富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

4th grade students have been studying about games in English class. They have been learning how to say the names of lots of different games in English.
First, the students warmed-up by singing the "Hello" song.
Everyone one knows it very well now!

Next, Ms. Emily talked about different games they play in Scotland depending on the weather.
What gesture is this?
Ms. Emily is talking about snowy days. In Scotland, snowball fights are not allowed at schools!

Ms. Emily didn't use any Japanese. She only used English and made gestures.
The students all listened very carefully.

Mr. Ota helped to demonstrate a game that children in Scotland play on windy days.
They put their jacket over their head and make a sail, like a boat. The wind pushes them back. It's a fun game!

Next, we learned the English words for different games. The teachers demonstrated the games and the students guessed what they were using Japanese. Then the teachers told them the English words.
What game is this?
It's cards! We don't say `trump` in English.

How about this game? What is this?
It's called tag! Many children love this game!

Let's practice saying them after Ms. Emily!
"Tag! Tag!"

After learning the new words, the teachers asked questions using "Do you like~?". "Yes, I do!"

The students stood on different sides of the classroom depending on if their answer was "Yes" or "No".
"No, I don't!".

Then, the students had an interview game where they asked their classmates "Do you like~?" questions.
Nice eye contact!

Great smile!
The students were happy to learn what games their classmates like. Students said that they will invite their classmates to play those games in the future.

Lastly, we played the game `Fruit basket`. We have introduced this game in the past. Read about it in more detail here.
When they handed out the cards the teachers said, "Here you are!"
"Thank you!"

It's a very fun game!


The students have to listen very carefully!

Everyone smiled and laughed a lot!

At the end of the class Ms. Nihei tried something new when tidying up. The students said the names of the games as she was taking down the flashcards.
"Jump rope!"
What a great idea!
Well done 4th grade students and teachers!

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!

6th grade students recently had their last class on Hi, friends!2 Lesson 2 "When is your birthday?".
The class started with a greeting game. We like using greeting games to review some English that we studied in the past. This time we reviewed "What would you like?".
Look! Here is the menu! It all looks delicious!

First, the teachers demonstrated the activity.
"This is Ms. Emiko's restaurant. Ms. Emily, what would you like?"
"I'm hot. I'd like ice cream!"

Next Ms. Emily and one of the students demonstrated. We think that having demonstrations with the students helps to check if the students understand or not.
"I'd like a parfait! Delicious!"

Then the students did the activity together.
Great eye contact!

Nice smiles!

After warming-up with the greeting game, it was time to start the main lesson. We reviewed the months chant. Let's make gestures too! Do you know what month this is?
They are making the gesture for 6. It's June!

Next, the teachers demonstrated the main activity. Everyone recieved a paper with someone's birthday written on it. They had to search for that person.
"When is your birthday?"
"My birthday is May 2nd."
"I see!"

Let's start!
Nice gestures!

"See you!". Great smiles!

Once the students had found whose birthday it was, the students had to write a message to that person. They wrote a nice message in Japanese but they also wrote a few words in English.
The teachers have a new tool for writing lines on the board.
Look! We can draw 4 lines at once! We can use these lines to show how to write the alphabet!

The students asked Ms. Emily how to write what they wanted to say in English.
Everyone is very interested in learning how to write in English so we try and include some small activities like this.

Lastly, the students gave their letters to the person whose birthday was written on the paper.
Everyone was very happy to receive the nice messages.

Well done everyone!

This week class 1-4 had their first English class. The other 1st grade classes will start studying English soon.

Tomizawa Elementary school is very lucky because we have two classrooms that we can use for English classes. We use Tomilish Room 1 for the upper grades because it has chairs and a lot of materials. We use Tomilish Room 2 for the lower grades. It has a mat on the floor, so it is easy to move around, and a lot of picture books.

It was the first time for the students to use Tomilish Room 2. The students had to take off their shoes before entering the room.
They tried hard to line their shoes up straight. Very tidy!

The mat feels very nice so it is sometimes difficult for students to sit properly. We start the class with `rolling time`. This means the students can relax and enjoy the mat so that they can sit properly for the rest of the class.
The mat is so comfortable!

Then, it was time to start the class properly! First we talked about two important points for English class. Eye contact and...
Smile!

The teachers did a demonstration of greeting without eye contact and smiles. Then they greeted each other while smiling and looking at each other.
The students agreed that smiling and making eye contact was much nicer.

Then we did the silent greeting game.
Shh! Don't talk! Just make eye contact and smile.

After the greeting game it was time to sing! The students really enjoyed singing the `Hello Song`.
First we sang as a class and then we sang in pairs. Everyone was very good at the gestures.

