Thursday

Woke up at 7:00am to sunny weather again, had udon for breakfast, and then cycled to school. First up today was 4-1 in period 1, and we were continuing the “favourites” lesson with a prep activity for next week’s Bingo lesson. We got them to write down their favourite colour, number, sport, and animal. Before we did that we did some vocab revision, and they actually knew all the vocab since they had learnt it in previous years. We spent a bit more time than we planned on the “my favourites” worksheet, so we didn’t get to do the quiz at the end (we were going to read out their favourites, and have them guess who it was). They had a lot of fun asking me about animal names though (otter, raccoon, weasel, etc.) and I also learnt that たぬき is raccoon dog, and アライグマ is raccoon. Still don’t really know what the difference is though since I always thought raccoons were just raccoons!

The lessons with 1st grade were all so great today. I wish the BOE had come today to observe, since it was really perfect lessons for all 3 classes. I was so proud that they got the “It’s a ___” part down perfect. They did absolutely great in the exchanging card game (asking “What’s this?” and answering “It’s a/an_____” perfectly) and I got a few pairs to present at the end. They also remembered all the stationary vocab perfectly too so I’m really happy with their progress. I’ve also managed to use only English now in 1st and 2nd grade, hardly using any Japanese. I really wish I could work at this same school for a long time so that I can see these 1st graders grow up and stay with them as their English teacher till they become 6th grade, that would be just awesome. But I know that Japan doesn't work that way so yea. But anyway, today’s 1st grade lessons were truly great and it would’ve been nice if they were filmed or something for reference!

I forgot my phone today so I couldn't take a picture of the school lunch, but we had a chicken hamburger! Basically served cheese & cucumber salad, chicken breast, and a bread bun on the side, then we put the fillings in to make our own hamburger. Also had cabbage + other veges soup. I really like that cheese & cucumber salad – the cucumbers are pickled I think, so it just goes really well with the cheese. It’s also usually served with tuna or whitebait so it’s just really tasty and I could eat so much of it (but the servings are usually very small for salad). Spent the lunchtime playing tag with 1-2’s kids and it was crazy. One of them was actually legit fast, so I actually had to run properly. Now they’re hooked and they were like “SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR TAG AGAIN” at the end. Last class of the day with 4-2 and another smooth class. It was fun finding out everyone’s favourite (there was one kid whose favourite animal is a wolf! Same as me. Someone also wanted to learn how to say aqua, for his favourite colour). We had a bit more time so they got practice asking and saying their favourite things a bit more than 4-1. Had 6th period free so I spent the time making small flash cards for Grade 5’s “What’s this?” lesson unit – I’ll need these for next week’s BOE visit. Got off work a bit later today at 16:40 because I was working on the new English nametags, cycled home, and had dumplings for dinner.