Spelling Bee

In the post for Third Year Review Activites there is a list of words for use in a spelling bee. It seems like a good idea to make some similar lists for first and second year as well because something like that could be fun. In the spelling bees I remember each kid is given a word to spell. They may ask the teacher to use the word in a sentence or what part of speech the word is.If they spell it they continue on with the contest. If they don't spell it correctly they are eliminated. Now, we don't really want to eliminate kids in the classroom because we want them to keep trying to spell the words. If it were a real spelling bee that would be different.

In our classroom spelling bee we'll do it like this.

The kids are divided into their lunch groups. The first group is given a word to spell and they can choose either a one-point, a two-point, or a three-point word. Three-point words are the hardest. If they get it right their team gets the number of points for that word. If they are wrong there is no penalty.Or maybe missing a one point word could carry a one-point penalty. That might make them challenge themselves with the harder words.

Here are the word lists for
 first grade,
 second grade
 and third grade.

Grade 3 Review Activities

It's February and the kids in third year junior high school are busy studying for their entrance exams and practicing the speeches they will give when they go for the interview portion of the high school entrance process. I guess it doesn't all happen on the same day for all of the different high schools so occasionally there will be groups of four or five kids absent from class as they go to take their exams. There are a lot of worksheets for the other kids to do as part of a global review of all the grammar they've studied; and one of the teachers really likes bingo to keep the kids occupied when they are not otherwise studying studying. But because worksheets and bingo can get a little boring one of my JTEs asked for a fun activity based on the grammar from the third year New Horizons. Another one wanted some sentences with the words out of order for the kids to fix, also from the same book.

Here are some questions presented in the form of a Hurricane game. (Remember that from the warm-ups post? If not you can search the blog for a description of how to play the game.) Some of them are hard, some really easy. The variation from hard to easy is supposed to be funny. I'll let the kids work in groups to answer the questions.

And here are the scrambled sentences.

And some words for a spelling bee that come from the third year New Horizons.

Grade 2 Unit 7

I haven't posted for a long time. Winter vacation was a month and a half. Well, here is something I'm working on for the 二年生。 I'm not sure what final form it will take but I really like the visuals that go with it. Superheroes! And here are larger versions of the same characters. I've chosen the superheroes I'm familiar with because I thought it would make it more interesting. And because they don't know these characters they really will have to ask questions about them.
So, how am I going to use them?
I was thinking of using them in Grade 2 Unit 7. In this unit they learn to make statements and questions using comparitives and superlatives.

Here's an idea.
I pick two superheroes. I tell them the superheroes have had a battle. Hulk versus Thor or Superman versus the Blue Beetle. Then the kids have to quiz me about the relative strengths and abilities or other special attributes of the characters in question; then they tell me which one they think would win. What kind of questions could they ask?

Who is stronger Hulk or Thor?

Who is faster Flash or The Atom?

Who is bigger.....

Who is more intelligent.....

Who is more powerful.......

Can Batman.....

Does the Blue Beetle have.....

Really I don't have a lot of hope on those last two questions coming out without a lot of prompting.

Grade 1 Unit 8 Object Pronouns

I was asked to come up with something for an observation class this month to practice object pronouns or possessive pronouns. It hasn't been decided yet so I'll do something for each just in case. Here's the activity for object pronouns. It's called It's Good to be the King.

A group of kids do a janken (thank god for janken) and the winner becomes the king. That person has to give an order to all of the members of group he is playing with. If he does so successfully then he gets to make a mark under the crown on his activity sheet. With five lines he (or she) can make the Japanese character for tadashii 正. If he wins five times and makes the character he is the winner of the first round of the game. The kids can do as many rounds as they have time to do. All of the orders have to involve an object pronoun:

Tell me your name.
Touch him on the shoulder.
Give her a pencil.

Things like that.

There are examples sentences on the activity sheet and of course the teachers will spend the first part of the class explaining or reviewing object pronouns so it shouldn't be too hard. Kids with less confidence in their English can keep giving the same orders; those with more confidence can be encouraged to ask the teachers for ideas for interesting orders. No punching, kicking or kissing allowed.

A good ideas is to have the kids form groups of five. (Where five isn't possible including the teachers will help.) Then make it a rule that a king has to give orders to as many different people as possible. Five different people, five different marks to make the 正.