Next, we had `Teachers Talk`. The students had to listen carefully and think about what the teachers might be talking about.
Wow! Ms. Emily has a lot of pens. 1, 2, 3....oh! They are talking about numbers!

Then we sang the 10 step song.
After the students became good at the song we replaced some numbers with gestures. Let's clap on 3!

Let's jump on 7!
Singing and dancing is so fun!

Next, it was time for a game! Let's listen to the tambourine and count!


1, 2, 3, 4! Let's make groups of 4!

Go, go!
After we made the groups we counted the number of people again together.

Lastly we read a picture book together.
It was a book about counting.

We have many different books about the dog `Spot`.
We recommend it!

The students all listened carefully
Let's listen!

They counted together with Ms. Emily, too.
1, 2, 3...

Good job everyone! It was a very fun class!

This month the Display Committee (掲示委員会) have made posters on the theme of national flowers (国花).


Do you know what is Japan's national flower?
Actually there are two different flowers: cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums. Did this surprise you?

Here are the national flowers for South Korea and Scotland.
The students decorated the posters beautifully!

The next posters are for Australia and England.
I have never seen the national flower for Australia before!

Lastly, this is the national flower for China.
It was picked because it was the most popular flower. Everyone likes peonys!

What is your favorite flower? If you'd like to see the posters more closely, they are in the entrance hall for the school.

5th grade students have finished studying Hi, friends!1 Lesson 5 `What do you like?`. We used this English in Tomilish Time to do more activities.

First, the teachers gave a demonstration.
"Mr. Suda, what shape do you like?"
"I like hearts!"
"So cute!"

"Ms. Haruna, what shape do you like?"
"I like hearts, too! We are a pair!"
Nice! Let's find other people who like the same shapes as us.

"What shape do you like?"

Half-way through the activity the teachers picked some good students to give a demonstration.
They were making gestures! Nice!

"Do you like circles?"

"Do you like diamonds?"

Gestures are very important! It helps people to understand! Nice job!

6th grade students have been studying Hi, friends!2 Lesson 2 `When is your birthday?` during English class. We used the Upper Grades Tomilish Time in order to do more activities using this English.

First, we sang the months song. The students at the front of the class made gestures for the song. Using gestures makes singing more fun!
Nice gestures!

Next, we watched a demonstration of the activity. First was Ms. Keiko and one of the students.
"When is your birthday?"
"January? Me, too! We are a pair!"

Next was Ms. Emily and Mr. Kimura. They were supposed to show a version where the birthdays were in different months but they made a big mistake!
They didn't check their birthdays before! Actually both of them have birthdays in May!
"Oh! We are a pair! Quick! Let's ask Mr. Takeyuki!"

"When is your birthday?"
"It's not May? Oh, no. See you!"

Then it was the students' turn to do the activity.
Nice eye contact!

Will our birthdays be in the same month?
Oh, no! It's different! "See you!"

We have the same birthday month!
High five! Yeay!

The May group got very excited!
There were many people with May birthdays (including Mr. Kimura and Ms. Emily!!).

Tomilish Time was a great chance to practice the English we have been studying in class!

Last week 4th grade students had their second English class of the year. Last year they studied food and the phrase "What do you want?". In this class we used the food they had previously studied to introduce the question "Do you like~?".

First, the teachers demonstrated the conversation.
"Ms. Emily, do you like apples?"
"Yes, I do!"
"Mr. Ota, do you like lemons?"
"No, I don't!"

Then everyone practiced answering the questions.
"Do you like apples?"
The students who want to answer "Yes, I do!" are standing up. They will answer "Yes, I do!" together. It gives them more confidence to speak together. Next the sitting students will answer "No, I don't!".
We also did an activity when the students who answered "Yes, I do." went to the right side of the room and the "No, I don't." students went to the left.

After this the students practiced asking the questions. Let's ask the teachers together!
"Mr. Ota, do you like strawberries?"

We like to finish the class by reading an English picture book.
We read the book `Pete the cat`. We could talk about colors and some different food.

Look! Strawberries!
"Do you like strawberries?"

Students enjoyed listening to the story and using the English they had learned.
Nice smile!

Well done 4th grade students!

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!

This week we had a staff seminar taught by Mr. Itagaki from Miyagi University of Education. He talked about using picture books to completment English lessons.
The teachers were all really interested to hear about different ways to use picture books.

First, Mr. Itagaki showed us how to read the books using different voices for the different characters.
He also showed us how to use songs and chants that come with the books in order to make skits.

The teachers practiced making skits with one of the books.
"I can hop! Hop, hop hop! Can you hop?"

Some teachers were very enthusiastic.
"I can fly!! FLY!!! FLY!!!!"

The teachers gave performances of their skits.
The student teachers took part too. They had great English pronunciation. Well done!
We're looking forward to using these ideas in our English classes.