Do they know it's Christmas? They do now!

Already a week since our wonderful Christmas Party over at the kominkan!? Far too many excited little Lunanauts for us to host the party at the school, and our go to venue being renovated meant a return to our local roots but sorry mums, no space for you - we did our best to catch as much of the action as we could...but we were really busy because Jim got the wrong songs on the CD!

You'll find Father Christmas (aka Santa) meeting most if not all of the children on Flickr here Please help yourself to downloads - we are very happy to share the smiles! (More upload to follow tomorrow btw)

Of course we have to thank the man with the beard for making such an enormous detour to visit Matsumoto prematurely, and to:

• Head Elf Yukari for sorting everything out and having yummy food ready - and for taking Ceilidh to hospital when the TV landed on his foot tidying up :(
• Elves Matt & Naomi for running teams & minding minions energetically
• Elves Chihiro & Chiyo for stepping in when required & being heroes
• Catering Elves - nothing left over = mission accomplished! 
• Major Elf Damian for prepping & organising lovely things to do, and for knowing what to do

Wishing everyone a holiday season full of family fun, a chance to relax & take (turkey) stock...and spend time with loved ones together or in spirit. to those of us on the road/in the air these hols, travel safely - and remember to come back?!

A treasure map - Takahiro (JH3)

A treasure map - Taiki (JH1)

A treasure map - Masato (JH2)

My Cooking Blog

I went to Chino-city with my friend, because I had a cooking class. I go to a cooking class once a month. We make a lot of kind of dishes.Japanese food, Chinese, Italian and French...Yesterday, I cooked Chinese Osechi and ate that in lunch. That was very good. I'm thinking about whether to make the which of cooking Japanese Osechi and Chinese Osechi for New year. After lunch, We stopped by to a cafe in the way back and enjoyed chatting. We talked so that we got tired. After that, I went to home. Then I had a bath and cooked dinner. But I couldn't have dinner, because I ate too much and did't get hungry. I was enjoyed and It was a good holiday！

A treasure map - Kaito (JH1)

My Junior High School boys class can be a bit of a handful at times, can it can be tough keeping them motivated and engaged especially last thing on a Friday evening!

English Time 3 offers an opportunity to use CLIL, which these boys lapped up at the end of U9. The project - making a treasure map, with a dexcription using language we had studied in previous units. A chance to let the creative juices flow and be a bit crazy and bizarre.

Look out for the other treasure mpas coming up on the blog in the coming week!

A holiday postcard - Nanako (10)

A holiday postcard - Eleanor (10)

Northanger Abbey - A famous Japanese writer

Seichou Matsumoto is a famous mystery author. He was established ``social mystery``. He didn`t much write about character`s emotion. But he described about character`s family, company, society. I can imagine character`s life. He described ``why did she commit the crime?`` Sometimes that reason was sad or foolish. I like his 1950`s novels.The women didn't have social privilege in 1950`s. But they were very tough.They thought and thought, committed the crime. After, they covered the crime, they lived usual life every day. He described those women very charming. His novels are dramatized for TV and cinema. I like ``Suna no utsuwa`` very much. It was dramatized 4 or 5 times. But my best dram is first dramatized cinema. My best scene of that cinema is father and son walked winter beach. That is sad and beautiful.

Posted for Misuzu

A postcard from...Rock Falls, Illinois - USA

Opened in 1921

Hi Jim-sensei,

I'm in Rock Falls, Illinois. I'm staying at the new hotel by the river.

It's a beautiful day and the sunrise changes the colour of the sky, which is really wonderful!

Tomoko

Melbourne Early Summer

  I went to Melbourne, Australia in late November. Currently, Melbourne has a population of more than 5 million. There are a lot of immigrants from England, which is increasing by 30,000 every year. It seems to exceed the population of Sydney within a few years.In the streets of Melbourne, the balance between traditional buildings and modern buildings was very beautiful. Also, it was a nice climate in the early summer.Beef and seafood were very tasty. Also, the wine of Yana Valley was famous and it was delicious at its best. Espresso was also very famous and tasty.The finance was rich, saying that trams, highways, medical expenses etc are free. Prices are a bit high. However, bank deposit interest rate is 5.2%. I can not think of it in Japan.The people in the town were kind and kind. However, I was really sad and miserable that I could not speak English.

