富沢小学校 Tomilishブログ

5th grade students have recently finished studying the topic `When is your birthday?`. It is actually from Hi,friends!2 Lesson 2 but this year 5th grade students sometimes have two English classes a week so we have been doing some extra topics, too.

Our first few classes on the topic we focused on learning the names of the months in English and also how to say dates. In our final classes on the topic we did two main activities: a listening activity and a conversation activity.

In the listening activity the students had to listen to the teachers tell them their birthdays. They had to draw a line between the teacher's name and their birthday.
Everyone had to listen very carefully! Everyone was very interested to learn when all the teachers' birthdays were.

The other main activity was a conversation activity. Everyone had to ask their friends when their birthdays were. First the teachers gave a demonstration.
"Hello! When is your birthday?"

Then it was time for the students to ask, too. Some times we asked the students to take notes on their friends birthdays. Other times we asked them to find people with the same birthday month as themselves.
Nice smile!

Good eye contact!

Great gestures!

It was a difficult topic for the 5th grade students but everyone tried very hard. Well done!

During the last few Tomilish Times we have been mixing the grades. This gives the older students a good chance to teach the younger students some of the English they know. The students also really enjoy talking and doing activities with other grades. We have been studying the phrase `What's this?`
"Hello!"

Great eye contact!

Older students all did their best to help younger students.

"What's this?"

Teachers chose some students to give a good demonstration. Let's watch!
Nice gestures!

Good job everyone! We're all looking forward to mixing grades again in the future!

During 5th and 6th grade Tomilish Time this week, both grades mixed the classes together so the students had a chance to use the English they have been studying with new people. This is a good way to keep activities interesting while allowing the students repeated practice.

5th grade students have been learning the phrase "When is your birthday?". The students had to find other students whose birthday was in the same month as their own and make a group. After that activity the students had to find someone whose birthday was on the same day of the month (2nd, 6th, 31st, etc.) as theirs.
"When is your birthday?"
Great smiles!

Nice eye contact!

Good gestures!
It was a very interesting activity. Everyone enjoyed discovering the birthdays of their friends in different classes.

6th grade students used their `This is me` books to introduce themselves to their friends from other classes.
Nice smile!

Good eye contact!

Great gesture!
"One more time, please!". This is a great phrase to use when you didn't hear what the person said.

Well done 5th and 6th grade students!

Every Monday morning we have reading time. Ms. Emily and Ms. Keiko often go to class to read English books for everyone.

Before autumn vacation, Ms. Emily read to class 1-3. She read the book `Dear Zoo`. It's about the zoo sending lots of different animals to be pets.
"A lion, as a pet?! Oh no! No, thank you!!"

The students enjoyed guessing what animals would appear and answering if they thought they would be a good pet.


This week, Ms. Keiko read to class 2-1. She read the book `Five Little Monkeys`.
It was a big book so one of the students helped to hold it so that everyone could see. Thank you for helping!

The end of the book is very funny. If you want to know what happens, you should read it! Class 2-1 recommends it!

6th grade students had their last class on Hi,friends!2 Lesson 4 `Turn right`. In their previous class we had practiced being taxi drivers and customers. In this class we did the same activity while increasing the difficulty.

First, we started with our usual greeting game. It's a good time to practice the English we have already studied by asking questions such as "Do you like soccer?" or "What did you do on Sunday?".
Nice smile!

Good gestures!

After the greeting game, it was time for the chant.
Everyone is doing the `Go straight!` gesture. Good job!

Next, the teachers did a demonstration. The students had to watch and think about what was different from the previous class.
"Taxi!"

"Hospital, please."
"Where is the hospital?"
"Go straight 2 blocks."

This time instead of saying "Go straight!" many times we will only have to say it once by saying the number of city blocks to move forward. It's a very useful phrase!

After the demonstration it was time for the students to do the activity themselves.
"Where is the police station?"

"Go straight 3 blocks."

Finally we played the fortune path game. One person picked a place to start at the bottom of the paper. They follow the path up with everyone giving directions.
"Go straight. Turn right. Go upstairs."
The students created the fortunes themselves.

"Go straight! Turn left!"

Everyone did there best.

Well done 6th grade students!

During 5th and 6th grades Tomilish Time we continued working on the same things as the previous Tomilish Time.

5th grade students were practicing the phrase "What do you want?". We started by doing the Hi,friends! chant.
5th grade students are very good at doing gestures during the chants.

5th grade are also good at using clear voices.

After the chant, we used the phrase "Whatdo you want?" in a greeting game.
"What do you want?"

The students practiced using gestures a lot in the chant so they are able to use them naturally in conversation, too.
Good job!

6th grade students continued writing their `This is me.` books.


They trace the main phrases `I can` and `I like`. This means they only have to write the last word.
The homeroom teachers told them how to spell the words they didn't know.
Well done everyone!

5th grade students had their last class on Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?`. We have been using the phrase in greeting games too by asking "What do you want for your birthday?".
After our usual greeting game we had `Teacher Talk`. The teachers showed some other situations where you can use the phrase `What do you want?`.
They were shopping at a supermarket.
"What do you want?"
"I want potato chips, please."

Next, it was time for chants.
"Let's listen!"
Everyone did the listen gesture together.

During the "What do you want?" chant the students did a lot of gestures.
"I want the V card please."

The teachers also thought of choreography to dance to the alphabet chant.
Having choreography makes during the chant a lot of fun. Everyone did their best!

