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!

2nd grade students visited the Umi no Mori Aquarium earlier this month so for their second English class of the year we studied about the different animals that they saw there.

Before doing the greeting game the teachers and some of the students did a demonstration.
"Hello!"

Everyone tried to make eye contact and smile.
Nice eye contact!

Good gestures!

After the greeting game we sang the `Hello Song` first as a class and then in pairs.
"Hello! Hello! Hello, how are you?"

Next the teachers talked together and the students listened to what they said.
"Look at this picture. We went to the aquarium last week."
"Oh nice!"
"Have you ever been to the Umi no Mori Aquarium?"
"No, I haven't. What animals are there at the aquarium?"
"Everyone! Let's tell Ms. Emily about the different animals."

The teachers showed pictures that they took during the aquarium visit.
The students recognised the animals and said their names in Japanese. Then, Ms. Emily taught their English names as well as a gesture for each animal.

The students enjoyed practicing the animal names while doing the gestures.
"Sea lions!"

"Alligators!"

They studied 11 animals in total.
Then we asked the students if they liked or disliked each of the animals.

"Do you like sharks?"
"Yes, I do!" "No, I don`t!"

After that we played the `Nemo Game`. The students swam around in a circle while the music played.
When the music stopped they had to listen to Ms. Emily and do the gesture of the animal she said.

Can you tell what animal she said?
"Penguins!"

"Jellyfish!"

Everyone had to listen very carefully because if she said `sharks` they had to hide like Nemo.
"Sharks!"

"Let's hide!"

The students who were caught by the shark could help to choose the next animal.
"Let's say `Frogs` next!"

Lastly we read the book `Curious George goes to the Aquarium`. The book was very small so we used to projector so everyone could see the book more easily.
"Crabs!"

The students really enjoyed listening to the story!
Good job everyone!

Early this month 2nd grade students had their first English class for the year. In this class they reviewed what they studied as 1st grade students.

We started class with our usual greeting game.
"Hello!"

"How are you?"

"I'm good!"

Next, we reviewed the English for zoo animals that we studied last year. Ms. Emily gave a 3 hint quiz for each animal.
"It's big!"

After the students had guessed the right animal we counted the animals together.
"How many penguins?"
"1...2...3..."

Then we sang the song "Let's Go to the Zoo!" by Super Simple Songs while watching the DVD. Everyone sang and danced together.
"Let's go!"

Can you tell what animal they are being?
Snakes!

Finally we read the book `Brown Bear, Brown Bear` to practice animals and colors.
"What color is it?"
"Yellow!!"
"That's right!"

It was a fun class! Everyone is looking forward to the next one!

At the start of July 1st grade students had their second English class of the year. In the previous class they had studied the numbers 1-10 and in this class they focused on colors.

We started class with two greeting games. First we did the `Silent Greeting Game` and then we did a normal greeting game. For both games the teachers gave a good and bad demonstration and asked the students to pick which was better.
"You had nice eye contact! It was the best!"

Then it was the students turn to greet each other.
Great smiles!

Next, we sang the `Hello Song`. We sang it two different times. First, we sang it together as a group.
"Hello! Hello! Hello, how are you?"

Then, the student got into pairs and sang it as a conversation.
"I`m good. I'm good. I'm good, thank you, and you?"

After that we sang the `10 steps song` that we had learned in the previous class.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!"

The teachers then talked to each other about the upcoming Tanabata Festival.
We also sang the star song `Twinkle, Twinkle` in English and the students picked out the words they knew such as `sky` and `diamond`.

Then everyone showed Ms. Emily about tanzaku which are used to write Tanabata wishes and come in many colors.
"I like yellow!"
"Here you are."
"Thank you!"

Ms. Emily introduced the colors by giving hints such as "Lemons. Bananas."
"黄色?"
"Yellow! Yes! Good job!"
Each color was introduced with hints in this way.

Next, after demonstrating, the teachers asked the students if they like each color.
"Do you like pink?"

The students answered "Yes!" or "No!" while doing gestures.
In later classes the students will learn to say "Yes, I do." and "No, I don't."

Next, we played the 色さがし game. Everyone had to listen to Ms. Emily and touch something of the color that she said.
"Touch something white."

"Touch something pink."

"Touch something blue."

Finally we read the book `Color Surprise` together.
It was a very fun class. Everyone enjoyed it very much!

Earlier this year 5th grade students interviewed their classmates to find out the most popular shape in order to add it to their class flags for sports day. You can see that class here. We would like to show the results of that class.

In each of the three classes `stars` were the most popular shape. The theme for 5th grade at sports day was `Pirates of Tomizawa` so `crosses` were also popular.