Picture Puzzle - Well Done!!

Young girl solved a mystery!! She is Amy Bates. It was Friday in a large shopping mall. Amy ran throught the crowd of people in the mall. She ran towards the boy, Pete. Amy pushed a film cassette into his hand. and she ran away. A minute later a big man was looking for her. Photo was a picture of two men. One of them was a big man, Wallace. One of them was Zetter`s lawyer, Ronald Thurber. He was giving to Wallace a thick brown envelope. Zetter was a bad person in prison. It was well-known in this town.

It is Amy`s story 「On Tuesday I saw Wallace talking to Ronald Thurber in churchyard. Wallace works at that prison. She heard "Bring the money here at nine o`clock on Friday morning. After that, I`ll help Zetter" I took a picture of the two men this time. But Wallace saw me. and I ran away .」

In the end, the police officers found £50000 in Wallace`s flat.

Posted for Yoko

The Last Leaf and Other Stories - Thoughts of a detective

Jimmy is Burglar. Before nine months, I had arrested Jimmy. But Jimmy was working again. I knew all about Jimmy. I decided to catch Jimmy next time. And I found Jimmy, the owner of the shoe store, Mr. Spencer, in Elmore. People liked Mr. Spencer and they respected him. It was unexpected for me. And Mr. Spencer was going to marry the banker’s daughter. That was very interesting for me. Because I thought Jimmy steals money from the bank. I had seen the banker’s family enter the bank with Jimmy. I was waiting to catch Jimmy. The trouble happened. The child was shut in the strong-room. Jimmy had cracked the strong-room’s door with Jimmy’s special tools. Mr. Spencer became Jimmy, the safe-cracker. Jimmy knew that he might be arrested by helping the child. And Jimmy decided to part from beloved Annabel. But he helped the child. Jimmy was a good burglar. I decided not to arrest Jimmy this time.

Posted for Reiko

The Phantom of the Opera - A father's letter

Christine

I will die soon. I don’t want to die but I know death is approaching. I have to say to you the important things. You have a gift for music. Your voice move people. We travelled through all the countries of Europe. Everywhere the audiences were pleased enthusiastically for your songs. You will be a wonderful singer. You will be a famous singer. That’s no doubt sure.

Until now I was always with you but from now you would be alone. You need a new teacher of music. Don’t worry about that. I will send a wonderful teacher to you, I will send you the Angel of Music. Instead me he will teach you much. He will make you better. Trust him and a brilliant future will be waiting ahead.

Please remember my soul will be always with you.

Love.

Posted for Misako

The Railway Children - Moving House

I don’t have any experiences about moving house in my childhood. When we moved to Yokohama, I was only four, so I don’t remember it. Next we moved when I was eighteen. But a lot of my friends left our town. Sometimes I envied them. Because they would have the new life, new house, new friends, and new experiences.

One day,a new student came to our class in my elementary school. Maybe I was nine or ten years old. She is elegant. We were surprised because she moved from London. Her Japanese was a little bit strange, but her manners were very beautiful. We were so surprised when she ate a piece of apple at the school lunch. We have never seen a person who ate the apple hiding around her mouth by her hand , especially did by a child . Of course some boys teased her. Because nobody ever imagined someone eats a piece of apple carefully with a beautiful manner. Actually I think she was surprised more than us.

After a while, she became my best friend. When we went to her house, her mother welcomed me and our friends. She and her mother sometimes spoke in English. We gradually got a hard friendship. It is the good old days.

After several years, she had moved to Singapore. We missed each other, so wrote many letters until she came back to Tokyo. Of course she is still one of my best friend.

Posted for Naoko

The Brontë Story - A book review

Jane Eyre 

This is the story of a little girl called Jane Eyre. Her parents die, so she lives with an aunt and her children. Then Jane goes away to a school called Lowood. Jane ‘s best friend is Helen. Helen falls ill at the school and dies. Then Jane works as a governess in Thornfield Hall. She meets Rochester and falls in love. But she knows his terrible secret. Jane leaves Thornfield Hall. Then she meets Sant John. Sant wants her to go India with him as a wife.

