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 6th grade classes gathered together. Ms. Emily had planned to do a normal class but the 6th grade students had a better idea.

We started with our normal greeting game.
"How are you?"

"Can you play the piano?"

After doing the chant the screen looked like this:

The teachers closed the screen to reveal a message from the students.
Ms. Emily thought that this was the surprise that the students had prepared but actually they had prepared much more.

Next, Ms. Emily did a demonstration with some of the students of the passport control activity.
Half-way through the demonstration the students suddenly shouted that they had another more important thing to do.

Some students rushed to the front of the class to talk to Ms. Emily while the other students prepared.
Everyone got their recorders and played a song for Ms. Emily.

It was such a nice surprise!
It was so moving!

After that then Ms. Emily gave a speech and everyone listened carefully.
She talked about teaching the students for two years and watching them grow as people. She was very proud to have taught them and would like to visit in the future.
Everyone said that in order to visit she would need a passport. Actually the students had written letters to Ms. Emily on the inside of their passport sheets. They had hidden the letters very well!

They gave their letters one by one while each saying a message to Ms. Emily.
At the end of the class, Ms. Emily said goodbye to everyone.

See you!

The students all tried to use English they had learned to cheer for Ms. Emily at her new school.
"You can do it!"

There was time for one last joke at the end of the class.
Class together was always interesting. Do your best in the future!

6th grade students had their second and third lessons on the topic of Hi,friends!2 Lesson 5 `Let's go to Italy` and We Can!1 Unit 6 `I want to go to Italy.` In these classes they practiced using the phrase "Where do you want to go?" as well as some other questions while pretending to be Passport Control agents and passengers.

Both the second and third classes followed a similar format in order to give the students as much practice as possible with the phrases. After our usual greetings and greeting game we reviewed with a short Teacher Talk. Then, we played a memory game. It's a fun way to practice phrases in groups.

In groups of four, three people ask together "Where do you want to go?".
"I want to go to Italy."

Then everyone asks the next person, "Where do you want to go?".
"I want to go to America. OOO wants to go to Italy."

Then the next person, "Where do you want to go?".
"I want to go to France. OOO wants to go to Italy. *** wants to go to America."

And the game continues, getting harder and hard. The students really enjoy this and it's good practice, too!

Next, we did the Passport Control activity. The students had passports that they made in class with their name, birthday and where they want to go. First, the teachers gave and demonstration and then two students gave another demonstration.
Giving multiple demonstrations helps everyone understand what to do without having to give instructions in Japanese.

After watching the demonstrations, it was time for everyone else to try. They took turns to be Passport Control agents and passengers. They had to ask questions and check the answers.
"What's your name?"

"When is your birthday?"

"Where do you want to go?"

Some of the agents were very strict and made the passengers try again if they didn't speak clearly so everyone had to try their best!
Good clear voice!

Once the students had gotten the hang of the English then they could add another level of difficulty by saying the reason they want to visit.
"Where do you want to go?"
"I want to go to Italy."
"Why?"
"I want to eat pizza."

Good job everyone!

6th grade students started studying a new topic last week. They have started Hi,friends!2 Lesson 5 `Let's go to Italy` and We Can!1 Unit 6 `I want to go to Italy.` In the first class for this topic they studied the flags of different countries and they also became familiar with the phrases for talking about what country they want to visit.

As always we started class with a greeting game. The teachers asked some students to give a demonstration. They used the English that they have studied so far in order to link their conversation as naturally as possible.
"Can you ride a unicycle?"
"No, I can't but I can ride a bike. Can you ride a bike?"
"Yes, I can."

Then it was time for everyone else to greet each other.
"Hello!"

The students also greeted Ms. Satsuki who was watching the class.

Next, the teachers did a `Teacher Talk` pretending to be in passport control at the airport. The students listened and tried to pick out some words in the conversation. Everyone checked together about the meaning of the `Teacher Talk`.

After that, everyone did the `Where do you want to go?` chant from We Can!1. First everyone just listened twice and then the third time they did their best to chant along.