Here are the completed flags:
Class 5-1 added a big star over their class number.

Class 5-2 added a star for each member of their class.

Class 5-3 added stars to the sail of their pirate ship.

Here are some pictures of the flags in action during sports day:
The flag holders led each class out on to the field.

The waving flags helped to encourage each team during the kibasen.

It was a great to use what we studied in English class to make something that each class can use for the rest of the year.

5th grade students had their third class studying the alphabet with Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?` as well as Let's Try!1 Unit 6 `ALPHABET`. In this class the students did the dot-to-dot alphabet activities to their friends that they prepared last week.

After our usual greetings we did the alphabet song and dance.
The students are now pros at this song!

Next, Ms. Emily and Ms. Mayumi gave a demonstration of the dot-to-dot activity. Ms. Mayumi said the alphabet letters and Ms. Emily joined them together to make the design that Ms. Mayumi had created.
Ms. Mayumi did some alphabet gestures to help with understanding.

Then, everyone got into pairs to do the activity for themselves.
The students did their best to give gesture hints if the alphabet letter was hard to understand.

Once one person in the pair had finished the activity we stopped for a break and asked everyone which alphabet letters were hard for everyone to understand. Ms. Emily gave everyone some tips to help them to tell the difference between the different letters.
"For B/V, G/Z and M/N if you look at the mouth of the person who is speaking you will be able to tell what letter they are saying!"

When we started the activity again everyone tried hard to watch the person speaking's mouth in order to understand what they were saying.
It's important to watch!

The students did their best to give hints such as `Up!` or `Right!` as well as doing gestures. Can you tell what letters these are?
This is an easy letter!

This hint is difficult!

The students could make many nice designs and shapes by listening to their friends alphabet dot-to-dot explanations.
It's a music note!

Finally, we had some extra time so we did a difficult A-Z alphabet dot-to-dot.
The students had to join the letters A-Z in order 5 times!

It made a picture in the end. Everyone tried really hard to finish the activity.

Once they finished they showed it to Ms. Emily to check.
"What letter is this?"

The students were proud when they managed to finish!
Good job!!

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!

5th grade students have continued studying the alphabet with Hi,friends!1 Lesson 6 `What do you want?` as well as Let's Try!1 Unit 6 `ALPHABET`.

We started class with `Teacher Talk`. The teachers wanted to go bowling but Ms. Mayumi had to write everyone's names down in order to bowl. She asked the question "How do you spell your name?". Students who wanted to bowl also did the same thing.
"How do you spell your name?"

Next, in pairs the students practiced asking each other about how to spell their names.
"M....I..."

The students used their alphabet cards in order to spell out their friends names.
"..S.."

Sometimes the students didn't have enough letters so they used the letters written in their textbook.
Nice idea!

After that, we played karuta with the alphabet cards.
The teachers tried to call letters that sound similar such as `G` and `Z` or `B` and `V`.

"V!"

For the last activity the students created quizzes. Last week Ms.Emily gave an alphabet quiz. The students connected the letters she said in order to make a shape. This week it was the students turn to create a quiz.
They had to use more than 10 letters.

Everyone tried to make an interesting shape.

Great quiz idea!

In the next class the students will give their alphabet quizzes to each other.

4th grade students had their second class on Let's Try!2 Unit 2 `Let's play cards.` In this class they practiced inviting their friends to play something.

First, after greetings, we asked students to remember what sports and games they had talked about in the previous class.
Ms. Emily put them on the board and everyone practiced together.

Next, we practiced inviting our friends to play. We split the class in half with half of the students asking and the other half answering.
The students who were answering could reply depending on their feelings about that sport: `Yes, let's!` or `Sorry!`.

Some students also helped to demonstrate.
"Let's play soccer."
"Yes, let's!"

Next, we introduced the games that we would play in this class.

We wanted some games that the students could easily play right away.
We practiced the pronunciations together.

Next, after watching a teacher demonstration it was time for the main activity. Everyone invited their friends to play.
"Hello!"
It's always good to start with a greeting.

"Let's play janken."
"Yes, let's!"

There were many fun games to play together.
"Let's play!"

"Look at this!"

"This is fun!"

Half-way through the activity the teachers picked some students to give a good demonstration.
Nice gestures!
The students all tried again while thinking about the good points of the demonstration.

At the end of the activity the students talked about what had bothered them during the activity.
"When my friends said `Sorry!` I wanted to know the reason. I felt sad."
"Next time let's ask `Why?` then your friend can answer `I like ~` and tell you the reason."

Good job 4th grade. Let's do our best in the next class!