Action English Eniwa

Skip Class - footprints!

2010-06-02T00:13:00.004+09:00

The theme of Hop! and Skip! classes at the moment is "Our Body", and as today was lovely weather, we went out onto the deck for our craft activity. We painted our feet and made footprints! Then when we finished, we used the hosepipe to wash our feet - the water was VERY COLD!

Movers Test Results!

2010-04-26T10:59:00.000+09:00

Ten students took the Cambridge Young Learner's Exam - Movers (the middle level) in March, and the certificates arrived this week. All ten did very well indeed, and are now ready to start work towards the next level. The students are 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, JHS 1 and JHS 3, and have been studying for at least four years to reach this level. I am really delighted for all of them.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Here are six of the hard workers!

First worksheets!

2010-04-25T23:55:00.000+09:00

This is our Skip! Nenchu class. Last year we did worksheets while sitting on the floor. Now we sit at the tables and use pencils, not crayons!

Very grown up! (But the table is still a little high!)

Eiken Results!

2010-04-20T00:09:00.000+09:00

Well done to all our students who took the Eiken test in February.

Three JHS 3 students passed Eiken 3.

One 5th grader just missed Eiken pre-2 and will be trying again in June. You were SO close! Keep on trying!

And one JHS 1 student passed Eiken 2.

Well done to you all. You worked very hard and I know that you learned a lot of English!

New Books!

2010-04-13T11:33:00.001+09:00

We have some new books for the ladies library, and some for the children! Come and have a look and borrow some of them!

Reading Programme Completed!

2010-04-13T10:02:00.002+09:00

Well done K! Yesterday she completed our Extensive Reading Programme. Since 2006 she has read 394 graded readers. She's the first person to complete the course. She received a dictionary as a prize for such hard work over such a long time. Keep on reading!

Monday evening Flyers class

2010-04-09T09:27:00.003+09:00

An English lesson? Or a geography lesson?We are studying the names and capital cities of countries, along with questions such as "Where are you from?" "What is the capital city of ...." etc. I decided to do a quiz to see if the students could put the countries into the correct regions of the world.
Hmmmm. Not so much! We did work it out with everybody's input and the help of a large atlas!
After the conversation practice, the grouping of countries, all the students looked up and wrote down the capital cities of their assigned countries.
There was a lot of "Where is Thailand?" "Please turn the map around" "Where IS Thailand???" going on!

2010-02-25T09:42:00.001+09:00

I need a Wii!

2010-02-21T20:28:00.002+09:00

We don't have any computer type games except a DS for each of the boys. Yoshi isn't bothered and almost never plays with it but Harry is addicted and wants more. There is no chance that we are going to buy him one, so.......He made one out of Lego!!

July JUMP class

2009-07-03T20:55:00.000+09:00

This is a phonics challenge for the students. They have a chart with all the letter combinations they have learned printed in the grid. (OU, AI, OW, AY etc) and many picture cards are scattered over the floor, picture side up.Here's the challenge! To write all the names of the pictures in the correct places on their grid!
Some words go in two places on the grid - like "peach", which can go in the EA box and the CH box.
There were a LOT of cards, so this took two classes to complete.
Everyone did very well and could mostly write all these words just by looking at the pictures and thinking about how they sound. I'm very happy!

2009 Spring Party!

2009-05-17T20:31:00.000+09:00

Happy Spring!

Really, I wanted to have an Easter party, but in Hokkaido it's still too cold to go outside to hunt eggs at Easter. So we changed the date and had a Spring Party!Everyone in Action English Eniwa came, plus a lot of parents. There were a lot of people!
There were lots of different stations all around the room, with different things to do in each place.
There were mats on the floor to sit and open the eggs we found.
A colouring corner.
Lots of tables to dye eggs.
There were four egg hunts throughout the party.
Everyone found lots of colourful eggs hidden in the grass, under the trees and in the bushes.

Finally we had pinatas! You take turns hitting the pinata until it breaks.
Inside are lots of sweets, stickers and glittery decorations! It was great fun and the kids enjoyed hitting HARD!

Hop classes in March

2009-03-25T20:15:00.000+09:00

We have been studying shapes and colours recently.Threading laces around these shapes is really hard work.
In, out, in, out....
Pull! Pull!
At first the laces are very long!
We have also been doing lots of crafts. Here we are making robots using rectangles.
Cut carefully!
Cutting the small rectangles is difficult.
Where do you want to put the glue?
Help me please Mummy! There's a lot to cut.
Everyone is very busy.

