富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

During the last Tomilish Time before summer vacation the different grades mixed together. 5th grade students helped the 1st grade students to practice simple greetings and asking each others names.
"What's your name?"
"My name is..."

The other grades gave each other quizzes about their favorite foods while using adjectives such as `spicy` as hints. The students gave each other quizzes in pairs.
Good smile!

Nice eye contact!

Great gestures!

At the end of Tomilish Time the teacher asked a pair to give a good demonstration.
Wonderful smile! Good job!

Let's enjoy Tomilish Time after summer vacation, too!

During Tomilish Time the different grades mixed together. 5th grade students helped the 1st grade students to practice simple greetings. The other grades gave each other quizzes about their favorite foods while using adjectives such as `spicy` as hints.

All mixed grade groups started with the teachers giving a demonstration.
We like to show students what we want them to do rather than just tell them. It helps to reduce the amount of Japanese we have to use.

Next, it was time for everyone else to try!
"Hello!"

The older students tried their best to lead the younger students.

Great eye contact!

Good listening!

Nice gestures!

At the end the teachers asked some good students to give a demonstration.
Everyone thought about the good points of the demonstration. Let's try to copy those good points next time!

This week both 5th and 6th grade students have continued studying their topics during Upper Grades Tomilish Time.

5th grade students have been studying the alphabet. This week they did `Let's Listen` from Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?`.
"Join the dots like this!"

The students had to listen to the digital materials and join the dots in order to make a shape.
I wonder what it will be!

The students helped each other if they got stuck.

Look! It's an `R` for rabbit!

6th grade students used the time to prepare some worksheets that we will use during normal English class. The student had to think about where they want to go and the reasons why.
"Hmmm...where would be a nice place to go?"

The teachers prepared a sheet with many different counties names so the students just had to copy the name of the country that they wanted to visit.
If the country wasn't on the list then they could ask the teachers to write the English word for them.

Some students needed ideas of what they could see or eat in their chosen country.
The teachers researched it for them.

Once they had made their choices they filled out their worksheet.

Here are some examples of the worksheets:
Some students drew pictures.

Other students wrote in detail in Japanese. As long as students could say their main point in English they were free to complete the worksheet as they liked.

Good job everyone!

In Tomilish Time we have been studying different adjectives that we can use to describe food. This week the students got together in their grade levels to practice giving quizzes to each other using those adjectives. 1st grade students practiced greetings instead of the quizzes.

1st grade students did their best to make eye contact and smile while greeting each other.
"Hello!"

They are also learning how to ask and answer the question "How are you?". They practiced that during Tomilish Time, too.
"Hello! How are you?"
"I'm happy!"

The other grade levels worked hard to make quizzes using adjectives as hints. Each of the different grade levels followed the same structure.
First, the teachers gave a demonstration of what the students were expected to do.
"What's your favorite kyushoku?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please!"
"Brown, white, soft and spicy!"
"Mapo dofu?"
"Yes, that's right!"

First the students practiced giving quizzes in pairs.
The teachers tried to make sure students from different classes were sitting next to each other.

After that everyone was free to walk around the room and give each other quizzes.
"What's your favorite kyushoku?"
"Guess what?"

"Hint, please!"
"It's long."
"Hotdog?"
"Yes!"

The teachers stopped the activity half-way through and asked some good students to give a demonstration. Everyone watched the demonstration to find its good points.
Great gestures and reactions!

Then, everyone restarted the activity while keeping the good points of the demonstration in mind.
Great eye contact!

Good gestures!

Nice smiles!

Good job! We'll mix the different grades in the next Tomilish Time. Everyone is looking forward to it!

This week during Upper Grades Tomilish Time, 5th grade students prepared alphabet cards to use in future activites and played some simple games. 6th grade students did some activities from the We Can!1 textbook to complement their studies.

5th grade students have just started studying the capital letters of the alphabet. They used this time to prepare some small cards that we will use in many activities.
"Cut out these cards and write your name, please."

The students carefully cut out each card.

By using Tomilish Time the students can prepare the cards without having to take up English class time.
Once the students had finished cutting out the cards they used the cards in order to spell out their name, family name and some simple two letter words such as CD and TV.

