Lessons For Teaching In Japan: Time

Elementary ESL Lessons: What Time Is It Now?

Preparation Materials: Vocabulary cards, number flash cards, plastic practice clocks (optional).

Suggested Level: Elementary grades 1 to 5

Introduction

Time is a great lesson for the students to learn. It combines numbers with a sentence they can use. For younger students you only need numbers 1-12, and older students can learn to use numbers 0-60.

How to Tell Time

In English we say time in two ways. When the time is on the hour, seven for example, we say, “It’s seven o’clock.” When there is a minute component, we say it as a set of two numbers. For example, 12:45 becomes, “It’s twelve forty-five.”

Preparation Activity: Group Game

The teacher plays music and the students walk around. When the music stops, the teacher yells a number. For example, “six.” Students have five seconds to make groups of six and sit down. Repeat several times with different numbers.

Main Activity: What Time Is It Now, Mr. Wolf?

• Students line up at the back of the room. Mr. Wolf stands at the front with his back to them.
• They say, “What time is it now, Mr. Wolf?
• Mr. Wolf answers. For example, “It’s three o’clock.”
• Students take three steps towards Mr. Wolf.
• Repeat until the students are close to Mr.Wolf.
• When Mr. Wolf says, “lunchtime,” the students have to race for the back wall to be safe.
• Any students Mr. Wolf touches will join him at the front of the classroom for the next round.

Level Up: Time Trials

Students can make simple paper clocks (or use clocks from the first graders). Students stand up. Students ask the teacher, “what time is it now?” and the teacher answers. Students move their clock to the correct time. Students that are wrong, sit down. Last student standing wins.

Review: Make time part of the Greeting.

Time can be practiced everyday like, “How are you?” or “What day is it today?” By practicing everyday questions and answers, student will be more confident speaking English. Some elementary schools do English greetings every morning – you can too!

Final Tips

• Count everything to practice numbers. Count the students with red shirts, the number of flashcards, everything.
• Students need to practice asking questions as well as answering them. After the students answer a question, they can ask another student or the teacher the same question.
• If your students get nervous about speaking English or being singled out, build their confidence through active group and team activities. You can transfer their stress to something embarrassing but fun, like gesturing or racing against other teams. If you praise students for doing their best, everybody wins!
• Most schools have a fake clock for teaching time to first graders. This can be used for the English class as well.

Elementary ESL Lessons: Easter Holidays

Holidays: Easter Word Hunt 

Preparation Materials: Vocabulary cards, colored paper, word search sheets.
Suggested Level: Elementary grades 3 to 6

Introduction 

Easter is a holiday celebrated in countries around the world. It is originally a Christian religious holiday, but there are also many other ways to celebrate. On Easter morning, parents like to hide little chocolate eggs and candies around the house for their children to find. Children collect the chocolate and candies in an Easter basket. This is called an Easter Egg Hunt!

Easter Vocabulary

Here is some fun Easter vocabulary:

• Easter
• spring
• bunny
• Easter egg
• hunt
• basket
• chocolate
• color
• decorate

Preparation Activity: Writing Practice

To play Word Hunt with your students, you will need letter cards. Each word should be written in a different color or on different colors of paper. Give each group one color and a list of scrambled letters to write. Cut out each letter of the word. To make the game harder, include extra letters too!

Main Activity: Word Hunt

Use the Easter vocabulary words to make a Word Hunt for your students.

1. Hide the letters of the vocabulary words around the classroom.
2. Let the students search for the letters.
3. The students assemble the letters to make their vocabulary word.
4. They show the teacher the word and get a sticker.
5. Review the words as a class.

Review: Word Search

You can find word searches on the Internet. These are rows of letters with vocabulary words hidden in them. To review Easter, you can give your students a word search with the words you studied. Some websites give you the option of building your own, but may charge money. You can make word searches by hand using a grid or on your computer using Excel, Google Sheets, etc.

C	G	G	F	O
H	R	K	M	G
O	U	B	P	G
C	A	N	R	M
O	N	G	T	N
L	E	G	G	Y
A	F	R	N	D
T	E	N	E	A
E	U	W	Z	X
B	E	P	U	C

Final Tips

• You can write sentence instead of words. For example, “I like red Easter eggs.” This helps the students practice the order of the words.
• For fun, you can make the letter cards egg-shaped!

Lessons For Teaching In Japan: Countries - A Trip Around The World

Countries: A Trip Around The World

Preparation Materials: Bingo sheets, stamps, vocabulary cards.

Level: Upper elementary to first year junior high. 

Introduction 

One of the reasons to study English is because it is an international language. Many travelers from all over use English to communicate in different countries. We will look at a lesson that teaches countries as well as some useful travel phrases. Spinning the Globe There are many countries to choose from. An ideal mix combines countries that students know (United States, Russia) with countries they don’t know (South Africa, Iceland). For example:

• Canada 
• China 
• Brazil 
• South Korea 
• Italy 
• India 
• Egypt 
• Taiwan 
• England 
• Australia 
• Russia 

Preparation Activity: Interview Bingo

• The teacher prepares bingo sheets with country flags. 
• Each students is given a secret country card. 
• Students can circle their own flag on the sheet. 
• Students meet, do paper, rock, scissors, and the winner asks, “Where are you from?” 
• The loser answers, “I’m from [his or her card].” 
• The winner circles that flag. 
• Repeat. 
• When students get bingo, they go to the teacher for a prize. 

Main Activity: Let's Travel

• Students get a passport from teacher. 
• Inside, they write their name and country (the same secret card), and draw a picture of their face. For higher-level students, you can add more information. 
• The teacher sits at desks with different stamps representing each country. You can use some students as countries too as long as there is time to rotate them. 
• The students approach the desks and the teacher asks, “Where are you from?” 
• The student answers, “I’m from ~.” 
• The teacher asks, “Where are you going?” 
• The student answers, “I’m going to [any country]” 
• The teacher stamps their passport with that country’s stamp. 
• Repeat. 

Note: If you can find country stamps, that’s great. If not, stamp each flashcard so you and the students can remember what stamp belongs to what country.

Level Up: Customs Interview Instead of sticking to the pattern, challenge the students by adding new questions. For example: “How old are you?” “What’s your name?” “When is your birthday?” Or: “Where are you going?” “I’m going to Brazil” “Why?” “I like soccer.” This encourages students to think outside of the pattern.

Review: My Travel Diary 

After the lesson is over, students should have a passport full of different stamps. To review, pick a student and ask them to list the places they went in English. You can even use past tense: “Where did you go?” “I went to Canada, Brazil, China…”

Final Tips

• You can turn the vocabulary into a quiz by giving the students hints rather than showing them the cards. For example: “This country is hot. It has many crocodiles and kangaroos.” 
• Controlling the flow of students is important during shopping and passport games. Try to make sure that no country/shop is being ignored.