富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

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!

On Friday class 3-2 had a demonstration class. Many teachers came to watch their class and give advice to the teachers.

The students have been studying the phrase `Do you like~?` and giving reactions. We have been increasing the vocabulary they know while using the same question.

First, we had a greeting game.
This warm-up helps to get the students into `English mode`. Then they are ready to study English!

We listened to a new chant `マラソンじゃなくてmarathon`.
The students had to listen to the difference in English and Japanese names for sports.

They tried their best to listen well.
Everyone joined in with repeating the English pronunciation, too.

The students guessed from the chant that we would study sports. First we played a gesture game. "What's this?"
The students could answer in Japanese. We never ask them `In English?` because we haven't taught them the English words yet. We want them to be relaxed and feel no pressure.

"I know! I know!"
After the students answer, Ms. Emily taught everyone the English pronunciations.

The teachers picked some students to do gestures, too. They picked students who were good at those sports so many students started guessing what sport it would be.
"He is good at baseball so maybe he will do the baseball gesture?"
"That's right! Baseball!"

Do you know what gesture these two students are doing?
They are pretending to play dodgeball.

How about this gesture?
She is swimming!

We learned all these different sports.
We tried to include sports that would have many different answers such as `marathon`, `dance` and `jump rope`.

Next, Ms. Emily asked everyone "Do you like~?" questions.
Everyone could answer while making gestures. The students were all comfortable enough to say their true feelings. "Many people like soccer but I don't." It's very important to say what you really feel!

Next, the students all asked Ms. Emily questions.
She couldn't see the flashcards so if the students didn't speak clearly she had to ask "One more time, please!".

The class split into two groups and took turns asking and answering questions.
"Do you like soccer?"

The students answered while making gestures.
"Yes, I do. I like dodgeball."

Then the two sides switched. "Do you like jump rope?"
"Yes, I do! I like jump rope."

After that, the class asked individual students. Everyone tried to pick a question where the student would say `Yes!`.
Many students wanted to answer the questions!

Then, it was time for the main interview activity. We try to do many demonstrations so we are sure that the students understand without needing to use Japanese.
First, two teachers give a demonstration. (T-T)

Then one teacher and one student give a demonstration.
We call this T-S.

Lastly two students give a demonstration (S-S).
We use the system: T-T, T-S, S-S. It means all students can see 3 demonstrations.

First the students interviewed in their groups. First they talked to their horizontal pair, then vertical pair and finally diagonal pair.
One group gave a demonstration so it was clear.

After practicing in groups it was time to interview our classmates!
Nice smile!

Half-way through the activity the teachers pick some students to give a good demonstration.
They have good reactions! They said "Me, too!". Let's all try to do reactions, too!

We started the activity again while thinking about doing reactions.
Great gestures!

Lastly the students gave verbal feedback about the class. "What did you realize for the first time?" "What do you want to do next class?"
Everyone did a great job! Well done!

3rd grade students have been building on what they studied last year. In the last post we showed you classes 3-1 and 3-3 studying about reactions. You can read about the lesson in more detail here. This week class 3-2 studied the same lesson.
We refreshed our memories about colors and vegetables. "What's this? Do you know?"
"Yes! Yes! It's corn!"

"What color are tomatoes?"
"Red!" "Yes, tomatoes are red!"
"Is this red?" "Yes!"

Everyone asked their friends and gave reactions.
"Do you like potatoes?"
"Yes, I do. I like potatoes!"
"Me, too!"
Nice eye contact!
Well done class 3-2!

Classes 3-1 and 3-3 studied new vocabulary for the first time this year. They studied sports.
First we learned the new words. Ms. Emily asked "What's this?".
The students could answer in Japanese and Ms. Emily said the English.

Next, we looked at things we use for sports. "What sport do we use this for?"
"Baseball!"

This is a soccer ball. "Is this soccer?"
"No!!" "Good job! It's dodgeball!"

Then we played a gesture game. The teachers did gestures and the students guessed the sport.
Can you guess?
Hmmm...

I know! I know!
"Soccer!" "Yes! It's soccer! Good job!"

How about this gesture?
Wow! It's jump rope!

Next, we practiced asking questions as a class. First we split the class into two groups and practiced asking and answering questions together.
Nice gestures everyone!

Next, One student stood at the front and everyone else asked the question on the flashcard together.
"Do you like marathon?"

Then the student answered, "Yes, I do." or "No, I don't."
"Yes, I do!!" Nice gestures!

After practicing together we asked our friends.
Nice smile!

The teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration. "Let's watch!"
Great eye contact and reactions! "Me, too!"

Then, everyone tried again while rememebering the good demonstration.
Great smiles and gestures!

Nice job classes 3-1 and 3-3!

Recently, classes 3-3 and 3-1 had their second English class of the year. Last year the students studied vegetables, colors and the phrase "Do you like~?". In this class we reviewed what they had studied before and added an extra level of difficulty.

First we reviewed the colors. We used pictures Ms. Mayumi found from children around the world to talk about colors.
Look! What's this yellow circle? It's not the moon! Children in the U.K. draw a yellow sun. How interesting!

Next we reviewed the vegetables and their colors. What color are tomatoes?
Red? Is this red? No?! It's white!

All the students copied Ms. Emily's English.
It's a little different from Japanese pronunciation so it's a little difficult. Everyone did their best!

We also tried to practice reactions. The whole school is learning reactions this year.
"Do you like tomatoes?" "Yes, I do!"
"Me, too!" "Oh, I see!"

We also practiced asking questions together as a class. Let's all ask "Do you like red?".
What do you think his answer will be? Let's do reactions, too. "Great!"

Next, we asked our friends questions and gave reactions. First the teachers did a demonstration.
"Do you like potatoes?" "Yes, I do." "Me, too!!"

Then, it was the students turn to try.
Nice gestures!

High five! Yeay!

Nice smiles!

Great eye contact!

Everyone did their best! Well done 3rd grade students!