Grade 1 Unit 1 Some Flags

This is a small collection of flags that can be used for First Grade New Horizons Unit 1. In the first unit the kids meet their new English teacher Ms. Green and inevitably ask her where she's from. I believe she's asked; are you from America and she replies that, no , she's from Canada. So there's a number of ways the cards can be used.

• as a karuta game; the kids cue with "Where are you from?" and the teacher answers with "I'm from ~" and the kids grab the flag of the country name they hear.
• as a matching game; the kids have to find the people who have the same cards as they do. Each kid has a card. He or she looks at his or her own card to know what to ask. If they have a Japan card they ask other kids--who are hiding their cards from view, "Are you from Japan?" The child who has been asked the question says either "Yes I am" or "No, I'm not. I'm from ~" and the children who form their group the quickest are the winners. Then they can change cards and do it again.
• as a bingo game; there must be a way to use these in a bingo game but I drank too much sake at the aiki taisai yesterday and my head doesn't feel up to thinking today. As Lord Buckley would say I'm wearing a concrete wig.

If you plan to do the matching game it might be fun to first teach the greetings of the countries you plan to use. Buenos dias, namaste, etc. and have the kids use those greetings when they find a person who has the same card that they do.

Grade 3 Unit 1 Stuff

This worksheet is also for the New Horizon Grade 3 text book. The grammer is similar to what appears on the scavenger hunt activity sheet; passive forms of verbs. The idea behind the worksheet is that students explain the use of various Japanese cultural artifacts (Stuff). At the meeting the other day (4/27) Kimura sensei pointed out that some of the kids in the class might not know the names and use of some of the stuff on the sheet so it might not be a bad idea to have the JTE go over the sheet with the kids first to make sure they know what everything is.

A possible variation on this activity is to present the students with a similar worksheet that shows various artifacts specific to the ALT's cultural background. (Your stuff.) Then, before explaining what the stuff is you could have the students speculate about the posssible uses of the stuff. This part of the activity might have to be done in Japanese. Or, the students could be given a multiple choice question. Or, the ALT could give a brief description and the students a one word anwer. Like this:

ALT: This is used to play hockey.
STDS: Puck!

And so on.

Grade 3 Unit 1 Scavenger Hunt

Here's a scavenger hunt worksheet for use with Unit 1 of the third grade new horizons. It's self explanatory. The kids work in teams to find the items on the list. I'm pretty sure that everything on the list can be found in the classroom. Tell them how much time they have and let them go to it. At the end of the allotted time call a halt to the hunting. The team which found the most number of items on the list is the winner. But that's not the end. Next they have to do a presentation about what they've found. Not everything, but maybe one sentence per person in the group-- time permitting. Maybe something like this:

This is Hiroyuki's pencil case. It was made in China.

The ALT and JTE can help them come up with the sentences. I would also suggest that you not mention the fact that they'll have do to the presentation until after they've had fun ( will it be fun?) looking for the items. Otherwise you might curb their enthusiasm for the activity.

Grade 2 Unit 1 Past Lives Survey

Unit 1 for second grade begins with the past tense of the verb to be and has the students reading and listening to a commerical for a sale at the Sports Store. Here's a link to the Past Lives Survey and some necessary materials for an activity which the students might find amusing.
First; the Japanese teacher has to explain the idea of the previous life and that one could have been a cat or a dog or some other creature.Second; each student is given a card of some animal that represents what they were in their previous life. The teachers model the conversation. The first speaker looks at the card they were given and asks if their partner was the same thing.

A: Were you a tiger?
B: Yes, I was.
or
B: No, I wasn't. I was a cockroach.

The students record their friend's names and answers in the survey sheet. As a variation you can have the first speaker ask, "What were you?" with the answer, "I was a ~." The word balloons coming out of the characters on the survey sheet provide examples for how the students can answer the questions. If you decide to ask. "What were you?" cut and paste the word balloons to show an appropriate example. For another variation that only uses the cards have the students use the first dialogue above to find other students who were the same thing that they were in a previous life. A simple matching game.

If you go to the link and the and find the survery is not formatted correctly get the username and password from me and you can edit it directly on the kasama alt google docs account.