After the chants, we practiced using the phrase "What do you want?" by using alphabet flashcards. First, we needed volunteers to help us put the all on the board.
The teachers also put some of the cards upside-down for the students to fix.

Ms. Emily would close her eyes while Ms. Keiko pointed to a card. Then she asked "What do you want?". If Ms. Emily gave the students the right card then we knew that their pronunciation was good. It was a good way to practice.

Next, it was time for the main activity, making parfaits.
First the teachers did a demonstration and then we did a demonstration with the students, too.

Ms. Keiko asked, "What do you want?".
The students requested many different parfait toppings.

Wow! Look at that parfait!
Ms. Keiko made it!

After the demonstration, we handed out the materials to the students.
When the students get given something they have to make eye contact and say "Thank you!".

Each pair had one set of ingredients.
The glass is a little big!

The students worked together in pairs.
They took turns to make parfaits for each other.

We changed pairs to make parfaits for different people.
The parfaits looked delicious.

Finally the teachers pick one pair to give a good demonstration to everyone.
Good job!

Class 4-1 had their last class for the topic `My favorite place`. They have been studying how to give directions in English and the names for all the rooms in the school.

As a warm-up we played the fortune path game. One person picked a place to start at the bottom of the paper. They follow the path up with everyone giving directions.
"Go straight. Turn right. Go upstairs."
When they reach the top they reveal their fortune.
"I might find 500 yen on the street! Yeay!!"

Next, we reviewed the room names in English and phrases for giving directions.
"Go straight!"

After that we played the `Blind Directions` game. The students close their eyes and listen to the teacher's directions. They have to move their bodies to follow the directions. When the teachers say "Stop!" everyone should be facing the same way.
If people are facing in different directions, someone made a mistake. It's a fun game!

Next, the students looked at a map of the school and decided their favorite place.
They had to write in Japanese their reason for choosing that place.

The teachers and one of the students used the school map on the blackboard to give a demonstration.
"We are here. Please give directions to your favorite place."
Everyone watched carefully.

Then it was time to give directions to their favorite places. We used bottle caps with eyes drawn on to keep track of the directions.
Great eye contact!

Well done everyone! You worked hard!

1st grade students have been continuing to study about animals in English. In their last English class they studied about animal names before visiting the zoo on their school trip. In this class we focused on animal sounds.

First after our usual greeting game, we sang the song "Let's go to the zoo!". In the previous class we had watched a video but this time we only listened to the music and shouted out what animal names we heard. The teachers put those animals pictures on the blackboard.

Next, it was time for Teacher Talk. In the last class we read the book `Dear Zoo`. "Do you remember what animal was at the end of the book?"
"Dog!"
"That's right! It was a pet dog. Actually I have a pet dog! His name is Ran. Ms. Emily, do you have a dog?"

"Yes, I do!"
"Her name is Kirsty."
"So cute!"
"Maybe our dogs can be friends!"

Ran tried to talk to Kirsty.
"わんわん！"
"Oh no! She doesn't understand. She doesn't speak Japanese."
"Oh, what do dogs say in English?"
"They say `Bow wow!`."

Ran tried again.
"Bow wow!"
"Bow wow!"
The two dogs became friends!
After watching this, we asked the students to explain to us what happened. The students realised Japanese and English dog sounds are different. They began to wonder what other animal sounds are different.

We used a magic pen poster. When you point the pen at the poster you can hear many English animal sounds! We gave the students a quiz.
"What animal makes this sound?"

It was very interesting! We learned about many different animal sounds.
Everyone tried hard to guess!
"Maybe it's a horse?"

Lastly, we read the book "Brown bear, brown bear". There were many different animals in the book whose sounds we had studied. We also used it as a good chance to review colors.
"Look, it's a duck!"
"Is it a red duck?"
"No!"
"What color is it?"
"Yellow!!"
"What sound do ducks make?"
"Quack quack!"

"What sound do dogs make?"
Everyone tried to say the sounds together.
"Bow wow!"

Good job everyone!

2nd Grade students had their 3rd English class for the year recently. Students had made toys in their life studies（生活科) class and they wanted to show them to Ms. Emily.

After our greeting game, the teachers had a conversation.
"Ms. Emily, do you like penguins?"
"Oh, yes I do!"

"Do you like frogs?"
"No, I don't! I don't like frogs!"

"How about you, everyone? Do you like frogs?"
"Yes, I do!" "No, I don't!"

"Ms. Emily doesn't like frogs but maybe she likes toy frogs. Do you like toy frogs?"
"I don't know."
"Let's show her the toy frogs we made!"
The students introduced the toy frogs.
"The frogs jump!"

Let's all jump together.
"Jump!"
"I like toy frogs!"

The students also introduced some of the other toys. There was a fishing game. "Do you like fish?"
"Yes, I do. Octopus, please!"
When the two magnets join together it looks like they are making pairs.

"Let's make pairs!"


Another toy they introduced was a yacht car.
The wind from the fan pushes it and it goes straight.

"Let's go straight!"
The students are marching forward!

There was also another toy that rolled down a slope the students practiced rolling too when the teachers said "Roll!". After introducing all the toys and how they move we checked if Ms. Emily liked the toys.
"Do you like these toys?"
"Yes, I do!"

Ms. Emily read us a story which had many types of vehicles and animals that moved in different ways.
"Here is a frog. Frogs..." "jump!"
"Do you like frogs?"
"Yes, I do/No, I don't!!"

"Look! It's a car. What do the tyres do?"
"Roll!"
"That's right!"

Good job 2nd grade students and teachers!