Children's Christmas Parties!

2008-12-11T20:06:00.000+09:00

We have had Christmas parties every day this week! It's been great fun.The children decorated photo frames with pictures of themselves in.

We also played games, sang a Christmas song, read some Christmas stories and of course decorated and ate Christmas cake!

Ladies Christmas Cooking Class

2008-12-01T20:00:00.000+09:00

For Christmas this year we made roast chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy. For dessert we had mince pies. Yum!The mince pie team.
The vegetable team.
More from the vegetable team.

We were SO busy eating the lunch that we never took any photos of the finished product. Sorry!

Jump 1 Classes

2008-11-28T08:21:00.000+09:00

In Jump 1 classes, we have been working on writing words independently. I want the students to look at a picture, and then write the word out correctly by themselves.We have a puzzle game that helps with this.
First, make the picture.

Then write the word in your notebook.

Then turn the puzzle pieces over to check if you got it right.
Then get another puzzle and start again!
How many puzzles can you do in the time limit?
Write neatly!
If you don't know the picture, ask Vicky, "What is it?"
In the older classes, we've been playing phonics board games.
Roll the dice, move your marker and read the words. Who's going to win?

Lacing cards in Hop! Class

2008-11-26T08:15:00.002+09:00

We've been studying animals in our Hop! classes recently. Here are some of the children practicing lacing around animal shapes. "I can do it by myself!"
"I need a bit of help."
"Up, down, up, down..."
"I've finished!"
"Let's sort out this tangle!"

Writing Practice!

2008-11-20T07:00:00.000+09:00

We are doing lots of writing practice in our Tuesday class!We are sticking pictures in our notebooks and writing about them.

2008-10-30T11:39:00.000+09:00

The Halloween party was so much fun! Thank you for coming. Thank you too to all our kind neighbours who allowed us to go trick or treating around their houses.

2008-10-25T08:14:00.000+09:00

From the youngest to the oldest, we've all had a great time this week designing and carving our pumpkins! I can't wait to see them all at the Halloween party!

Please come past the classroom steps after dark. They will be lit up all this week and it's amazing to see SO MANY jacko'lanterns!

The Pumpkins Have Arrived!

2008-10-13T22:09:00.000+09:00

There are lots of pumpkins sitting in my front porch right now! I'm looking forward to carving them with all the kids' classes.

Ladies' Day at Ecorin Mura.

2008-09-14T17:56:00.002+09:00

Last Friday, some of the ladies from the adult English classes, and some mums of children at AEE went to Ecorin Mura for an English tour.

Mr Tsunoi was very kind and spend nearly two hours with us, telling us about the garden, the plants in it, and how the garden was designed.

Please have a look at the slide show!

Easter Party Photo Album Has Been Deleted

2008-08-03T11:31:00.000+09:00

The Easter Party photo album has now been taken down.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Spring Party Photos!

2008-05-26T10:56:00.002+09:00

LOOK HERE FOR THE PHOTO ALBUM!

http://picasaweb.google.com/ActionEnglishEniwa

The Spring Party was held on 11th May, and the weather was great, I am happy to say!

87 children and their families came to the party. We played games, dyed eggs, had an egg hunt, snacks, drinks and a colouring corner. It was great fun.

Thank you to all the parents who helped with the party - you did a wonderful job, and I really appreciate it. We could not have such fun parties without your help.

Big Snow!

2008-02-26T08:15:00.004+09:00

Such a lot of snow fell last weekend, didn't it? Are you all OK? We were in Sapporo, and it took us four hours to get home....This is the classroom garden. It has completely disappeared!

The deck was buried in snow. Oh no. Where is the snowman?

This is the classroom side window. Too much snow!

Yoshi and Harry found a good snow game - jumping off the shed roof!

I cleared the deck - much better! The classroom is brighter now, but colder...

Frog Books

2008-02-10T00:10:00.001+09:00

The Hop! and Skip! classes are studying about Frogs right now, and I bought a lot of Frog themed books for our library. At the moment I am using them in our classes, but when the theme is over, the books will go into our library for you to borrow. Happy reading!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T08:46:00.000+09:00

Merry Christmas to all at Action English Eniwa!

I am sorry that I have no Christmas party photos. I was so busy doing the parties that I had no time for photography! Still, they were great parties and I think the children enjoyed them. Have a great winter holiday, and see you in the new year!

Halloween Party

2007-11-08T20:14:00.000+09:00

There were so many pictures of Halloween taken that I simply could not post them all - here are a few for you to enjoy! It was a great party. Thank you to EVERYONE who helped us and thank you to everyone for coming!

