The first lesson for the ６年生 is a little bit puzzling. Unlike other lessons, this shoves a ton of stuff in just a few pages. After thinking about it, the lesson really takes concepts from the previous book and expands on them. And it can be split into 2 separate parts, so I treated it like 2 separate lessons.
Part 1 of the lesson is just pages 2 and 3. It expands the mere 20 from last year into 100, and has the students count a bunch of objects.
This is lesson is so short, and it's really just a review. There was Seven Steps, and then the Alphabet song, but we already did those songs to death that I figured the students would be bored.
The next lesson, Lesson 2, is all about months, and I have a great song for that lesson: Musical Months. So! I decided to start teaching months a bit early, so the students will be able to practice them for a long time. Some students struggle with them, anyway, so I think it's good practice, and a good lead into the next lesson.
For flashcards based on Months and Objects, I simply used the Hi Friends CD. The PDF version on that data CD has perfect vector renditions of the objects that can be scaled to the A4 size I eventually printed them out at.
These days I prefer flashcards without any text, but I had these left over from the previous year, so I just used them as is.
The first class of this lesson is strictly vocabulary. We do a little review with the self-introductions, but them I'm teaching them the months, and the numbers. The smarter students who go to cram school already know all this stuff, so they end up teaching it to the other students along the way.
For the activity, I have the students play the Timer Game as a class. For this activity, we'll start on one end of the class. The first student will start with 1. The next has 2. And we keep going all the way up to 100. When I reach the end of the students, and just wrap around back to the beginning, and keep the count going.
While the students are doing this, I'm timing them to see how fast they can do it.
Originally, I was going to have them do this in groups after the class, but each class took so damn long to do it, that I didn't have time. I think I overestimated the students, and assumed they already knew this stuff.
The fastest class got under 2 minutes, while my slowest class got almost 4.
To start the class, we review the numbers and the months. We sing Musical Months, then we do the Timer Game together as a class again. Each class improved their time. Some classes did WAY better than before. :)
The AIM of the class is to introduce the vocabulary for the objects, and their plurals. The ス sound versus the ズ sound with some objects. Then, in pairs, students count the objects on pages 2 and 3 in the book.
The third and final class I use for this part of the lesson, and mostly a continuation of the last class. This time with complete grammar.
I introduce the phrase "How many ___?" and "There are __ _____." with the vocabulary, and counting. We practice using pages 2 and 3 in the book.
For the activity, I created a worksheet with the same images as my flashcards. Students count these objects in pairs, but this time using the new grammar introduced in Today's Aim.
The worksheet looked OK on the computer, but looked pretty bad after I printed it in black & white, and then created copies based on that for the class. The shades of gray were way too dark, so it made it difficult to see some of the objects. It wasn't impossible, though, and many of the students saw it more as a challenge, rather than something unfair.
After everyone counted the objects in pairs, we went through the answers, which were much more diverse than the ones from the books.
Overall, I think I served the lesson perfectly fine. The worksheet in class 3 was kinda goofy, but the students still enjoyed the class.
Having the students working in pairs let them practice the grammar and vocabulary in a safe setting, but I never really forced them to use it in class as individuals. I never forced them to "activate" the language on their own, outside of the Timer Game.
I think I'll try to add more of that for some upcoming lesson reviews.