Then, we did `Let's Play 1` in the Hi,friends!2 textbook.
The students wrote the country names in the blanks before matching the country flags to their pictures.

After that, we practiced how to ask and answer the question `Where do you want to go?`. We practiced with the students asking the teachers and then the teachers asked some of the students. It helps to practice as a big group so that everyone can get confidence.
"Where do you want to go?"
"I want to go to Spain."

The students all discussed what countries would be good to visit.
The world map posters in the classroom were very useful to find some interesting countries.

Good job everyone!

6th grade students had their fourth and last lesson studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` In this class they gathered together as a grade to give each other the `Who is he/she?` quizzes that they created about their friends.

As usual we started class with a greeting game. Two of the students gave a good demonstration using the phrase `Can you~?`.
"Can you fly?"
"No, I can't. But, I can run!"

After watching the demonstration, everyone had to talk to at least two boys and two girls while trying to ask `Can you~?` questions.
"Hello!"

"Can you swim?"

"Yes, I can!"

After the greeting game, we did the chant together. The 6th grade students have become very good at doing this chant.
They did gestures, too!

Next, we reviewed the different words to describe someone's personality.
"Smart!"

The students repeated the words to practice the pronunciation.
"Smart!"

We also asked students questions to check the meaning.
"Who is smart in this grade?"
" ~ is smart!"

Next, the teachers gave two demonstrations. They gave a good demonstration and a bad demonstration for giving quizzes.
They asked the students which demonstration was better and why.

Then it was time for the students to give their quizzes. First they gave their quiz to the person sitting next to them (we made sure that everyone was sitting next to someone from another class).
Nice eye contact!

Good gestures!

Nice smiles!

After practicing in their pairs everyone was free to give their quizzes to anyone from the other classes.
"He can play basketball."

"He can cook."

"He is friendly."

"Who is he?"

Good job everyone. Your quizzes were very interesting!

6th grade students had their third lesson this year studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` In this class they made `Who is he/she?` quizzes about their friends. They had started preparing the quizzes during the Upper Grades Tomilish Time. We used class this week for the students to finish preparing the quizzes and to start asking and answering quizzes with their friends.

We started class with some of the students giving a good demonstration for the greeting game. The students focused on asking `Can you~?` questions as well as trying to link their conversation naturally.
"Can you play soccer?"
"Yes, I can. I like soccer."
"What's your favorite soccer team?"

After watching the demonstration everyone else did their best to continue their conversations for as long as possible.
Nice gestures!

Good eye contact!

Boys and girls making pairs! Good job!

Nice smiles!

Good job everyone!
After the greeting game the teachers checked with different students about who they talked to and what that person said. We are trying to make students aware of the importance of paying attention and listening well when they are having a conversation.

Next, after doing the chant for this topic, we reviewed the different ways to describe someone's personality.
"Repeat after me!"

After reviewing the pronunciation for the words we also reviewed their meaning by asking the students which of their friends can be described in that way.
"In this class, who is friendly?"

"In this class, who is brave?"
The students who were picked by their classmates were happy!

Next, the students took some time to finish preparing their quizzes.
The students all did their best to make good quizzes.

Here are some examples of the quizzes that the students created:
"He can play Japanese chess."

"She can cook."

"He is interesting."

"He can run."

"She is cute."

After preparing their quizzes, the students gave their quizzes in pairs.
Everyone took care to listen to their friends 3 hints before trying to answer.

Next, the students got into groups and gave their quizzes to more people.
Clear voices!

Nice eye contact!

Finally, the teachers picked some students to give their quiz to the class.
"Oh, I know!"

In the next class the 3 classes will get together in order to give their quizzes to more people.

6th grade students had their second lesson this year studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` In this class they made `Who is he/she?` quizzes about their teachers in order to prepare to make similar quizzes about their friends in a later class.

At the start of the class some of the students gave a demonstration for the greeting game. They made sure to ask many `Can you ~?` questions.
"Can you play the recorder?"
"No, I can't."

