So long, Toru. (Come back, Toru!)

Wednesdays are not quite the same anymore. Since 2005, this has been "my boys" class. And now Toru can't come anymore :(

This is a disaster (for me)! He is the sensible one, the one that remembers his homework, remembers what day it is, remembers what we learned last week. He is not the one that pesters me for a game every 5 minutes, nor the one who has a go at me every time Arsenal get a good result. He is not the one who gets here & falls asleep on the sofa. He is not the one who managed to throw his reading books away during the holiday!

Toru is Toru. The example. The paragon of normal, good kid with a good attitude. Never complains, never sulks, never wrecks the classroom playing football when I'm not looking...

And as the weeks pass now, I know all the great learning that went in is slowly being diluted with Katana pronunciation, mega-lumps of unweildy grammar & inert vocabulary. Come back Toru, I'll save you!

Who says life is dull for Japanese school kids?

"Yesterday, my friend Toru had a shower, used the internet, did his homework and went to bed late. He didn't get up early, send a text message, catch a bus or eat pizza."

"Yesterday, my friend Takuro had a shower, used the internet, did his homework and went to bed late. He didn't get up early, send a text message, catch a bus or eat pizza."

Takuro and Toru interviewed each other about yesterday. They go to different schools, and were not 'cheating' over this quick written follow up. Nevertheless, the result was worryingly predictable - they go through life as kids in Japan on a very plain trajectory!

I shouldn't complain, because these two lads are really coping well with the number of irregular verbs in the English language and different /ed/ sounds for even the 'regular' ones in the simple past tense. As learners they are excellent canvasses to work with.

From Reader to Writer

Toru's study buddy didn't turn up (can't really blame him, it's bitterly cold and snowing - not the best weather for cycling to Luna) so we revisited our last lesson of 2011 and did another Lego story.

Again, we trawled through a reader we have already read (this time "Land of the Dinosaurs" - OUP Story Tree Orange series book 3) and picked out some key dialogue to go with background & characters he decided on. The story, of course, is totally different to anything with the dinosaurs, but that's the whole point - we can recycle the language and make it so much more personal/memorable with our own spin on it.

How much help from me? Not a lot, really, after I showed him the main tool box, though we did need to scoot along a bit to finish in time & print it out nicely to take home.

I think this is a really cool piece of work - what do you think?

A peep inside Japanese fridges

Whose fridge is this?

Toru says: In my fridge there are some tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, oranges. There is some milk, yoghurt, pudding.

There isn't any beer, pizza. There aren't any french fries, hamburger(s).

Takuro says: There is a left-over curry. There are some eggs, tomatoes. There is some Pepsi, aquarius, mayonnaise, beer, balsamico, ginger, wasabi.

There aren't any hamburgers, cereals, noodles, bananas. There isn't any cola.

Consonant Clusters for pudding

I always look forward to my Wednesday lads because they bring an interesting mix of attitudes to class. Takuro wants to talk about football all the time (annoyingly Arsenal) & today he started drawing premier league teams' crests on the board; Toru is all business; Kunpei tries to avoid answering any difficult questions at all.

Boys ganging up on the teacher!

This class chuffs me to bits, because they can spell very well indeed. I like our classes to use a dedicated phonics book to go along with their regular class books; the Let's Go Phonics series is super. They are now quite confident of two and three letter clusters at the start of words (eg SPRing, SHRimp, STRipe, THRow, SCReam, CHip, SHop,) and at the end (eg biRCH, beNCH, wiTCH, piNK, wiNG, haND). No big deal? Wrong - this is a monster big deal in Japan, as katakana-isation of pronunciation usually mangles these combos hideously & terminally. These lads know they do not need to break up the sounds with extra vowels in between, or lob an extra 'o' or 'u' on the end. This avoids 'su-per-ring-u' (for spring) or 'win-do' (for wind).

So they can read, they can spell, they can roll out lovely pronunciation with stress in the right place and exactly the right number of syllables. BIG DEAL! To celebrate their great work, pudding and a quick A-Z vocab game that Jim lost at badly!

The Magic Key - a quick read

The boys talk about illnesses

My perennially 'noisy' boys are always up for something different; today we had a go at creating a VoiceThread project, talking about illnesses (unit 10 of our textbook English Time 2 - I hope Setsuko & OUP can cope with the image used?)

They had fun trying to take each others' pictures, then trying to put each other off when it was their turn/asking the harder questions (involving pronouncing 'stomachache'). First effort with this technology which looks very easy to use & obviously a lot of applications for our various classrooms, collaborating on projects & sharing comments. Check it out; comments welcome!

http://voicethread.com/share/1065401/

Podcast S1 E2

Episode two features the singing voices of Jim's rambunctious Wednesday early evening boys - Toru, Tsubasa, Takuro & Kunpei. They are singing along at very short notice to a song in English Time 2 (OUP) describing where things are. We hadn't practiced at all, apart from a quick read through. It's a quickie this time (94 seconds!) - please take the time to listen, leave a comment...even better, SUBSCRIBE and never miss another epsiode.

Look forward to reading your comments & welcoming new 'fans'

http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=63301

Luna podcast at Podbean

By the stream

Mum is by the stream.

Kipper's teddy sits on the rug.

A frog is in the stream.

Three children are on the bridge. They drop sticks in the water.

Toru (10)