I'd like to say a special thank you too to our neighbours who took part in the Trick or Treat event. It was very kind of you to give up your morning to help us out. I hope you enjoyed it too. Thank you too to Spar and Peacock Bakery for joining in the event, and special thanks to Peacock for making us those yummy pumpkin rolls!

Halloween Preparation

2007-11-04T22:19:00.002+09:00

Over the past week I took over THREE HUNDRED pictures, so it is not possible to put them all on the blog! We had a great time carving pumpkins in all the classes.

Thank you to Seina and Ayane's Mum , who gave us some pumpkins, and also to Ren and Noa's mum who grew pumpkins specially for us. They were wonderful. Look what a good job we made of carving them!

Souko and Jun putting their hands into the sticky, slimy pumkin seeds!

Wednesday morning Hop! Class, sitting with their pumkin.

This year for the first time, we carved pumpkins in the ladies classes too.

Here is the Wednesday afternoon Skip! class, posing with their pumpkins.

In the Jump! classes, we designed our pumpkin faces first, then decided whose mouth, nose or eyes to carve on the actual pumpkins.

Sorry for the long gap! And NEW BOOKS!

2007-10-22T21:43:00.001+09:00

I am sorry for not writing for so long. I am determined to do better!

Last week I bought some new books for the ladies classes to enjoy. These are all quite easy readers. I tried to choose books that I thought you would be interested in reading. Please feel free to borrow them any time for as long as you like. All the books have CDs in them, and some are in British English while some are in American English.

Happy Reading!

Wednesday Jump! Classes

2007-03-07T20:28:00.000+09:00

A few days ago, I was telling a fellow teacher about one of my classes who have learned their alphabet phonics and can read simple words, but are having trouble putting longer words together. In a couple of days time, he had thought of a game that would help the children read longer words with more confidence. (Thank you, David!) Today I made the cards and tried them out in two of my classes.

The first class is a second year class and they are all quite fluent readers by now, but they saw the cards and wanted to play with them.

There are three cards for each word - a picture, then the word broken into two syllables and printed separately on two more cards.

First we separated all the picture cards from the words. The kids looked at the pictures and then found the syllables that made up that word. There were a lot of pictures that they already knew, but there was a lot of new vocabulary that they made good guesses at, or asked me when they were completely stuck.

After that, one of the girls had an idea for a card game, so we played that. We put the picture cards in a stack face down in the middle of the table, and dealt all the syllable cards out. (It didn't matter that some people had more cards than others.) Going clockwise, the first person turned over one picture card, say a rabbit. If they had the "rabb" card, they could play it. If they had both "rabb" and "it" then they played both cards and took the trick.

If they only had the "it" card, tough luck, as that is not how the word is read. Play then went clockwise, with the kids asking each other, "Do you have "rabb"?" or "Do you have "it"?" until the cards were found, and the trick was taken. The next player clockwise then turned up the next card and play started again. The winner was the person who got rid of all their cards first.

We were playing so long and with such involvement that we went 15 minutes over the class time and were all shocked when the next students charged in and asked what we were all up to!

The next class are my first year students who are struggling with putting words together still. In their case we played "Scatter card". I put only the word cards down, and got the kids to find identical pairs, then bring them to me and read them.

With so many cards that took about 20 minutes, so we left it at that point to do other activities. The kids all really enjoyed it though, and there were a lot of smiles which pleased me, and a LOT of practice went on too.

The first class as they left, they were saying, "We spent the whole lesson playing!!!" until I pointed out that yes indeed they had been playing the entire time, but they'd also had many conversations, read a whole load of new words and thought about breaking up familiar ones into syllables, and on top of that they had invented a new game!

Wednesday Hop! Class

2007-03-07T20:20:00.000+09:00

Last week three of our classmates were absent, so the camera came out again today!

I'm making a fruit salad.

Mummy's helping me to cut the food.

Dinner's nearly ready.

What? You DON'T put soy sauce in your grape juice???

Wednesday Hop! class

2007-03-01T00:24:00.000+09:00

Tuesday Hop Class

2007-02-25T23:43:00.000+09:00

Play Food

Pass The Parcel Game

2007-01-13T00:37:00.000+09:00

Christmas Party Music

2007-01-13T00:32:00.000+09:00

Christmas Party Crafts

2007-01-13T00:21:00.000+09:00

Ladies' Christmas Dinner

2006-12-26T18:31:00.000+09:00

This is us, ready to eat! We were very hungry after all the preparation we did. This is what we made....

