englishpool's blog
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php
Sand trays for writing practice
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry100210-190459
One item highlighted in the report was the use of sand trays for children learning the shapes of the letters. There seem to a few companies supplying the UK market but I couldn't find a single sand tray in Japan so... I decided to make my own.
The design is really quite simple; it's just a tray with sand in it. So I knocked up a couple of sturdy box type trays over the course of a evening. The next day I laminated a piece of construction paper and laid it in the bottom. The I added the sand, which I bought from my local pet shop (it's the kind used in aquariums.)
Actually the amount of sand needed in each box was much less than I expected as I wanted the laminated colour paper to show through when a line was traced. I'd also made a couple of smoothers to flatten the sand after each use but it seems that a quick shake of the tray levels everything off.
So far I've used them in two of our Stage 1 classes with students ranging in age from 3 to 5 years old. The sand trays were very well received and we all had fun tracing the target letters in the sand.
This month, February, our theme is to do with cooking. It's about as close as I wanted to go to doing a Valentines theme without the hearts and stuff. As we are in a first floor location we try to have an ever changing window display to keep the interest up, so I sketched up this really simple recipe for Chocolate Cornflake Cakes.
Should you be so inclined the recipe is as follows:
Ingredients
100g Chocolate bar 55g butter 1 tbs Maple syrup 1 tbs cocoa 110g cornflakes
Method 1. In heat-proof mixing bowl, break the chocolate bar into small pieces. 2. Add the butter, Maple syrup and cocoa. 3. Place the bowl over a pan of boiling water to melt the chocolate. 4. Stir the chocolate, butter, syrup and cocoa mixture until smooth. 5. Stir in the cornflakes. 6. Spoon the mixture into paper cases. 7. Place the cakes in the refrigerator to set. ENJOY!
You can also find a downloadable PDF file of the Chocolate Cornflake Cake recipe here
]]>Happy New Year! 2010
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry100108-120751
Long time since my last post...the end of the year was just so hectic. What with Halloween and Christmas Parties to arrange for all our students as well as themed material in the lessons we were left with very little extra time.
So I suppose yet again my New Year resolution will be to post more often.
Watch this space but don't hold your breath!
]]>Daisy Wooden Toys
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry091126-223519
The webshop is still very much a work in progress (I know only there's only 30 something shopping days left to Christmas but hopefully they'll be a demand all year round!) The webshop is in Japanese only but as it's very image driven you should be able to navigate around. And should you be interested in any of the items, and are in Japan, just send us an e-mail and we'll guide you through the process.
Oh almost forgot, a quick explanation of the name. We decided to call the wooden toy part of our business, 'Daisy'. I'd originally wanted to call it Upsy Daisy after hearing a mother use this with child the last time I was back in the UK but it doesn't work well when it's rendered in a katakana pronunciation.
]]>Waseda Info
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090901-131550
www.waseda.info.
Unfortunately it's only in Japanese but it uses a lot of visuals and maps so armed with a little basic Japanese reading ability you can use it to find bars, restaurants, shops, services and of course englishpool's entry in the Waseda area.
I particularly like the interviews with various shop/business owners in the Waseda area. I think it would be good to offer some kind of video content on this site but don't really know enough about it.
Maybe I could approach waseda.info to do an interview at englishpool... ]]>Eigo Story Book Reading Event
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090831-205051
Anyway the event went smoothly, and this time I remembered the stuff I should have done on Tuesday but forgot.
In conclusion the two book reading events were a success, in that they provided an opportunity for existing students/parents to meet people from other classes. We also got to see a few new faces and they got to look around the classroom and see a little of what we are doing.
I am already thinking of doing a Halloween Book Reading Event...watch this space... ]]>English Story Reading
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090827-112104
That of course set us up perfectly for The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We followed that with Albie and although I thought it's language is way too difficult the pace and excitment of the reading grabbed the children's attention. We finished with two titles from the Oxford Reading Tree, Six in a Bed and Strawberry Jam. All in all a fun 30 minutes for all involved...let's hope Saturday is as smooth.
