Boring glossaries...gamified!

DIY gamification

I've been wondering how to 'make more' out of the graded readers our younger students are enjoying reading, and in particular to exploit the target or new vocabulary.

I came across a tweet from @HancockMcDonald which reminded me of a favourite game I'd long forgotten - his Chinese Chequers pronunciation game. A quick little think and some eager readers with 'finished ' books handy, I asked them what their 'hardest' six words were, and to circle them with a colour pencil. Then I asked them to write their chosen words onto the blank game template, at random (importantly, not clustered together!), with that colour pencil. 

Then we looked at the second glossary page, and did the same thing with a different colour pencil. Another reader, two more pages & different colours, and a third book leaving us with seven blank spaces for the last group of words.

 As you can see, this became a very engaging activity and proved to have very valuable spelling practice built into it (which never hurts, and is always really hard to squeeze into a lesson plan!). Important to use pencils (not crayons) for ease of corrections (and fitting words into small spaces - I insisted on getting words 'on' one line).

The words I want to learn!

So why the six colours? It's a dice game...we will be exploring our own games next week, and then asking our young learners to challenge mum & dad at home for 'homework'! Stay tuned :)

Hope you like the idea - we did!

Sayuri Super Fan - post-corona concert goer

Yuming, one of my favourite artists started her tour concert at the end of September and she came to Nagano for two days. I was very lucky to get the tickets for two concerts exactly the same one.

We (my husband and I) were so excited that we arrived at the concert hall really early but there were so many people just like us waiting for the door to open.

They used the digital ticket system so we had to have a smartphone to show the ticket onthe screen. Somehow the door person gave us a stamp on the screen ticket and we werequalified to enter the hall. First thing that we needed to do was cleaning our hands withpraying alcohol. Then they handed out a special face shield and we needed to put it onwith a mask underneath during the concert. They said that they used some special ultraviolet rays to sterilize some viruses. Also there was an announcement to ask for good behavior during the concert as the new standard after Covid 19. What is good behavior like?

The stage set looked like a room in a big submarine and we were all at the bottom of the deep sea, just like the tour title "The town in the deep sea"
Suddenly a pipe organ began to play gloriously. That was following the first song "Kageriyukuheya", my favourite song! That was her very early tune and she made it with theinspiration of Procol Harum "A Whiter Shade of Pale". I was surrounded by her solemn music and tears were coming up. It was the first live concert for me ever since this pandemic had happened. I was extremely happy!! I love music!!

Her concert was famous for the artistic stage production and the fifth song "Notre-Dame" was brilliant. On the huge screen above the stage we could see a bird's-eye view of Notre Dame and I felt like I was flying like a white dove, which was incredible.

We were so excited and stood up and started dancing and clapping hands!

On the first day, an old woman behind us complained about our bad behavior and asked us to sit down very politely but on the second day, we were on the fifth line from the front and almost the center, great seats! There was certain big fun of Yuming around, then we were all enjoying ourselves without any hesitation but not shouting off course.

In the end the day-two concert became so lively and exciting, so much better than theprevious day that the audience and the artists were all happy, satisfied and content. That's what the concert should be!

I realized how much I love music and concerts!

We need art! We need music! That makes us happy and well!

The mysterious death of Ryoma Sakamoto

Ryoma Sakamoto is one of the most famous Japanese unsolved crime. He is historical person and he is famous with rebelling against in the Edo period. 

He was born in the family of the Tosa state. After leaving the state, he worked as a priest and formed Kameyama Shrine, which doubled as a trading company and a political organization.  He was involved in the defeat and the Meiji Restoration, including cooperating with the formation of the Satcho Alliance.There is also evidence that he was a good swordsman. He repeated terrorist acts to defeat the Edo Shogunate and create a strong Japan.

December 10, 1867 When Ryoma and Nakaoka were talking, several men calling themselves Totsugawa Goji visited and asked for a visit.  When Fujiyoshi took over, the visitor went upstairs, slashed Fujiyoshi, and broke into the room where Ryoma and his friends were.

On the other hand, there is also such a theory.  It is said that he was killed by a man of the Tosa state who was his companion until then. These are just one theory, and there are other theories that various people have killed him, and the truth is in the dark.

Posted for Masato, after reading The Mysterious Death of Charles Bravo