6th Grade have started studying We Can!1 Unit 6 `I want to go to Italy.` They did the activity `Let's Watch and Think 2`.
The students watched each video twice in order to try and figure out what the characters want to do in America and Egypt.

When watching the first time the students were told to try and catch a few words if they could. They didn't have to understand everything.

Next, we asked the students to open their textbooks and look at the pictures.
The pictures gave them hints about what the characters were saying. We asked them to pick out 4 key words about each country.

After watching each video for a second time the teachers asked the students what they thought the 4 key words were. The character who wanted to visit America talked about the statue of Liberty, Majoy League Baseball, Time Square and Niagara Falls.
The students were able to pick out these key words well.

Good job everyone!

Last week in Tomilish Time we had a special guest. Ms. Satsuki Okura from Tottori Prefecture visited our school for a week to watch our English classes. We used Tomilish Time in order to tell her more about Sendai and learn more about Tottori, too.

We started with our usual greeting questions about the day, date and weather.
"How is the weather today?"
"It's sunny!"

Then we all chanted the starting words together.
"Let's enjoy..."
"...Tomilish Time!"

Ms. Satsuki told us that she has never visited Sendai before.
"It's my first time!"

Ms. Keiko and Ms. Emily introduced some of the famous foods from Sendai.
"We have gyutan, sasakama and oysters."

Next, Ms. Satsuki gave a quiz about famous foods from Tottori.
"It's spicy. It's crispy. Carrots and potatoes."
"It's Tottori curry!"

We gave the students 1 minute to talk in groups about what the teachers had talked about.
"I heard the words `fresh` and `fruit`"
"I hear the word `pears`. I think Ms. Satsuki talked about pears in Tottori."

Ms. Satsuki told us that she didn't know what souvenirs to buy so the other teachers introduced some ideas using adjectives.
"How about Haginotsuki?"
"What's that?"
"It's round. It's sweet. It's soft."
"Oh, nice!"

Next, we practiced the adjectives that the teachers had used.
"It's fresh!"

The students practiced the pronunciations in their classrooms with gestures.
"It's crispy."

"It's sweet."

After, practicing it was time to say goodbye.
"Have a nice day!"

Thank you Ms. Satsuki for taking part in Tomilish Time!

This week in Tomilish Time we have continued studying adjectives. The 6th grade students also helped us to interview some of the teachers and student teachers.

First, after greetings, we reviewed what we studied last week. Ms. Keiko and Ms. Emily talked about what they ate at the weekend.
Ms. Emily ate sour reimen again. She really likes reimen.

Ms. Keiko ate spicy tteok-bokki.
She likes spicy Korean food.

We gave everyone one minute in their classrooms to think and talk about what the teachers said.
"Did you catch any English words?"

Next, some of the 6th grade students helped us to interview the teachers.
First was one of our students teachers, Ms. Hiroko.
"What's your favorite food?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please!"
"Soft and sweet."
"Do you like pancakes?"
"Yes, I do! I like pancakes!"

Next, our other student teacher, Ms. Taeko was interviewed by one of the 6th graders.
"What's your favorite food?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please!"
"Long and spicy. I like Taiwan."
"Do you like Taiwan yakisoba?"
"Yes, I do!"

Mr. Toda, who is new to our school this year, was also interviewed.
"What's your favorite food?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please!"
"Yellow, sour, round fruit."
"Do you like grapefruits?"
"Yes, I do !"

After listening to the interview, we practiced the adjectives that we had heard for the first time.
"Long! Long!"

Everyone practiced, too.
　"Long!"

Thank you everyone for helping with the interviews.
"See you! Have a nice day!"

This week during Upper Grades Tomilish Time, 5th grade students did some listening activities based on their current English studied. 6th grade students used the time to prepare `Who is he/she?` quizzes about their friends that we will use in English class this week.

5th grade students have been studying Hi,friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?` and just recently had their last class on the topic. We started class by doing our usual greeting questions.
"What time is it now?"
"It's 8:30 A.M."