Smoked salmon, lemon and olives on German rye bread. This was the first course.

Here we are, eating the smoked salmon starter. Yum....

Roast pork with mandarin orange and cranberry sauce. The oranges were being prepared for the sauce here.
I'm hungry - can I eat this right now??

We had mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts and chestnuts, and carrots and peas with the pork.

Here's the main course, ready to eat. It was absolutely delicious.

The dessert was mince pies, a traditional English Christmas dessert. The pastry is being made here.

Rolling out the pastry for the mince pies.

The finished mince pies. They were wonderful! It is very difficult to make good pastry but the ladies did it!

Merry Christmas from the Wednesday SKIP class!

2006-12-13T23:35:00.000+09:00

Make an online slideshow at onetruemedia.com

Halloween Party

2006-10-30T16:26:00.000+09:00

About 60 children and their mums and dads came to our Halloween party this year. Thank you all for coming!

The night before, it rained heavily and I was worried about the Trick or Treating, but it turned out to be beautiful weather, didn't it?

I have put all the pictures on the blog - please have a look. There are lots of pictures, so keep scrolling down the page!

Click on the small pictures to see them full size.

2006-10-30T16:01:00.000+09:00

Click on the small pictures to see them full size.

2006-10-30T15:53:00.000+09:00

Click on the small pictures to see them full size.

2006-10-30T15:42:00.000+09:00

Click on the small pictures to see them full size.

2006-10-30T12:50:00.000+09:00

Click on the small pictures to see them full size.

2006-10-30T12:43:00.000+09:00

Pumpkins, pumpkins, PUMPKINS!

2006-10-27T00:05:00.000+09:00

This week, in all of the children's classes, we have been carving pumpkins to make Jackolanterns. The children have enjoyed this very much, and we learned a lot! The main comments were "It's cold!" "It's wet!" "It's slimy!"

Sachiko and Vicky on the classroom steps, with all the pumkins the children made this week.

15 pumkins and four strange humans!

The Jackolanterns with candles lit. Aren't they beautiful?

The Pumkin Family! Scary...

Harry is much better

2006-10-06T23:08:00.000+09:00

We went to the plastic surgeon (keisei geka). He told us that Harry may need surgery to fix the double vision he is having. We have to keep Harry quiet (impossible....) until next Wednesdy 11th, when we have to go back. If Harry's eyes are still not right, then he will need an MRI and then maybe surgery.

Harry's face and hands are much better. He is healing fast and he is feeling happier!

Thank you very much to everyone who has called to ask how Harry is. We are very grateful for all your support. You have been good friends to us.

Classes cancelled on Wednesday 4th October

2006-10-03T23:57:00.000+09:00

Today we went to the hospital to the eye specialist (ganka) and he told us that we must now go to a plastic surgeon (keisei geka) who will decide if Harry needs surgery. So unfortunately we must go back to the hospital tomorrow for more tests.

So far Harry has seen an orthopedic surgeon (sekei geka), a brain surgeon (nou geka) and two eye specialists (ganka) . He has had three CT scans and hours and HOURS of eye tests. He is being looked after very well. I'm happy with the treatment we have had so far.

I'm sorry that classes are being cancelled - I will of course make them up later.

Classes cancelled on Tuesday 3rd October

2006-10-03T00:30:00.000+09:00

On Sunday Harry fell off his bike and hurt himself. His face is badly damaged, and he has broken the bone around his eyeball (in English, it's called the orbit.) He also hurt both his hands when he fell.

On Tuesday I have to take him to the hospital to see if he needs surgery to repair this damage. At the moment he sees double so he might need to have surgery to fix that problem.

I will of course give a make-up lesson and I will let you know when that will be.

Ladies' Day

2006-09-17T15:54:00.000+09:00

At Annie's house.

In Mori Koen

On Friday, five ladies met up to take part in the Megumino Quiz. We walked around Megumino, following Vicky's directions, and answering questions along the way. We called in at Annie's house for a chat and a refreshing cup of cold tea - thank you Annie.

Some things we learned -
* There is a man carrying a horse in Mori Koen
*Yoko is a very kind lady (she rescued a butterlfly from a spider's web).
and the big one
* Vicky doesn't know her left from right! (Sorry about all the mistakes on the quiz sheet....)

Another schedule change

2006-09-15T20:05:00.000+09:00

Please note that the classroom will be closed on September 27th, 28th, 29th and October 10th.
These lessons will now take place on January 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th.

