Weather

Michael Wallace

OBJECTIVES:

PROCEDURE:

1. Warm up: Name Change Game (5 – 10 minutes):

I have used this game as a warm up on several occasions. The students love it and it's really simple: Students walk around the classroom and introduce themselves to each other. Depending on the ability level of the class you can make the greeting as simple or as complicated as you like, as long as it involves the students exchanging names. Now for the “twist”: once they have completed their introduction, they must change names (e.g. From this point on Akari will be “Shiho” and Shiho will be “Akari”). Now, when they next introduce themselves, they must use their new name. The best way to explain it to the class is to demonstrate it with the homeroom teacher. They will catch on very quickly and they get a real kick out of hearing their homeroom teacher introduce themselves with your name.

This is great activity to immediately get the more uninterested kids into the class. What I do is to join in the game and purposely move between the girls and the boys giving the boys girls names and vice versa. Nothing promotes activity quite like the “too cool for school” kid who now has the name of the opposite sex!

This is a useful activity as it promotes the “unconscious” use of English phrases that the students will already know. They are so busy remembering what their current name is that they stop focussing getting everything perfect and start to speak more naturally, which is always a good thing

2. Today's Alphabet Letters (10 – 15 minutes) (1–3 grade only):

If you have ever been asked to do an entire lesson on “The Alphabet”, you will know that it can get incredibly dull over a 45 minute period. I believe that this is why most students only know the first few letters of the alphabet – any more than 5 or 6 in one go and they simply don't remember them.

What I have done to combat this problem is to introduce/review 5 or 6 letters of the alphabet each lesson (e.g. “A to F” in one lesson followed by “G to L” in the next). This way, over a few lessons, we can cover the entire alphabet in “bite-sized” chunks in a fun way without overloading them with too many letters at once:

 Write the letters on the board and get them to repeat them after you.

 Point at each letter (in order) and get them to call them out without your help. Then point at them out of order, speed up: the point here is to keep it “fun” - make them realise that the letters are easy to identify as there are only a few to focus on.

 Hand out your pre-prepared “Alphabet Letter” worksheet (this is just a “colouring-in” picture, easily found on the 'net, with the alphabet letters for the day hidden inside – I usually hide at least two occurrences of each letter).

 Call out the letters one by one and let the students ring them in pencil. Some students might just ring everything so a variation here is to give a different shape to “ring” the letters: e.g. “ring” the first letter, put a “triangle” around the next, use a dotted line around the next etc. Draw the appropriate shape around the letter on the board so they know what to do.

3. Introduce “Weather” (10 minutes):

Show flashcards with weather forecast type pictures on them and get the students to repeat the vocabulary after you. I use cards for “Sunny” (a sun), “Rainy” (cloud with drops), “Snowy” (a snowflake), “Cloudy” (a dark cloud partially hiding the sun) and “Windy” (tree with leaves blowing off). I usually put the flashcards up on the board so that after a couple of rounds of repeating after me, it is possible to easily point out a card and have the class call it out. This can help you immediately isolate what words they may be having trouble with.

For 4–6 grades, I also teach “Is it ?” and “Yes, it is” and “No, it is not” responses. I usually demonstrate this by pointing out the window and asking “Is it sunny?” etc. and getting the class to respond. Then I split the class into two halves and get one half to call out a question while the other responds and then swap roles.

4. Gestures (5-10 minutes) (1–3 grades only):

Chances are, the younger students will remember “Sunny” and nothing else. As they have a limited attention span, further drilling will be useless: its time to get them out of their seats! I show them some gestures to help them remember the new words:

 “Sunny” (“jumping jack “ pose – arms , legs and fingers stretched out),

 “Rainy” (wiggle your fingers around while moving up and down on your haunches),

 “Snowy” (grab your arms together and shiver - “it's cold!”),

 “Cloudy” (the sun is being hidden by clouds so cover your eyes with your hands),

 “Windy” (flay your arms around while moving side to side like a tree in the wind – this is usually the student's favourite).

Once they seem to be remembering the vocabulary, do the gesture but don't say the word – let them call it out. Repeat the gestures for words that they seem to have trouble remembering more often. You'll be surprised how quickly they will remember them.

5. Board Fan Game (5 – 15 minutes, depending on class size):

This has been covered in previous handbooks: Stick up the flashcards on the board and divide the class into 2 teams. One student from each team comes up to the front and is given a fan/fly swat. You then call out a weather type and the first to cover the correct flashcard with their fan/fly swat is the winner. For the older classes award points but I found that the younger classes it may be best to avoid this as tears can result – use your judgement. I found that the younger kids have a blast with this game even if points are never awarded.

6. Weather Worksheet (10 – 15 minutes) (4 – 6 grade only):

Japanese ES students love “secrets”. Every game I have created that involves something secret has been a roaring success. I used this worksheet 12 times (I have 4 elementary schools) and, while a little tough to explain sometimes (best to demonstrate it first with the homeroom teacher), it has been very successful every time. Here's how it works:

 Students secretly choose one of the 5 weather types and circle their choice.

 Students fold the top of the worksheet over – hiding their choice, but leaving the “Names” section still visible.

 Students walk around the class and meet each other and:

 Janken (I have taught “rock, paper, scissors” so I usually use that instead).

 The winner tries to guess the other student's weather choice and asks “Is is ?”

 The loser responds “Yes, it is” or “No, it is not”, depending on what their secret choice is.

 If the correct choice is guessed, the the Janken loser signs their name (in English or kana depending on their English level - use your judgement) in the spaces provided. Each name is 1 point.

 If the guess is incorrect then, “Goodbye” and move on to another student.

 Let the game go on for a while. Give a warning for “1 minute left” (this will probably create a mad scramble for those last precious “signs” and then see who has the most points (I usually get everyone to stand up and then call out ascending numbers getting the students to sit down when their score is called out. The last standing student is the winner).

NOTES:

 Gestures: As for most things at ES, go all out. If you don't put lots of effort into your gestures, you will just look lame and the students, especially the “cool kids”, will be unlikely to want to join in. Go nuts, have fun and it will all be fine.

 Weather worksheet: One signature from each student only! Otherwise they will repeatedly ask the same person over and over again and end up with more points than there are students in the class. Make sure that you and the homeroom teacher play too – your signatures are highly prized. With the lower grades (e.g. 4 and maybe 5 grade), don't put too much importance on asking the question properly – some students will only be comfortable with saying the word. Let them first get comfortable with the new vocabulary and then concentrate on the question. Also, consider predetermining the results of your demonstration Janken with the homeroom teacher before class. I once had about 8 ties in a row before a winner was determined and, whilst very entertaining for the class, it distracted them enough to make it very difficult to get them to pay attention to the rest of the demonstration.

WORKSHEETS and HANDOUTS:

The worksheet for this lesson is here