Slide the bars to reveal the pictures of Halloween objects (Jack-o’-lantern, black cat, ghost, and skeleton)!

What’s this???　… It’s a Jack-o’-lantern!

 

1. 

   Prepare two cards of bat, ghost, jack-o’-lantern, black cat, monster, and haunted house.

2. Shuffle and deal the cards, one card per student.
3. Let your students find their partners by finding a student who has the same card.
4. Once all the students have found their pair, sit down and read the Halloween poem together!
5. Shh… Shh… Shh…
   Scary, scary, scary
   Dark in the house.
   Ghosts, monsters, witches and bats,
   Black cats and jack-o’lanterns Hiding in the house.
   Sh… Shh… Shh…

 

POEM：「Jack-o’-Lantern」
I am a pumpkin, big and round.
Once upon a time, I grew on the ground.
Now I have a mouth, two eyes, and a nose.
What are they for, do you suppose?
With a candle inside, shining bright,
I’ll be a jack-o’-lantern on Halloween night.
→WELCOME to Learning World BLUE Student Book (p.36)

Look at the picture carefully…. there is a ghost, a monster, a witch…. how many Halloween characters did you find?

Suitable for any students who have learned colors.
Vocabulary list: cat, bat, pumpkin, ghost, monster, jack-o’-lantern, witch, broom

1. It is essential that the pictures be fun, so that students want to spend time looking at them.
   (You don’t want your picture dictionary to just “decorate” your shelves.
2. You should not buy a picture dictionary with fewer words for younger learners. You should buy a picture dictionary with at least 1,200 words, so that students can easily find the words they want.
   (They should be able to use the same picture dictionary all the way up through upper elementary school.)
   (From Matthew-sensei’s presentation at Nellie’s Seminar on 10/16/2013)

The conversations can be found at the bottom of every page of AJ’s.
At ‘A Barbecue Party’, the key conversations are “Do you like～?” and “Would you like～?”. Students can use the words for different foods from the picture to complete and answer the questions.

AJ’s PICTURE DICTIONARY pp.14-15

AJ’s Vocabulary CD goes with AJ’s Picture Dictionary. It has all of the 1300 words from the 25 scenes and the conversations between the main characters, found at the bottom of the page.

Audio tracks for “A Barbecue Party”:
>>♪ Basic Vocabulary (black)
>>♪ Supplementary Vocabulary (blue)
>>♪ Conversation Between Main Characters

Look at the sushi…
No fish!?!
Uh, oh. The gray cat
is reaching for it…
What’s the gray cat eating?
(The tuna slice from the sushi on the table.)

 

Can you find all the
fruits in the picture?
Point to the fruit.
(on the table,
in the cake,
on some women’s earrings)

 

In “Wild Animals on Safari” the animals are in black, and lots of action verbs using the present continuous are introduced in blue.

Look closely at the picture… there are also lots of chances to use language that is not on the page! ・How many mice are there? (Ten)
・Where is the pink heart? (Above the flamingoes) ・What does it mean? (Love)

When kids do not know a word in English, we teach them to say, “How do you say (カニ、イルカ、ナマコ) in English?” Based on the pictures, they understand what the word is. Sometimes, though, kids do not know the word in Japanese! Especially for the aquarium page, it would be realistic to also ask kids, “How do you say this in Japanese?” Get them to think about both languages!

This is also a chance to elicit other language the students know. For example, AJ is looking at the angler fish.
This is especially good for upper level elementary school students to try and show what they know!

Lots of pictures so that children can find something they are interested in!
Have students look at the right page…Who do you know on this page?

● Every 2 pages is one track.
→ It’s easy to go back and listen to a certain page again. (Track numbers are on the CD insert.)
● Good sound effects ♪
→ Makes the audio more fun for the kids!
● Easy to understand when to turn the page!
→ Turn the page when the chime sounds.

Springboard is the fantastic literacy program from Macmillan Education Australia, the PRIMARY PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR 3 years in a row. It is designed for children who are considered “at risk” for reading. In order to engage children who may not like to read, the content is varied and interesting, and the language starts very simple, gradually getting harder. A strength of the series is that it builds students’ reading confidence. Being able to read a book, and then complete an entire level makes students think, “Yay! I could read!” This feeling of accomplishment makes them want to keep reading.

Springboard is sold in level packs; each level pack has 8 books: 3 factual and 5 fiction.

Ways you can use Springboard:
▶ Every lesson I have 15 minutes of Reading Time. Students do not worry about words that they do not know, but keep practicing reading. They’ve been getting better and better as they get used to reading. Now, the 5th grade students can read one Level 15 book in 15 minutes! (N-sensei, Osaka)

▶ I use Springboard as a text. We check on words that the students do not know and read the books slowly. Springboard is a series of picture books, so when students take the books home, it is easy for their parents to understand what we are doing. Now students are studying Level 5, preparing for Step Test (Eiken) level 4. (K-sensei, Aichi)

Buy the Springboard CDs here! >>