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October 2003
Hello! Thanks to everyone in Korea last week, I had a great time and it
was so good to see such dedicated teachers - keep up the good work!! Korea
is so close to Japan that I'm sure I'll be back soon, so for any teachers
in Seoul, Busan or anywhere really, if you'd like a fresh boost of ideas
and energy, get in touch!
In this month's newsletter we have news of a new online phonics game (it's
pretty cool) and some Hallowe'en ideas.
Phonics Game
The phonics section of the site is really popular and so here's a new addition,
a talking phonics quiz game. It's really effective for showing kids the
difference between a letter's sound and its name. Check out the Vowels
Game now! http://www.GenkiEnglish.net/phonics.htm
Halloween Ideas
Hallowe'en is quite popular and along with lots of ideas on the Discussion Board (http://genkienglish.net/discussion.mv ) on the main website there are three Hallowe'en Sections.
Apple bobbing ============= This is a cool game to play outside
during lunchbreak. Simply fill a deep barrel full of water and put some apples
in. One kid at a time, with their hands tied behind their back, comes and tries
to pick up one of the apples with their teeth! If they fail 3 times, a new kid
has a go. (And thanks to Dennis of Nagano-ken for suggesting using vodka instead
of water for more grown up students!). Another variation is to have an apple
dangling from the ceiling by a string.
Costume
Karuta ================
I had this great idea whilst having a meeting in Kagawa prefecture. First
of all you prepare several sets of simple Hallowe'en costumes. Examples
could be a sheet for a ghost, a hat for a witch or a mask for a wolf man,
or whatever!! You split the kids into teams and each team has a full set
of costumes. The teacher shouts out a word, e.g. "ghost", and
the front kid from each group has to run to the costumes and put on the
correct one! The fastest kid gets 2 points, if the other kid's got the
correct costume they get 1 point!
Your Favourite Games
There are lots of really cool games ideas that people use everyday and
then get lost or forgotten. That's one of the reasons I started this site,
to make sure my games were written up for other people to use. So here's
a new feature where you can let everyone know about your great games!! http://genkienglish.net/submitgame.htm
And if you'd like a bit of inspiration Joshua Burns and Lynn Kernan have
already sent in two fantastic games, One Red Game and Balloon Passing Game! http://genkienglish.net/gamesreaders.htm
We need your help!
As some of you may have heard there is a new head of the Education Ministry in
Japan (MEXT). One of the things that he is going to be looking at is whether to
make Elementary School English an official, compulsory subject for all
schools.
Now this would be a good thing, BUT there is a very real
possibility that if this does happen we'll end up with a horrible JHS like
boring grammar based textbook. Obviously this would kill all the hard
work you and we have been doing so WE DON'T WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!!
We need your help to make sure the kids continue to love English and learn
in a fun and effective way. If you want to know how you can help, click
here! http://genkienglish.net/elemschoolsubjext.htm
And Finally,
For people on the JET programme in Japan then why not invite us to your
Mid Year Conference? We'll do a motivation speech to all the JETs and then
a separate workshop for ALTs who visit elementary school, it's looking
like we may already be booked for Saga and Ibaraki!
And if there are any more teachers' groups in Korea, or in fact anywhere
in the World, invite us! We'd love to help out!
Oh and one last thing, there's a groovy new search box on the site, try
it out, it works so much better than before!
If you know of anyone who might be interested in this newsletter, then
please feel free to send it on!
Oh, and there's also a Japanese version, you can sign up for it from the
main Japanese menu!
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