Grade 2 Unit 5 What's Wrong

Here's a great activity for Second Grade when the kids are studying the Speaking Plus 3 on page 56. I wish I could take credit for it but the JTE came up with this one.

After the kids have practiced the Speaking Plus conversation pass out copies of the first sheet which is basically the same conversation. The JTE writes the questions What's wrong? and How do you feel? on the blackboard along with the answers that will be used in the activity.

What's wrong? I have a headache.
a stomachache
a fever


How do you feel? Not so bad
Bad.
Terrible


After the kids have practiced this vocabulary for a while the teachers pass out the slips of paper that are on the third sheet. These are the answers to questions that the teachers will ask the students.

When they are ready to go the teachers explain that they are doctors. The kids make two lines. One with the JTE and one with the ALT who then ask the kids questions about their symptoms and how long they have had them. Based on the answers the "doctors" make a diagnosis. The Medical Chart, which is the second sheet, tells the doctor what the student's problem is. The JTE who made this activity included cold, flu, eat too much, and cancer. I realize that last one might be a downer especially if someone in the class has had a relative with that problem but things worked out okay. If you want to, go ahead and change it. Maybe it could be AIDS. No just kidding. Anyway feel free to make it any illness you feel comfortable talking about.

Oh. The last line of the dialogue is I'll give you some medicine. The medicine is a sticker. It's surprising how such a small item can motivate even students who ordinarily don't talk much. After the kids have got their medicine have them trade answer sheets with someone else and they can go again and see how may stickers they can get.

Grade 2 Unit 5 "When..."

In this Unit the kids are learning how to express opinions and how to make sentences with if and when clauses. So I was asked to come up with something to practice this grammar. It wasn't so easy. All my ideas looked like worksheets which is something I kind of want to get away from. So I came up with this idea. I'm not completey happy with it because it doesn't require any speaking beyond reading what the teacher has written on the board. On the plus side it looks like it might be fun and lead to a gut level understanding of the causation implied in sentences like:


When the teacher says, "Open your books." you must cry like a baby.


At the begining of class the JTE and I pretended to be upset over the class's behavior. Talking, not listening and what have you. Now the class we tried it in is actually a pretty good class so they knew right away that there was something fishy going on. Still we pretended to be angry and told them that there were going to to be some new rules put into practice. Then we started writing them on the board:

When the teacher is speaking you must be quiet

We wrote this on the board and had the kids practice it backwards and forwards. (We showed them how the clauses could be interposed while retaining the same meaning) As we continued writing the new rules became increasingly strange, as in the first example and the stranger the rules became the more the kids enjoyed reading aloud. After all the rules were on the board we continued class as we usually do but the kids still had to obey the new rules. When I scratched my nose the kids clapped. When the JTE wrote on the board the kids had to call out, "Tooth!"( I don't know what this means but it's some kind of gag that appears on TV) when I put my hands in my pockets everyone had to stand up, turn around and sit back down.

It made for an interesting forty-five minutes.

Grade 2 Unit 5 "If..."

In unit 5 the kids get their first look at conditioinal sentences like:

If you can go, please call me.
Please call me if you can go.


Here's a game that allows the kids to practice/review the grammar. One of the things I like about it is that it requires nothing more than a blackboard. It went quite well when I tried it with 2-3. Divide the class into groups and then write on the board half of a conditional sentence.

If you are hungry....

The first group to come up with a well constructed logical second half of the sentence wins a point. Write the complete sentences on the blackboard and then have the kids practice them chorally. Some of the responses that we got in 2-3 weren't always logical although they might have been syntactically correct in the way that Hungry green ideas sleep furiously is syntactically correct.

If you are hungry run.

The words fit together in the right place but it doesn't make any sense. In this event the JTE was given the task of being the judge.

If you are hungry eat.

gets a point.

After a number of sentences have been put together, written down and practiced erase the board and present the kids with the sentences inverted.

Eat...

They should be able to remember the sentences they have just seen and practiced and should be able to come up with the correct response. Then you can add some that they haven't practiced and work in some with negative expressions. As I said it went well. It's probably best to divide the room into lunch groups so they can be encouraged to work together.