Also please note that on September 21st, the classroom will be closed in the AFTERNOON ONLY.
Thank you for your understanding.

It's been a long time!

2006-09-15T20:03:00.000+09:00

I am sorry that I haven't posted anything for such a long time. By now you have all seen our new classroom - what do you think? I hope you'll enjoy your English lessons in our BIG new room!

Reform - End of Day Four

2006-07-28T23:23:00.000+09:00

The shelves are nearly finished now.

The room is beginning to look like a classroom again!

Reform - End of Day Three

2006-07-27T20:21:00.000+09:00

New cupboards in the classroom.

Big sliding doors!

Reform - End of Day Two

2006-07-26T22:59:00.000+09:00

Oh dear! No walls! I can see right through from the kitchen to the office!

Our new bookshelves.

Classroom reform Day One.

2006-07-24T12:19:00.000+09:00

Look at the classroom now!

The reform work began this morning, and in three short hours, this is what happened to it!

I was surprised to see how much of the ceiling had to be broken down.

The room looks bigger already, doesn't it?

Keep watching and I'll put pictures up every day!

Harry's sports day

2006-07-01T18:58:00.000+09:00

Getting ready to RUN!

I'm too hot! (Photo taken by Harry)

Today Harry's kindergarten sports day was held under blue skies in 32C heat. I suppose it was better than last year, which was grey, windy and freezing cold...

This year I was on the PTA so I spent a lot of time helping out, taking equipment out when needed and supervising some of the games. I have to say it was more fun than just sitting there watching!

Harry is very competetive and he won all his races. What I like about this kindergarten is that no ribbons or medals are given, and no notice is taken of who comes first or last (apart from the parents and kids relay races, which are wildly competetive!).

I'm sorry I'm sick

2006-06-29T21:32:00.000+09:00

I had to cancel classes on Wednesday and Thursday this week because I am sick. My kids are both sick too... We all have colds and fevers.

Of course I will give replacement lessons - I will let you know the dates later.

I hope we'll all be well by Saturday, as it's my son's sports day. Oh no!

Congratulations to the JUMP! Wednesday class!

2006-06-25T11:06:00.000+09:00

The JUMP! Wednesday class also finished their first year text book last week, and we had a "graduation ceremony" Now they have begun studying from the next book, ENGLISH LAND 2.

Well done! Keep studying hard! You are all getting really good at reading and speaking English. I'm proud of you.

Congratulations to the JUMP! Tuesday class

2006-06-25T10:44:00.000+09:00

Congratulations to the JUMP! Tuesday class!

They finished the textbook that they had worked hard on last year, and they graduated to the next book, ENGLISH LAND 2.

Last week we had our first class using the new book. Do you like it? What do you think?

BUGS!

2006-06-07T19:48:00.000+09:00

Look what we made!

Last week the HOP classes finished our Bugs unit of study. We learned the names of lots of bugs, and we can also tell people if we think they are "cute" or "yukky"! Look at all the bugs we made - caterpillars, stag beetles, butterlflies, spiders, dragonflies.....

The new unit of study is "My Day" We're going to learn to say "Good morning" "Good afternoon" "Good Evening" and "Good Night" and we're going to talk about some of the things we do every day, like brushing our teeth, eating meals and playing.

JUMP 1

2006-06-07T19:44:00.000+09:00

This is one of the JUMP 1 classes.

This class began in April, so we are still learning the alphabet and its sounds. This week we are learning "BDCTG" "b" and "d" are confusing!

We are also learning to say "What is it?" whenever we don't know a word. It's a very useful question.

That is magic!

2006-06-07T19:35:00.000+09:00

Look at K. in JUMP1 class - that is magic.

He calls it "3-2-1"

Can you do this?? I have never seen ANYONE do this before.

K. You are unique.

We saw the Davinci Code!

2006-05-27T11:54:00.000+09:00

Yesterday, some of our ladies and I went to see the Davinci Code and then had lunch afterwards. (I forgot to take a photo right after we saw the movie, so three people are missing from the photo - sorry!)

I thought the movie was quite good, but I have one question. That code was a secret for 2000 years. How did they manage to solve the code in only two days????!

Thank you to everyone who came, it was a pleasure.

2006-05-25T22:07:00.000+09:00

Spring has come! I'm so happy. I hate the winter, and I always look forward to spring. I hope to do lots of gardening this summer. Do you like gardening?

2006-05-25T21:50:00.000+09:00

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