A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?

Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.

 

Colourful crafts - crayon candles

Bubbling away

What's the best way to make use of a drawer full of ancient crayons? Make crayon candles of course! Perfect for brightening up the cold, dark winter nights (we have far too many of those here in Matsumoto!). It's a fun little project you can try at home, and all you need are some crayons (more on crayon selection later on), wax shavings (or bashed up candles work just as well, the smaller the chunks the better), some wicks and some glass jars.

The idea is to melt and combine the crayons and wax together, and pour the mixture into a glass container so you can show off how colourful your candle is. And as for how, it boils down to either nuking the mixture in a microwave (in old Tupperware tubs) or doing it on a hob using a double boiler (empty cans are good as you can just throw them away after use, but be careful with sharp edges). Pretty straight forward, right?

Pink please

A whole afternoon spent trying and failing to melt the crayons proved otherwise. Turns out that the waxy candles we have are almost impossible to melt! The microwave left us with a stink that wafted through the entire first floor, and the crayons refused to melt even after being in a water bath for over half an hour.  Bearing in mind this was after cutting up the crayons into quite small chunks.

This left no options other than to use crayon shavings by grinding them through a crayon sharpener. Turned out to be a huge time sink, but in the end the unmeltable crayon dilemma was resolved. Hurrah! So it goes without saying that using soft and crumbly crayons are an obvious choice when making these candles. Unless you enjoy unnecessary hard work of course.

"How much longer!?"

Once you have your liquid crayon/wax mixture ready, it's a matter of assembling everything together. For the wick, what you want to do it drip a small amount of melted wax into the bottom of your jar, but enough for the wick to stand in it once it sets. This can be a bit fiddly so you can try a small blob of moulding clay instead. Once the wick is set in place, you have to move pretty quickly to pour in the crayon/wax mixture before it cools and sets, whilst simultaneously making sure you don't spill it everywhere, especially on the wick.

Then it's a waiting game for the coloured wax to set. Lower temperatures speed up the setting process ,so using your fridge/freezer is a good option. The really cool thing is that you can make multiple layers with different colours, just by repeating the melting and setting steps. The limiting factor here is time, particularly in the classroom, but if you are at home and time is not a factor, why not trying to using all the colours of the rainbow!!

Stairway to a brighter future

Luckily our students didn't have to endure the gruelling trial and error stage. They were met with a full spread of crayon shavings and wax pieces ready to be transformed into a sum greater than their parts. Everyone spooned in their favourite colour into some old cans, along with a big handful of wax, to be simmered away in the double boiler. 

Whilst waiting for the crayons and wax to melt, hands and minds were kept busy with some decorating. Sure the candles would look perfectly fine in a plain jar, but there's no harm in jazzing them up a bit is there! We used glitter glue to add a bit of sparkle and magic. It's easy to apply, works on most surfaces (even glass) and the kids love using it too. You will also be left with some fabulous fingers.

Damian's little helpers

Then came the eagerly anticipated first layer. It was a bit hectic with 8 students, but we managed to get all 8 jars filled with the correct colours. We then used the left over snow outside to our advantage by burying our candles in it. In the meantime, we got to work on our second layer. The timing seemed all too perfect as the candles had all set by the time round 2 of coloured wax was ready to go. Rinse, repeat and voila! Our very own multi-colour layered candle.

Proud students, impressed mums and big smiles all round. A successful afternoon in my book! Thanks to Yukari for helping out and taking photos.

Recycling reindeer - and paint them green

Tis that time of year, and we need to revamp our decorations a bit at Luna Towers - we seem to have a lot of Santas downstairs, and only one or two reindeer...

Break out the empty cardboard boxes!

We have a room full of junk (which really does need tidying up - anybody?) and a remarkable amount of raw materials if we rummage in a few drawers.

As we are little bit on the little side on Wednesdays, I didn't want to waste time & energy trying to cut the thick cardboard with tiny scissors; besides, a Stanley knife is rather sharp & dangerous. Best done as prep, especially as the antlers are fiddly. So, everything cut up & ready to paint, kids!

And paint themselves they did - on sleeves, faces, fingers as well as the table! Memo to self; tie on the strings first, then you can paint both sides and dry them easily. Another memo to self - check the reverse side of the box does not have printing on it, labels or cellotape (paint resistant) and remove ahead of project. Make sure the nippers roll up sleeves; we did this standing at the big table which worked better than sitting down...don't know why!

