富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

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.

4th grade students have had their second class on the topic `What time is it?`. They continued to practice how to say the time in English.

First, the most important thing was to review numbers.
"15, 16, 17, 17, 19..."
Numbers can be hard to pronounce so we try to review them often.

Next, the students played number bingo. Each pair of students had a pile of cards with times written on them. One student asked "What time is it?" and the other student answered the time written on the card. If they had that time on their bingo card they could circle it.
Then the students swapped roles.
"It's my turn to look at the cards!"

"What time is it?"

"Hmmm...it's four thirty!"

After the game we practiced the English for different daily activities and the teachers talked about their favorite times.
"I like study time!"

The students got into groups of people who had the same favorite daily activity and they asked each other "What time is it?". This group likes `snack time`.
"It's four!"

Good job everyone! You tried hard!

4th grade students have started to study a new topic. The topic is `What time is it?`.

First, we had Teacher Talk. The teachers talked about their daily schedule. The students had to listen to them talking and try to guess what they were saying.

Next, we reviewed numbers. Students have already studied numbers so we just had to refresh our memories.
We practiced the difference between similar sounding numbers such as `13` and `30`.

We did a chant with "What time is it?" and practiced saying simple times. It's 9. It's 7.
Once the students were comfortable with this we introduced 9am and 9pm using the timeline on the blackboard and asked the students what they noticed. We also showed them the time 9:30 and asked them how they thought it would be in English.

We also learned the names of daily activities in English
"Lunch time! I like lunch time!"

We played time bingo.
Everyone asked Ms. Emily "What time is it?" and we had to circle the answer. It was a fun activity.

"BINGO!"
"Oh no! She said 9:30. My paper has 9:00! So close!"

Lastly the teachers showed a small skit. Ms. Mayumi called Ms. Emily in Scotland. She didn't realise there is a time difference! Ms. Emily was sleeping! Oh no!
The students realised that there are time differences between countries around the world. How interesting!

Good job 4th grade students!