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キンダークラス

キンダークラス (23)

幼児(5歳・6歳/年中~年長)向け英会話コース。キンダープログラムページこちらです。

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英語で電気工作教室

英語で電気工作教室 (9)

電気工作が得意なポールと一緒にロボットを作ってみませんか?英語で電気工作教室

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木, 13 5月 2021 12:55

What's Inside a Hand Mixer?

  In this video I take apart a cheap Dretec kitchen hand mixer that has stopped working, or is broken. I try to explain how it works and point out the various components, and parts, that make up the hand mixer.

 And why am I taking things apart? Well, it's part of an idea for a new course I'm planning.

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木, 13 5月 2021 12:37

At the Store

  We had a lot of fun in Saturday's Kinder class (年中~年長のクラス ) recreating scenes from the Potato Pals book, At the Store.

 

  While the internet is great resource for finding ideas and methodologies for teaching second languages to children, it's rare to find a page that sums things up so easily. Well, today I found such a page over on Smart Parent Advice. The actual website is geared towards parents and aims to, in their own words, "Provide Advice To Parents So They Can Raise Their Kids With Confidence!" but that's not to say that language teachers cannot learn a thing, or two, from their articles. 

 The actual page that caught my attention was 5 Tips For Helping Your Child Learn A New Language. To sum the page up briefly, the five tips were:

1. Make language learning fun

2. When the kids don’t feel like they’re doing difficult work, they’ll learn without even realizing!

3. Lead by example

4. Read to them as much as possible

5. If You Can’t Bring Your Kids to the Language, Bring the Language to Your Kids!

I wholeheartedly agree with all the points raised and if you are in the process of trying to teach your own children, or your children are learning a langauge at a language school, and you'd like to help them, I throughrouly recommend visiting the page to read more.

Aside from the linked page the rest of the website, smartparentadvice.com, is full of great ideas and advice for the new parent, or even the long-in-the-tooth language instructor such as myself!

I particularly liked their Simon Says page.

Nice work guys.

 This week in our adult classes I tried using this short news item from newsonjapan.com

 It's about Coca Cola Japan starting to offer a subscription service at its vending machines. The video is in Japanese so after using some lead-in questions to set the topic, the challenge to my students was tell me what it was about.

 We then discussed the pros and cons of various subscriptions.

 It was a good topic setter and because the news articles on newsinjapan.com are usually short,relevant and in English, I'll be looking to use more arcticles in my classes from now on.

 

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土, 17 4月 2021 15:23

Walkies!

  As part of our Kinder class (キンダークラス) text Potato Pals by Patrick Jackson and Rie KIimura, there's a section where we learn the phrase "I walk the dog."

  So what better chance than to give all the students their very own dog...not a real dog...but an invisible dog tethered to a dog lead!!

  Walkies!!  Sit!!  Jump!!  Lie down!!

  (Big thanks to Blackpool's Golden Mile in the 1980's for this idea!)

 

日, 18 4月 2021 12:05

ozobot (オゾボット)

A short video, over on twitter, from the folks at Ozobot Japan showing just how easy it is to use ozobots and get started programming!

https://twitter.com/i/status/1383377700186845185

Find out more about programming and English at 英語でプログラミング

土, 17 4月 2021 15:03

Passports Please!

  New passports ready for our 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders (小学生1年生,2年生&2年生)

  I started using them in our elementary classses (小学生クラス) a few years ago, and while a little time consuming to make, the children really enjoy getting their stamps!

土, 10 4月 2021 17:13

Penfriends in Spain

 As a member of the Cambridge English Penfriends (ペンフレンド) programme we were delightd to be able swap cards with Colegio Rural Agrupado (C.R.A.) Javalambre school in rural Spain.

 It was great to see the enthusiasm of my students creating their cards to send to Spain, and we had a lot of fun deciding what to write. It really felt that after a year of various Covid-19 restrcitions etc, that my students were desperate to communicate with children overseas and I was really proud of their work.

 But it didn't prepare me for the replies from CRA Javalambre; the children in Spain had answered each student's letter personally and it has been a source of joy all week seeing my students faces light up as they read the letters addressed to themselves.

 So thank you CRA Javalambre and Cambridge English Penfriends (ペンフレンド) for creating a truly fantastic experience for my students.

 

 

 

木, 25 3月 2021 18:24

School Calendar 2021~2022

  As one academic ends (classes until the end of Saturday 27th!) another begins.

  Here is the school calendar for 2021~2022.  School Calendar 2021~2022 (PDF95K)

  We all look forward to welcoming our students, starting on April 6th, for the next year.

  Inspired by the AGO cards used in our Junior high School class, Paul challenges you to solve a selection of English riddles.

  For starters, "What's black and white, and 'red' all over?"

  Is it a sunburnt zebra???     

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