It’s nice to be in Europe for Mardi Gras. In Portugal this week it’s been carnaval, and whilst not quite as fun as Rio de Janeiro, it’s a nice holiday mood, especially on a warm February day. Mind you unlike French (“mardi”) or Spanish (“martes”), in Portuguese Tuesday has nothing to do with “mardi”, they…

Just to let you know that the A4 Cards links have now moved to each songs‘ right hand column only. Sorry for the inconvenience, but is so I can free up the pictures at the top of each page for something else. Now when you click on the pictures instead of the picture card, you…

A big new update is underway. The biggest change you’ll like (hopefully!) is with the new songs pages. Now instead of just mini cards and the occasional worksheet, you’ll be able to access the A4 cards in pdf format, colour and black & white mini cards, individual lesson plans in English and Japanese plus printable…

Here’s a nice tool I found whilst looking around the net for a free D’Nealian font. Instant Name Worksheet Maker! Powered by ESL Writing Wizard Just pop in your students’ names (one at at time of course) and you get a nice worksheet like this:   If you want more writing worksheets, check out the…

Terrie’s Take has an article this week showing how the worldwide obesity problem has well and truly reached even Japan. I can quite sympathise, during the Winter I get seriously fat from sitting down doing computer work all day. Of course in the Summer it all falls off (well most of it), from doing Genki…

Earworms & Elizabeth Smith As you may have read in the newsletter this month, I’m currently in Portugal. For no particular reason other than it’s the warmest place in Europe at the moment. What it does mean though is that I have to learn Portuguese. Yet another language, and this is one I know absolutely…