Page in Japanese

When, When, When? ( next year, last year etc.)

Target Language: When? + This year, Last year, Next year, month, week, today, yesterday, tomorrow.
Target Grade: All ages
This lesson is in the Teacher's Set
And in the new curriculum Level.

The gestures are what make it work so well...

Gestures:


This Year - Jump up and stretch your arms in the air


Next Year - Jump up and push your arms forward


Last year - Jump up and push your thumbs back over your shoulders


When, when, when? - shrug your shoulders like you're asking a question.

This month - Same as "This year" but with no jump

Next month - Same as "This year" but with no jump

Last month - same as "Last year" but with no jump

This week - crouch down and push your hands in the air

Next week - crouch down and push your arms forwards

Last week - crouch down and push your thumbs back over your shoulders

Today - jump back up again and stretch your arms up

Tomorrow - jump and stretch your arms forward

Yesterday - jump and push your thumbs back over your shoulders.


This song is a great physical work out and the actions really make it easy for the kids to understand!

There's a lot of new language here, so take your time. Or even better have the kids learn the new language at home with the software first.

One thing to watch out for is that there is a slight gap between the teacher's line and the kids' repeat line. This is to make sure any age kids can keep up, but sometimes really genki kids will try to sing in this gap, so to avoid this, go through the song without the music and sing the "da da da" line ( you'll know what I mean when you hear the song!) in between.


This is my favourite song, it's the new "Left and Right" song.

More Recommended Games

Teach the days of the week with gestures for each day using the song.

1. Play charades, one person does the gesture, the kids shout out the day (and the other way round)
2. Have two kids play, one has to do the gesture one has to shout out the day.
3. The teacher (or another kid) stands in front of them and says:
"Today" "Tomorrow" "Yesterday" "In two days" "In three days" "Two days ago" or "Three days ago"
4. The kids have to do the gesture or the other kid shout out the appropriate date. Who ever is first gets a point.

You can also do this with the Months of the year song for "last month, this month, next month".


Explanation of the Months Cards
Months cards can be some of the trickiest cards to produce for an English lesson. Most people in Japan use Japanese based cards with Japanese festivals etc. But whilst that's fine for Japanese lessons, here we're supposed to be teaching "International Understanding" so I've tried to make them a lot more internationally themed, fun and having lots of hints to make them easy to remember!

January - New Year with Big Ben and fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge
February - Valentine's Day
March - New born lambs and rabbits, lots of green for St Patrick's Day
April - An April Fool!
May - a Maypole
June - "June Bride" ( it's great to tell the story of this phrase!)
July - 4th of July - American Independence Day
August - Summer Holidays ( Ozzies and Kiwis can explain the season differences!)
September - Back to School.
October - Hallowe'en
November - Thanksgiving Turkeys and UK Bonfire Night
December - Christmas


You can find the full set of Months Picture Cards on the "When is your birthday?" theme.




Worksheet:

Make a calendar! Each kid draws a different month, and you put them on the wall. A great "calming" lesson!

Readers' Comments

by Brad M

I gave this variation of the weather Clap! Clap! Game a try today and the students loved it!

Great for review...seems to work especially well for reviewing the When, when, when? time expressions...

1. Go through this year, next year, last year lesson,
2. In each chorus of the song, in the final (the 6th) "when" have the students do one of the 3 gestures as suggested by Richard in the When, when, when? page (e.g. either jump with arms raised for "this year", jump with arms forward for "next year", or jump with thumbs pointing behind you while singing "last year".)
3. If the students do the same gesture as the teacher they are out.
4. You can continue on with the remaining students for ...month, week, today, tomorrow, and yesterday and the corresponding gestures.

Good luck and enjoy!

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