What kind of decision dose she make? What kind of action does she take finally?

Most of readers will notice that Jane is a new type of woman who has an iron will. She isn’t so beautiful but is full of deep culture with wisdom. She gives decision based on a keen sense of morals. She has a job. She makes money by herself not by a husband.

This book’s author is Currer Bell. He is one of the man who understand women’s thought. He wants to tell us the importance of women’s independence. Ladies, stand your own feet even if it is men’s society.

This is a wonderful and beautiful book. This is the best book in 1847. I think this book will get the sympathy of many women even in 100years.

Olga Urakawa

The editor of ‘English Life’

Martin Luther King - A newspaper article

Martin Luther King was shot dead. 

On 4 April, King was shot in Memphis. When he stayed in the hotel in Memphis with his friends, after 6 o'clock in the evening, he went out of his hotel room to get some fresh air. Suddenly there was the sound of a gun. His friends ran outside and found King lying on the ground. One of his young supporter, Jesse Jackson, held him in his arms. An hour later Martin Luther King died in a Memphis hospital. He was thirty-nine years old, a leader of Black American.

King was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was a minister in Atlanta church. After he graduated Morehouse college in Atlanta, he went Crozier, a college for ministers in Pennsylvania. He became a minister in Montgomery.

He married to Coretta Scott, and they worked together to fight segregation in South. He became famous by the bus boycott in Montgomery and the sit-in at an Atlanta restaurant. He believed that non-violence was the only way to win the fights for black rights. On 28 August 1963, he made a remarkable speech " I have a dream" in Washington D.C.. In 1964 he won the Nobel Prize for his civil rights work, he was only thirty-five years old. He had been working on his job for 12 years, and still in the middle of the way to his dream. But people in the world will never forget him.

Police said there was no witness and evidence, so it will take time to find the criminal, but they do their best to catch the criminal.

Posted for Yasumi

Rob Roy

A fan mail to Diana.

 (Ask her a few questions as well as telling her why you admire her.)

Dear Diana,

I’m your big fan. I love you because you are a good horse rider. I love to see horse running on a green field. I’ve never seen you are riding on a horse, but I can imagine you manage your horse like you dance and run a big beautiful field in Scotland.

If possible, could you tell me the name of your lovely horse? It must be a good looking horse. There is another reason why I’m your fan. I think you are mentally strong woman.

You believed and supported your father. You are proud of him that he did what he believed. Your family’s situation became difficult because of him, but you didn’t blame on him. Were you afraid while you had kept the secret of your father? I wish I could be a listener of your lonely heart. Please do not think you are alone. Things will be better.

I always pray for you that your situation will be better.

Sincerely,

Yumi

Goldfish - A police Report

The old man Sype was at Westport. He was a train-robber who had stolen the Learnder pearls. He had got a nice home, a wife and lots of goldfish to sell, and money for both of them. I offered the deal. Insurance will give Twenty-five grand reward to get the Learnder pearls. Five grand to the girls who gave me the lead. Ten grand for me. Ten grand for Sype. But Sype turned down my deal and pointed a gun at me.

At that time, Mrs Sype and the nasty people Carol Donovan, Rush Madder came into Sype's house with guns. So Sype put down his gun. While I grinned at Carol, Mrs Sype was moving across the floor in order to get her husband's gun, which was near the middle of the room. As I hit Carol's head, Mrs Sype shot her back. She was dead. Madder shot Sype twice, so he was falling to the floor. I didn't want to kill Madder so I shot him in the back of the knee. I took the gun away from Mrs Sype. Then I heard Sype's voice. Although he was dying, he smiled at his wife and told her to remember the Moors.

At last I found The Learnder pearls from the black Moors body. I held them- each of them was two centimeters across heavy, round, milky white and shining. Mrs Sype said hiding the pearls in the fish was a way of remembering and the best way of punishing himself. But that idea was too hard to me.

Posted for Hiroko