Learning the alphabet is the core of learning English. While some of the Japanese text books have cards included, I like to start teaching them much earlier than 5th grade, so I made my own set of alphabet cards for use in classrooms.
Color & Shape Flashcards
Hello everyone, Sam here with some more of my personal teaching resources that I’ve used for years now.
This is one that has not only gotten a ton of use, but really helps the students understand the relation ship between using colors as adjectives to something, mainly, shapes.
This works very well for your intro lesson for Grade 5: Lesson 5 in the Hi, Friends 1 textbook, or if you happen to work with younger kids, it makes learning colors and shapes easy, so they’ll breeze through it later!
Teacher in Role
Hello, everyone! This is Chris, the other half of the Dinosaur Sensei blog. Today I want to talk to about one of my specialties and favorite teaching techniques: teacher in role.
Pipe Cleaner Bubble Wands
Since summer is (almost) upon us here in Japan, I thought I would start to share some of my fun summer activities for very little kids.
This was originally developed for Kindergarten aged students, in small private classes, but with a bit of foresight (and talking to the home room teacher, of course, to approve it!) it could work really well for your ALT classes, too, especially Kindergarten if you can have the majority of the lesson outside.
Who Do We Work For?
Hello, everyone! This is Chris, the other half of the Dinosaur Sensei blog. Today I want to ask a question to all the other EFL teachers out there: who do we work for?
I suppose the question is purposefully ambiguous. Who are our bosses? For whose benefit do we, as teachers, work so hard for? What’s the balance?
The Little Things
Hello, everyone! Chris here. Teachers all have their own little habits, myself definitely included. Here are a few of the little things I do in my EFL classroom.
Scaffolding Techniques
Hello, everyone! This is Chris, the other half of the Dinosaur Sensei blog. Today I want to write about what is, in my opinion, one of the most useful techniques you can use in your EFL classroom: scaffolding.
Think back to if and when you learned how to ride a bicycle. Did you just sit on it and go? Maybe, but probably not. You needed incremental steps. Here’s how I learned:
Starting Fresh
April is the time for new hiring and new jobs in Japan, as its the height of the sakura season. After four and a half years, we’ll be saying goodbye to Nakatsu City and moving across the prefecture to Saiki City.
As with all undertakings, it is busy and stressful, but a chance for new challenges, new growth, and new inspiration!
We hope that you find something new and fun with us, as we begin to post all of our lesson plans from our previous four years, as well as any new ones we’re making with this new challenge of teaching both Elementary and now Jr. High in Japan.
Fresh fish and an ocean breeze awaits!
Maru-Batsu 〇✕ Games
True or false games, or “Maru-Batsu” games, are really, really popular group games in Japanese schools.
Since the students already know how to play, these make great additions to your lessons as assessments for comprehension.
〇 “Maru” (circle) is if its true
✕ “Batsu” (X) is if its false
Students often hold their arms up making a circle or cross their arms as an X for their answer. This is where those emoji come from! Continue reading “Maru-Batsu 〇✕ Games”
Masks as Creative Teaching Materials
It seems like most ALTs rely only on flashcards to teach vocabulary. While they’re a great resource, they lack something fun and tactile for kids to interact with. This is especially true when teaching Kindergarten or early Elementary School lessons, where you need to be interesting as well as educational.
