We had another wonderful Study Group Meeting in Osaka on December 2nd.
We started the Meeting by singing a song, “If You’re Happy and You Know it.” The original verse is relatively difficult but we sang it with the easy version which goes like this: “If you’re happy, happy, happy, clap your hands!” We are sure that with this version, even the youngest students will be able to sing and enjoy expressing feelings and doing the actions. It’s fun!!
With Practice Key 1, we introduced how to teach words that express feelings and the Yes/ No Question sequence, “Are you hungry?” “Yes, I am. / No, I’m not.” As we always say, it is important to teach one new thing at a time and teach in small steps. Thus we can avoid teaching gaps or misunderstanding. Once the teachers have learned these steps, it can be easily applied to various sentence patterns.
At the ‘It’s your turn’ corner, the participants were really willing to learn and asked the staff many questions. Holding the cards right next to your face and shuffling the cards from the back to front really works well in order to keep the rhythm. It might seem difficult at first, but practice makes perfect. Never give up !!! Please try it because it really works.
We also introduced various Learning Activities.
In “Yes No Game”, the students get more practice of the Yes / No Question sequence according to what the cube shows. 
The “Are You Hungry Game” is designed for very young students. Prepare some paper cups with origami inside and some toy food. When the teammates ask “Are you hungry?” and a students answers “Yes, I am.”, try to pick a toy food and give it to the student saying, “Here you are.” This is a very simple game just using ‘hungry’ and ‘thirsty’, but the children love to play it.
The third activity is a similar game but is for elder children. Prepare some cards with items that might help people who are sick, angry, sad and so on. Play as Activity 2 and the one who were able to choose the item that suits the situation can get a point. We really enjoyed playing the game.
In Practice Key 2, we introduced more vocabulary that express feelings such as worried, embarrassed, and bored. It is always important to look ahead in the textbook and see if you can teach the vocabulary beforehand. These words were picked up from Let’s Go Level 4. Encourage your students to use facial and body expression as they say, “What’s the matter?” Thus they will be able to use the language when they need to.
We introduced two more Learning Activities.
“The Cube Knows the Answer Game” is a very handy game which can be played in both small classes and big classes with many students. You only need dice and chips for each team and one set of cards to play. Put the cards and numbers on the board so that the students will know what to answer when the cube shows a certain number. This is simple but the students will enjoy the game and will be saying the language a lot in a short time.
In “Solve the problem Game”, we used the IIEEC Action Cards. For example, when the teammates ask “What’s the matter?” and a student answers “I’m tired”, each student turns over an Action Card and tries to make a sentence to solve the problem. If a student was able to say “Please sit down”, he/ she will get a point. Most likely they will be saying a sentence that does not make sense and that is also the fun part of this activity.
Finally we had a good time doing the Christmas Activities. After listening to the story “Stick man”, we sang the song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” with actions. Then we played an “SSP Evolution Game”, “Christmas Wreath Greeting Game” “Christmas Ring Toss Game” and made a wreath using paper plates. We also enjoyed the game called “Guess Which Snowman Game” in which we used colorful cards of snowmen wearing gloves, hats and scarves in various colors. Some snowmen look happy and some look sad. Students are encouraged to ask questions to guess which snowman is chosen. We hope that these activities and songs will be helpful to make your Christmas parties lively and fun!!
We are thankful for those who came and warmly supported us this year.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
Noriko Matsumoto
IIEEC Osaka