Here is a supplement to the Let's Read section of Unit 3. The kids are given the story of A Magic Box to read so I thought it might be interesting for them to learn about wishing customs of Western countries. Of course if you're not from a Western country this might not be so useful.
There's actually quite a lot of different customs concerning wishing. I did a little research and was surprised at how many there were. But keeping in mind that the kids are only in Grade 2 and the fact that there is a lot of grammar they haven't been taught yet I did my best to keep it real simple. It's actually quite hard to make things so simple. At the bottom of the page you'll see a box labelled Useful Words. All of the translations for the English phrases came from the new gadget on the blog the Google Translate. If you don't know a pretty fair amount of Japanese already don't trust the translations of multi-word phrases without checking the meaning with a JTE. As with all language translation software that I've seen so far sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't.
I don't think of this so much as a worksheet as a reading; something to get them talking about wishes and a way to introduce the grammar used for making wishes in English. If the JTE is willing I want to kids to go beyond just saying, I want a new basketball to I wish I had a new basketball.
I can dream can't I ?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Warm ups
Someone was asking about warm-ups for junior high school classes so here are some ideas.
Fast Feedback Listening Quiz
So called because the kids get to see immediately if their choice is correct or not.
The ALT prepares three flash cards (or writes on the blackboard) that stand for the pronunciation of either the past tense or plural inflections.
past tense: [t] [d] [id]
plural: [s] [z] [iz]
The ALT uses these cards to divide the classroom into three sections. (Try to think of a fun way to do it )
The ALT then pronounces a word; cats, dogs, horses, or; played, passed, wanted. The students have to judge which inflection they heard. If they think they heard the inflection represented by the [d] flashcard they move to the section of the room that was partitioned off for that flashcard. After all the students have made their choices the ALT tells them the correct answer. That's the fast feedback.
Speedy Delivery
The ALT lines has the students form two equal lines. If you can't form two equal teams have the JTE join one of the teams to make it equal. The students at the head of the line race to respond appropriately and quickly to whatever the ALT says. If the ALT says, hello the students respond in the most natural way with a hello of their own. If the ALT says, good-bye the students have to respond with good-bye. If the ALT asks a question the kids have to answer it. The student who answers the quickest(and of course correctly) gets to sit down. The other one has to go to the end of the line and start over. The first team that has all members in their seats is the winner.
Tate/Yoko Game
The name comes from the Japanese words for vertical and horizontal. The ALT has all the kids stand-up and asks them a question. The children get a chance to answer it and the child who is chosen to answer (If he is correct) gets to sit down. He also gets to choose whether the tate line (vertical column) he sits in, or the yoko line (the horizontal row) gets to sit down too. None of the kids wants to be among the last children standing so there will be plenty of people raising hands. One of the teachers I work with has the last kids left standing answer a predetermined question. What food do you like or something on that order. That makes it a kind of batsu game which the kids usually like.
Another way to do this that might make it more fun is to have two sets of cards prepared in advance. One set has easy questions and the other set has harder questions. Shuffle the cards before the game begins and that way the kids who are answering won't know if they are going to get a hard one or an easy one. A little suspense is nice.
Hurricane
The ALT draws a four by four grid on the blackboard. The squares of the board are labelled with numbers and letters so that a certain square is A1 another is B3 and so on. On a seperate piece of paper is a score for each square. (If a question is answered correctly that score is awarded) The scores vary from 0 to whatever number you like. The kids are divided into their lunch groups and in their group they can work together to answer the questions the ALT gives them.
The ALT gives a question to the first lunch group. If they can't answer it the question goes to the next group in line. If they can answer it then the next thing they do is choose one of the squares by saying its name. A1 or D3. The ALT then tells them the score they have won by anwering the question correctly. This is recorded on the blackboard by drawing houses.
Oh. I forgot to mention that instead of being given scores some of the squares have been given an H which stands for hurricane. (There had to be a reason this game was called hurricane) If a teams answers a question correctly and the square they choose is an H square they get to blow away some of the houses of whichever team they like. As many houses as they like. This results in much amusing pleading and subsequent threats of reataliation.
To make the game a little more interesting visually you can have the scores and Hs written on laminated sheets and attached to the blackboard with magnets in such a way that you can't see what's written on the other side until you turn it over (naturally). And if the house/points were little cartoon houses that attached to the board that would also make it look a little more
interesting.
Fast Feedback Listening Quiz
So called because the kids get to see immediately if their choice is correct or not.
The ALT prepares three flash cards (or writes on the blackboard) that stand for the pronunciation of either the past tense or plural inflections.
past tense: [t] [d] [id]
plural: [s] [z] [iz]
The ALT uses these cards to divide the classroom into three sections. (Try to think of a fun way to do it )
The ALT then pronounces a word; cats, dogs, horses, or; played, passed, wanted. The students have to judge which inflection they heard. If they think they heard the inflection represented by the [d] flashcard they move to the section of the room that was partitioned off for that flashcard. After all the students have made their choices the ALT tells them the correct answer. That's the fast feedback.
Speedy Delivery
The ALT lines has the students form two equal lines. If you can't form two equal teams have the JTE join one of the teams to make it equal. The students at the head of the line race to respond appropriately and quickly to whatever the ALT says. If the ALT says, hello the students respond in the most natural way with a hello of their own. If the ALT says, good-bye the students have to respond with good-bye. If the ALT asks a question the kids have to answer it. The student who answers the quickest(and of course correctly) gets to sit down. The other one has to go to the end of the line and start over. The first team that has all members in their seats is the winner.
Tate/Yoko Game
The name comes from the Japanese words for vertical and horizontal. The ALT has all the kids stand-up and asks them a question. The children get a chance to answer it and the child who is chosen to answer (If he is correct) gets to sit down. He also gets to choose whether the tate line (vertical column) he sits in, or the yoko line (the horizontal row) gets to sit down too. None of the kids wants to be among the last children standing so there will be plenty of people raising hands. One of the teachers I work with has the last kids left standing answer a predetermined question. What food do you like or something on that order. That makes it a kind of batsu game which the kids usually like.
Another way to do this that might make it more fun is to have two sets of cards prepared in advance. One set has easy questions and the other set has harder questions. Shuffle the cards before the game begins and that way the kids who are answering won't know if they are going to get a hard one or an easy one. A little suspense is nice.
Hurricane
The ALT draws a four by four grid on the blackboard. The squares of the board are labelled with numbers and letters so that a certain square is A1 another is B3 and so on. On a seperate piece of paper is a score for each square. (If a question is answered correctly that score is awarded) The scores vary from 0 to whatever number you like. The kids are divided into their lunch groups and in their group they can work together to answer the questions the ALT gives them.
The ALT gives a question to the first lunch group. If they can't answer it the question goes to the next group in line. If they can answer it then the next thing they do is choose one of the squares by saying its name. A1 or D3. The ALT then tells them the score they have won by anwering the question correctly. This is recorded on the blackboard by drawing houses.
Oh. I forgot to mention that instead of being given scores some of the squares have been given an H which stands for hurricane. (There had to be a reason this game was called hurricane) If a teams answers a question correctly and the square they choose is an H square they get to blow away some of the houses of whichever team they like. As many houses as they like. This results in much amusing pleading and subsequent threats of reataliation.
To make the game a little more interesting visually you can have the scores and Hs written on laminated sheets and attached to the blackboard with magnets in such a way that you can't see what's written on the other side until you turn it over (naturally). And if the house/points were little cartoon houses that attached to the board that would also make it look a little more
interesting.
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