic.

The teachers picked some students to read what they wrote.
Good job everyone!

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

4th grade students have had their third class on the topic `What time is it?`. In this class they prepared their schedules which they will use in the fourth class.

We started the class by doing the time bingo that we had played in previous classes.
The students have a lot of practice asking and answering `What time is it?` questions.

Nice eye contact!

The cards have red dots for A.M. and blue dots for P.M. so students can practice saying that, too.
It was a fun warm-up activity!

Next, it was time for the main activity. The teachers introduced their schedule for a day in winter vacation.
They used the blackboard so it was easy for everyone to see.

Next, everyone had to make their own winter schedule.
It will be a smaller version of this!

Everyone was working very hard.


The students had to draw on the clocks the time they do each activity.
You can see there is a blank paper for students to create their own original daily activity.

After writing all the times the students had to stick the papers on their daily schedule.
"Dinner time is at 6pm in winter vacation."

The students thought hard about what to write for their original daily activity.

It's finished! This student's original activity is snowboarding!

Good job 4th grade students.