Tundra Biome project - taking a text book project home

 

Check out this original work from three of our junior high school students, as a project extension to our class studies in Everybody Up 5. Class one = collecting ideas & googling for images, making notes, with my initial visualisation being a copy & paste job. However, as everyone was already using the PC in my classroom, I decided to let go of the mouse & keyboard & assist from the back of the room, leaving them with a Jamboard canves to populate instead. Two lads in class, sharing typing duties with a third collaborator online chirping in with editing ideas etc. I'm not 100% sure about their animal identification skills!

Biome research - googling!

There is not as much English content as I would have liked, but the task got the boys working together & thinking creatively, adding sticky notes & checking spelling, and learning how to collaborate with this online whiteboard tool. Class two: learning PC skills never did anyone any harm - it always dismays me how little Japanese students can do with tech. Regardless, this output was a personal mission for them & I am sure will settle the 'biome' concept into their memories.

Well done lads!

Expanded horizons - biome take away

Nocturnal Animals - poster project

This is Takuro's homework after reading "Animals at Night" (OUP Discover! series). He also wrote an interesting piece about the animals he saw walking his dog at night...but his big dog probably scared most things away! (It doesn't like me, for a start!).

I think this is a really good piece of work, and I am looking forward to hearing more about the animals around here this winter - anyone trump my family of tanuki that I saw crossing the street late one night?

story on a plate

These delightful drawings were done by some of my Friday students. They were asked to read a book from our student lending library for homework. The task in class was to condense the story enough so that it would fit easily onto a plate in picture form. This in turn helped us when it came time to write a summary of the story. This is what you can see below.





The idea was taken from some project work we did from one of our class readers, an Oxford Dominoes graded reader called "Mulan" and harks back to an ancient Chinese tradition.



Incidentally the readers that we use in class are a fantastic tool to get things going in the classroom. The stories are interesting and the students love reading them! When I set this type of reading for homework it always gets done. The students learn more rapidly and the teacher is happy. The only problem is keeping up with the reading pace...

A confession - high school cat burglar

A career of crime comes crashing to a close: Ayako willingly confesses!

"I stole a million-dollar necklace because I wanted it. It was bright and beautiful.

I stole it from a jewellery shop on EkiMae Street, at two o'clock in the morning, yesterday. I am a robber so I picked the locks. It was quite easy.

My big brother Hiroshi helped me. He drove the get away car.

The police discovered my identity because Hiroshi was speeding."

Ayako is not helping police with their enquiries - she's gone shopping.