After watching the demonstration it was time for everyone else to try.
Good eye contact!

Nice gestures!

Next, we listened to the chant from We Can!1 Unit 5. Everyone tried their best to do gestures along with the chant.
The students have been able to learn the chant very easily because they did a similar chant last year.

After that, we did a listening activities. We did `Let's Watch and Think 2` from We Can!1 Unit 5.
First the students listened to a boy describing what two of his friends can do. They tried to catch some of the words and take notes. They didn't have to understand everything.

Next, they watched a video of those two friends talking and describing directly what they can and can't do.
"If they can do it, draw a circle. If they can't, write a triangle."

Everyone checked their answers from the first part by completing the second part.
We actually did this same activity last year. The students found it really difficult at that time. This year, it was still a little difficult but everyone found it much easier than before.

Next, the homeroom teachers introduced someone to the students through a quiz.
"He can sing. He can dance. He can act. He is cool. Who is he?"
"Hint, please."
"He can dance like this!"
"Oh! Hoshino Gen!"

The students enjoyed listening to the quizzes.

Next, we reviewed the adjectives that the students learned in the previous class.
We also introduced some pictures of the teachers at the school. The students had to make quizzes using those teachers.

After some thinking time the students got into groups and gave their quizzes to each other.
"He can play soccer."

"He is cool."

"Who is he?"

After doing quizzes in groups the teachers picked some of the students with interesting quizzes to give their quizzes to the whole class.
"She is funny. She can play the piano."

"I know! I know!"

Good job 6th grade students! Let's make more quizzes in the next class!

6th grade students had their first lesson studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` They also partly studied this unit last year so this time we will focus on improving on what they already know such as adding descriptive words such as `well`, `high` or `fast`.

We started class with our usual greeting game. The students could use any of the English they have studied so far to try and make natural conversations. Some of the student volunteered to give a good demonstration to everyone else.
Good gestures!

Nice smile!

Everyone did their best to link their questions together naturally.
"I like red. Do you like red?"
"No, I don't but I like blue. Do you like blue?"

"Do you like music?"
"Yes, I do."
"Can you sing?"
"No, I can't but I can play the recorder. Can you play the recorder?"

Next, we listened to the chant from We Can!1 Unit 5. The chant was new to the students as we didn't use it last year. However, since the phrases were familiar to them everyone could easily do the chant after listening to it a few times.

After doing the chant the teachers asked some students to introduce their friends in the style of the chant and talk about what they can do.
"He is my friend. He can play baseball."

"She is my friend. She can play the recorder."

After that, we introduced some words describing a person's personality. The students will also study this topic in further detail in Unit 9 `Who is your hero?` however we wanted to introduce some of the words now so that they are spread out more, making it easier for the students to remember.
The teachers gave hints and did small skits in order to introduce the different words.

Next, we introduced famous people, characters and teachers and asked the students to match them with the different words.
"Is she kind? Is she funny?"

The result looked like this:
The students think Mr. Takeyuki is very cool!

Finally the students filled in their feedback card.
"I was happy to learn words to describe my friends good points."

Nice work everyone!

Recently, 6th grade students had their last lesson on We Can! 1 Unit 2 "When is your birthday?". Since they studied about birthdays last year as well we used the opportunity to study a different topic using dates. The students created their own original events and did presentations about them. Half of the students presented about their events in the previous class and the rest of them finished in this class.

As we wanted a lot of time for the students to do their presentations we skipped our usual greeting game and chants and went straight to the presentations.

First, Ms. Mayumi and one of the students did a demonstration. While the student demonstrated how to do an enthusiastic presentation, Ms. Mayumi showed the students watching and listening what sorts of reactions they should make.
"Oh! Nice idea!"

After watching the demonstration it was time for the other students to do their presentations.
"Hello!"

First, they introduced themselves.
"My name is ~."

Then they introduced their original event.
"I produce `Dragonfly Festival`".
"Oh!"

The students also encouraged others to react to their event annoucements.
"I produce `Eclair Festival`. Yeay!!"