Next, we did two different set of chants. In class the students have been doing the chant from Let's Try!1 Unit 3 `How many?` however this time we also did the chant from Hi,friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?` .
First, the students listened to the chants carefully.

Next, everyone stood up and tried to do the chants together while doing gestures.
"How many pencils?"

After the chants, everyone did the `Let's Listen` activity from the Hi, friends!1 textbook.
The students listened to people from different countries counting and had to match the counting to the correct country.

6th grade students have been studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` In this Tomilish Time, the students prepared quizzes about their friends. First, the teachers explained what to do.
They had to pick a friend to introduce and make 3 hints (2 hints using `He/She can~.` and 1 hint using `He/She is~.`) in order to make a `Who is he/she?` quiz.

The students could draw a picture of their friend and cut out cards from the textbook to complete sentences about their friend.
The teachers did a demonstration, too.

Everyone thought carefully about who they wanted to make a quiz about.
They copied their friends name onto their worksheet.

Everyone looked carefully at the different cards in the textbook to find good hints for their quiz.
"Hmm...what should I pick..."

The students cut out the cards their wanted to use and stuck them to their worksheets.
"My friend can swim so I'll use this card."

The teachers were there to help the students with writing.
They wrote out anything that the students wanted to write for the students to copy.

Here is one example of a worksheet:
Most of the students will finish preparting their quizzes in English class. Through using Tomilish Time in this way we could save a lot of time in English class that will give us more time to ask and answer the quizzes instead.

Good job everyone! You worked hard!

This week we started to study a new topic in Tomilish Time. This past year we have been learning how to give a quiz by studying phrases such as "What's this?" and "Guess what?". In order for the students to give hints to their friends we decided to study adjectives.

"Let's enjoy Tomilish Time!"
"Yeay!"

We asked our normal questions as part of our greetings.
"What day is it today?"
"It's Wednesday!"

Next, everyone listened to Ms. Keiko and Ms. Emily talking about what they had done at the weekend. Everyone had to look at the pictures and listen to the English in order to try and work out what they were saying.
"I went to Morioka."
"Really? Me, too!"

"Why?"
"I danced suzume odori in Kizuna Festival."

"How about you?"
"I played tennis with my friends."

"Morioka has a lot of delicious food. What did you eat?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please."
"Cucumber, watermelon, kimchi, meat"
"More hints, please."
"Chewy, spicy and sour!"

The students all listened carefully and tried to guess.

"I ate reimen. It was delicious."

Ms. Keiko talked about what she had eaten. The hints were: `red beans, butter, soft and famous`. She ate fukudapan.

Next, everyone practiced the words they had heard.
"Repeat after me. Spicy!"

"Spicy!"

After that, one of the 6th grade students helped to interview Mr. Endo.
"What's your favorite kyushoku?"
"Guess what?"
"Hint, please!"
"Spicy, brown, carrots, potatoes and meat."
"Curry and rice?"
"Yes! I like curry and rice!"

Everyone enjoyed listening to their interview and guessing Mr. Endo's favorite kyushoku.

"Have a nice day! See you!"

Thank you to 6th grade for helping with the interview!

This week both 5th and 6th grade students did activities to suppliment their studies in their English classes during Upper Grades Tomilish Time. Both grades have started studying new topics.

5th grade students have started studying Hi,friends!1 Lesson 3 `How many?`. After our usual greetings we did the chant from Let's Try!1 Unit 3 `How many?`.
Everyone stood up and did the chant together with gestures.

"How many pencils?"

Next, we did the `Let's Play : How many apples?` activity from the same unit in Let's Try!1.
Everyone had to count together.

First we only showed the picture for a few seconds and then asked the students to guess the number.
"How many tomatoes?"

Next, we showed them the picture for a long time so everyone could count together.
"1, 2, 3 ..."

6th grade students have started studying We Can!1 Unit 5 `She can run fast. He can jump high.` We did the `Let's watch and think` activities from both Unit 1 and Unit 5. The point was not to try and understand everything but instead to try and catch some words.
"What words did you catch?"

"I know! I heard `table tennis`."
"Good job!"

Everyone listened carefully!

Good work everyone!