Eyes, noses & mouths done (Rudolph's), we could set aside to dry - but not in time before end of class (hairdryer would be useful). I'll get the string out tomorrow and finish the job off. Pics to follow!

Autumn safari - colour hunting in Nagano

 We are definitely into the wintry half of autumn now - and suddenly - as this time last week it was still just about OK to wear shorts out if it was sunny. It might still be sunny, but we also have what we call a "lazy wind" in Yorkshire - one that goes through you rather than around! Brrr....

This morning we went on a Bear Hunt with our Kids & mummies to the very local little park. However, just like in the story, we couldn't go through it, over it, under it or anything else :(  as it was fenced off with "No Entry" signs. Looks like they are replacing the slides and stuff (OK!)

Plan B! We are lucky to have a shrine at the top of the street, and it has a lot of old trees. Unfortunately, the monk is a flag-stealing nationalist...but that is another story! We rummaged and sorted, picked and collected like good Wombles on Wimbledon Common! Leaves in oranges, browns, yellows and russett reds, twigs & fronds, bits of bark, berries and even some mint. Haru-kun found a house-brick sized 'pebble' as well!

Rosy-cheeked we dumped our findings on the table back at Luna, and got into glueing. I've never glued a large rock to paper before, so we had to reach into the DIY locker and bring out the industrial stength stuff we used to block off the disused staircase! It's never coming off - but made for a collosally heavy collage!

While we stuck & pasted we talked a bit about eating funny coloured berries, and generally decided it was a bad idea unless we are sure they OK to eat - and mummy said so first :)

Do you like our autumn collages? What does autumn look like where you are?

I can do it!

My favourite phrase - it's so empowering!

A colour, cut, and stick-it-back-together again kind of activity that helps children review vocabulary, read (rather than guess!) and develop logical/predictive skills.

Basically this is a variation on dominoes, here making a circle. You can do this with any lexical set (or grammar structures too), but you need to make sure the last card will join back up to the first, or it won't work (and that you don't have duplicates).

What did we do? Coloured in big dots according to the words written under them. Big flashcards with the colours and words were on the board. Don't know?  - Go check! Then cut out your cards carefully (so that your pairs are separated). Give them a good shuffle, and then put it back together again! Use the flashcards again
to double check. If you want to keep sets separate, use different coloured base paper and avoid pink (girls will all want this one!).

Most enjoyable was the children showing mummies their puzzles, and mummies not being able to figure it out. Made the children feel very clever indeed - and they are, of course!

Preposition Expedition - looking for trolls

As we all know from our nursery rhymes, trolls live under bridges. OUP's Three Billy Goats DVD is a hot favourite with our pre-schoolies and they remembered the songs very enthusiastically a long time ago. So whenever we go for a walk, we can break into song about

• There's grass, there's graa, there's green green grass, over the river, over the river...
• There's a nasty troll lives under the bridge, he eats frogs and mice, and he's not very nice...

(There are more songs - it's a cool video!)
This morning was a beautiful early autumn, blue sky affair. Just right for a troll hunt - we took a map so we knew where we were going, just in case.

Where did we go? We went down stairs and across a road; down steps and across the riverbank. We walked into the river, but Jim carried the little ones through the water.

We sat on the top of the steps and waited for Naomi, then we tip-toed under the bridge. We did not find a troll, which was OK...but we did find a very smelly looking bed. Maybe he wasn't far away?!

We met a dog called Momo and Eleanor took his picture, before we walked over the bridge to look at the fish in the river, and a duck paddling. Finally, we crossed the road again, looking carefully left and right, up the stairs and back to Luna.



That was a long little walk, and a headful of prepositions! We powered up with snacks then set to the map - it needed decorating with things that we saw on our safari. We drew fish, flowers and ourselves in crayon, and painted with watery poster paints on shoji paper. The end result should be worth a few quid, we think!

Talking about my family

Today in pre-school we got into some really cool arts and crafts stuff, which we could never have done even a few months ago. The most important piece of equipment was...scissors!

How do you teach 'how to use scissors'? I suggest it's nigh on impossible! Every child has an entirely different background in manipulative & motor skills...how do you actually cut things successfully?! Thumb on top? Yes. Chop off fingers of other hand? No! Put them in left hand? OK - of course if that feels right! Cut along the lines? Well, that's the idea but a lot of experimentation is involved!

We were talking a lot about family, what we can/can't do, and recently the girls have been teaching us a Japanese finger chant which gives each finger a member of the family. Our "Finger Bobs" today was an English version of the same thing. We cut, glued and wore a finger family. As you can see, we need lots of fingers :)