After that the students talked about the date of their festival.
"It's on February 9th."
"Why?"
The students explained their reasoning in Japanese, "The numbers 2 and 9 sound like `meat` so it's on February 9th."

After that the students talked about the activities that are part of their event in Japanese.
Nice smile!

Good eye contact!

Good job!

Great gestures!

The students ended their presentations by asking the other students to come to their event.
"Please come! See you!"

Everyone tried their best. This was their first time doing a presentation so it was a little difficult for them.

Here are some examples of the events that the students created.
Eggs from around the world! Sounds interesting!

I want to try foreign sweets, too!

Talking is so fun!

Good job 6th grade students! You did your best!

6th grade students had two English classes this week. They used those classes to finish creating their original events and started presenting on them to the class. The students who didn't manage to present this week will do their presentations next week.

At the start of the class the teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration of the greeting game.
"What's your favorite subject?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please."
*gesture hint*
"Oh! Science?"
"Yes! I like science!"

The students focused on remembered what the other person said as well as linking their questions to make a natural conversation.
"Do you like soccer?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Oh! What's your favorite soccer team?"

"Do you like grapefuits?"
"No, I don`t. I like apples. Do you like apples?"
"Yes, I do!"

"Do you like music?"
"Yes, I do."
"Can you play the recorder?"
"Yes, I can."

Next, we did the chant and then checked the goal for the class.


After that, Mayumi-Sensei did a demonstration of how to give a good presentation including making eye contact.
The students have not memorized their presentations but Mayumi-Sensei recommended that they acted like news presenters by reading and looking up to make eye contact from time to time.

In order for the students not presenting to have a reason to listen carefully we gave everyone a worksheet to fill out.
Also during the presentations they had to react to what the presenter was saying.

The students who did their presentations this week were very nervous but they tried their best!
"Hello! My name is ~."

"I like ice cream so I produce the `Ice cream Festival."

"I produce the `Light up Festival. It's on December 21st."
The class always asked about the date, "Why?".
The students could answer in Japanese. "It's the shortest day of the year so it's the best day for a festival with lights."

After talking about the date the students talked about the activities in their event in Japanese.
"In the Yakiniku Festival you can eat many different kinds of meat."

"In the Music Festival there will be a special song release."

"In the Dog Festival you can meet many different breeds of dogs."

The students finished by asking the other students to visit their event.
" Please come to the Baseball Festival!"

Good job everyone. We are looking forward to seeing the rest of the presentations next week!

Recently 6th grade students studied their third lesson on We Can! 1 Unit 2 "When is your birthday?". Since they studied this grammar point last year too we decided to focus on something other than birthdays in order to make it more interesting. In this class the students created their own event.

First, after our usual greetings, two of the students volunteered to give a demonstration of the greeting game.
"Can you play the piano?"
"Yes, I can."

Next, everyone else tried to use all the English they have studied so far in order to have conversations with their friends.
Nice smile!

Good eye contact and gestures.

Then, we did the chant from We Can!1. It's a difficult and fast chant. The students tried to do gestures, too. You can see the concentration in their faces!
"July 7th, August 8th, September 9th..."

After that, Ms. Emily talked about strange festivals and events around the world. It was very interesting to learn about them.
In Thailand they have a buffet for monkeys. It is held in November.

Next, the homeroom teacher confirmed with everyone about the goal for the class.
"Let's make our own original event that everyone will enjoy."

Ms. Mayumi showed a demonstration.
It's important for the students to see a demonstration so they know what to aim for.

The students had to think about some events and activities. It was important that people would want to take part in the festival.
She had thought hard about the date, too. The date of her event a play on the word natto.

Ms. Emily wrote the months of the year on the board.
She also wrote any words that the students wanted to use in their event name. This meant that the students just had to copy the words in English.

Everyone worked hard to create their events.


They thought about what would be interest and what kind of event they would like, too.
After they have finished preparing their events they will all give presentations. We are looking forward to hearing about all the different ideas that people had.