]]>Book Reading Event
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090804-114739
So we thought we'd share some of our favourite stories in a special event dedicated to story reading on August 25th and 29th. The first book I've chosen The Very Hungry Caterpillar namely because it's a story that everybody probably knows, although possibly not in English! When I've used it in class I've had a lot success naming the food (but pear and plums always leaves them stumped), counting the items and with the slightly older children saying the days of the week. So hopefully this will be a good book to start with.
The second book, or probably books, will be taken from the Oxford Reading Tree. As yet I'm undecided on which stories to use and with so few words in the books I'm going to have to provide a narrative in order to keep interest. I suppose I'm aiming at demonstrating how mum or dad might use the book at home.
The final book will be Albie
by Andy Cutbill. Why? Just because I love this book. The story is crazy and really lends itself to reading aloud, even if some of the words are difficult to comprehend the pace and expression of the story keep them hooked to the final Allllbbbiiiiiieeeeee!
You can find the details, in Japanese, over at our Waseda events page or there's a downloadable flyer, again in Japanese available be clicking Book Reading Event PDF(220KB) ]]>Photos of the classroom
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090804-111749
This is the adult area. The 'antique' table spent most of it's life in a clothing factory cutting room so is very flat and heavily scored! The stools we commissioned from a guy up in Akita prefecture.The ceiling fan we picked up from yahoo! auctions and is a Odelic SH901 for those that are interested (sorry but many people have asked!)
This is looking out of the classroom. What could be called the children's area. We decided that we wanted the children's area to be as clear as possible so we put in a long high shelf to keep the stereo, flashcards and other lesson stuff away from small hands. The low table is yet another 'antique' and functions as a blackboard.
This shot is taken of the entrance area, very stylish don't you agree...? The photos you can see just above the yukari plant, and some unidentified specimen, are of my great grandmother and great grand father when they were babies, so must have been taken about 100 years ago. The photos look great on the wall and are always a talking point with new students.]]>Setting up a Koha library system
http://www.englishpool.net/blog/index.php?entry=entry090702-130612
After many searches and trial downloads I finally settled on Koha an open source integrated library system. As an open source program it's free to download (much like a lot of the other software we use: OpenOffice, TurboCash, Inkscape etc.) but that doesn't mean it's lacking in any features. Although I only plan on using it with our 500 book library the software is capable of being used by regular lending libraries with multiple branches, thousands of books and patrons.
I'd originally played around with Koha about 3 or 4 years ago and at the time it was extremely complicated to set up on a windows system. Since then Rob Wier has made installing Koha 2.2.9 on a windows system an absolute breeze. For full instructions head across to http://koha.rwjr.com/ where as well as the actual program you'll also find all the other application necessary to run it on a windows computer. As well as comprehensive guides to installing and setting up a Koha system.
The installation went smoothly with only a few things that needed changing, such as linking the OPAC site to amazon Japan instead of amazon.com. It looks like Rob has even figured out how to get the Z3950 server feature to work on windows which makes creating the catalogue so much easier.
So the program is all set and seems to be working fine so now it's just a case of entering all those 500 books onto our database, adding new members and finally lending books. We're about half way though at present and should be fully finished in the next week or so (as we only have a hour or so available each day to enter books!)
So here's a big thank you to the Koha team for creating and releasing to the public such a great program.]]>
namely because it's a story that everybody probably knows, although possibly not in English! When I've used it in class I've had a lot success naming the food (but pear and plums always leaves them stumped), counting the items and with the slightly older children saying the days of the week. So hopefully this will be a good book to start with.
by Andy Cutbill. Why? Just because I love this book. The story is crazy and really lends itself to reading aloud, even if some of the words are difficult to comprehend the pace and expression of the story keep them hooked to the final Allllbbbiiiiiieeeeee!
