The Black Night - after reading

There is a very valuable painting on display in a local gallery. 

Describe your plan to steal it without getting caught.

I ask my friends to be a member of my robbers’ team. At least I want four or five people who one can
trust in my team. To get down safety with this job, we need for more than one year. I think the local gallery borrows very valuable paintings for art exhibitions from a famous gallery. So we will steal it when the paintings would be carried back to the famous gallery.

First, one of my team will work for this local gallery as part-timer for about a year. And he has to earn the trust of the staffs. And he will say the boss that he knows the very high-grade and low cost transport company to carry art. That is our team! Others of my team will learn method of packing for art for a year. On this day, we will wear disguise. We will pack for art perfectly. And we will carry back them except for the painting we want. This plan is perfect …Oh! This is not perfect. When the staff notice the one of paintings was stolen, our friend who works this gallery will be suspected… I think I can not steal it without getting caught!!

Posted for Mio

After reading the Black Night...a cunning plan!

There is a very valuable painting on display in a local gallery. 

Describe your plan to steal it without getting caught.

This is going to be a very challenging mission as there would be various measures taken by the gallery to prevent the theft. I’d have to visit the gallery a lot and investigate all the possible options thoroughly. I also need to be very careful not to cause any suspicion from anyone when visiting the scene.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, just before the gallery closes for the day, I hide myself in a bathroom stall and cool myself down. When everyone goes home, I quickly take the painting off the wall, remove it out from the frame, shove it under my shirt, and RUN! It’s as simple as that.

The possibility of success becomes higher if I have the right partner. He can lay spikes on the road to the gallery, and at the time of the theft, he can set off a couple of bombs in other areas of the city. That should definitely result in the slow response of the police.

But come to think of it, even if I did succeed in making off with the painting, while the gallery would have a major problem, I would have one, too.
A million-dollar painting is not worth a penny if no one buys it…

Posted for Nobuyuki

A look back at classroom smiles through March 2014

What a wild month March was! Snow that we thought would never end and our carpets still wet after the thaw. Business as usual nevertheless in the learning zone, with some big paint jobs taking place in Damian's classroom. We planted a mystery garden (now showing signs of life in all but one planter) and said goodbye to long-term students - going to miss you guys!

Success rewarded as well, with certificates arriving for YLE, KET & CAE passes - well done you!

April is going to be a busy month, and apologies in advance for the state we might be in at the end of the month. Join us, meantime, April 13th from noon onwards for our Cherry Blossom Party (details oin our Facebook page). Have a superb April - we will!

I say to you Mr. Gorbachev - paint this wall, kids!

Such a beautiful day - would have been criminal to stay indoors! It was chilly though, and still a frost in the shade when I walked up to school first thing. Hats & woollies order of the day.

Our primary mission this morning was to find some paint brushes - to the hardware store then. We found all sorts of things before that though. Bicycles of all shapes & sizes - we even tried a couple out for size. Soft & smooth carpets as well as rough ones. Colour pencils of the rainbow. And finally brushes.

Yesterday the chippy put a partition wall up, blocking us out of our old large room (and now I realise the light switch for our corridor too!). Apparently they'll remove the freight lift as well, which has never been used & must weigh a ton or more). It's an ugly grey, plasterboard thing. Mmm. If they are going to rip our precious school to bits, we may as well enjoy ourselves - sound like a plan? Yeah, thought so too!

We are lucky Naomi-sensei is an artist. She is Michael Angelo to Jim's whim - "scenic rabbits & stuff". Jim did 'sky', while she created an idyllic landscape which the children quickly started colouring - crayon so we could paint over with bigger colours later. And did we colour? Fish, rabbits, goats, owls, fruit, mountains, trees, squirrels.

I think they fleshed out my inspiring 'thought' brilliantly, don't you? It's a tremendous bit of graffiti (can we take it with us??? Somehow think there's be a pick axe coming through it in January. Never mind - can we create? Yes, we can!

The remainder of our pre-school day was marked with green/blue hands, and a large amount of time under the table in Tana's room. It is very cluttered with 'stuff', so it was a nice hidey-hole where we could read a couple of books & lace buttons.

Highlight really was our masterpiece though - we autographed it with palm prints, just in case it is worth a few quid!

Don't stop me (singing) - I'm having a good time!

Dictation by song is an engaging way to use a song 'differently'. I cringe every time I hear a teacher throw in a CD & announce 'now listen to this' & then 'OK: now let's sing'. Could any of us do that in a foreign language with a song heard once? No, of course not...Would we even want to? Probably not (unless it really wails!).


Do something else, and generate the need to hear the song over again and again. Don't force the singing - it'll happen spontaneously or not at all...at first! You can start this as a blank page if you like; you need to be confident in your students abilities as a)listeners b)artists. Younger ones need a 'leg up' - in our case I raided Andrew Wright's bible "1000 drawings for teachers to copy" (one of the best speakers I've ever seen at a JALT conference, incidentally). I am woeful at drawing myself, and wince whenever I am asked to draw something! A little bit of prep is key!


"The Black Cat" song from OUP's Let's Go (one) by Carolyn Graham lends itself very nicely to an activity like this. Our young learners have been nagging for a chance to do some more painting, so a large photocopy each and watery paint. It's a simple chant with an echo of most of the lines - "Green grass, green grass; blue sky, blue sky" and so on. If the children find it hard to pick out the colour or the object, then teacher can take the lead and sing along with the CD again or just sing it (a bit slower/more clearly). 'Seeing' the words close up helps a lot! To make things easier for yourself, warm up your charges with a Q & A about the template & predict what colour the different objects might or should be.


Obviously you play the CD or repeat the song yourself over & over, pausing for drawing, coloring or painting; it 'goes in' very naturally. Try and stop your tiddlers singing along?!