Last Class of 2012!!

Well, the travel brochures are looking pretty great - check out Ren & Jojo's Fiji masterpiece!

I'm excited to see what the rest of you come up with!

The people who came to Kidz Group today talked about next week's activities, and we've decided a few things:

1. Menu
- Mexican corn and potato soup
- Mini pizzas
- Frost-your-own cupcakes for dessert

2. Activities
- A rousing game of Christmas Mafia (no vampires this time...)
- A cheap-o musical gifts exchange

Things to bring:

• A gift that is suitable for a boy or a girl that costs (and this is important!) ¥200 or less!!! Use your imagination!! Try to bring the nicest thing you can but stay in the price range.
• An apron, if you're worried about getting your clothes dirty
• Your imagination
• Your appetite

Remember, Maya's penpal from Wakayama will be visiting with her older sister and their Mom, so we'll have a chance to meet some new people!

Please let Christie know if you CAN'T come. See you next Saturday!

Homework for next week - December FIRST!!!

I think all the groups have a good start on their travel brochures. I'm going to get some paper (probably A3 size paper that's a little bit thick) for you to use to design your brochures. Please think about what photos you'd like to use in the brochure and how you will arrange the information you've collected. Be sure to BRING ALL YOUR PAPERS to class next time!!

Also, Doug asked me to post this information about his Christmas party:

All Kidz Group members and their families are invited! Please contact Doug at the mail address listed on the poster if you want to join the party.

Things to do for next Kidz Group (November 24)

First, a few photos of the beginning of our travel brochure project!

Natsuko and Sophie travel the World Wide Web

Jojo and Ren hunt down info on a Polynesian island paradise

Angus (via Skype) and Richie collaborate... NOT on Somalia or Afghanistan...!

Nozomi and Maya working hard at their note-taking!

So, for next week each team member knows what to do, right?! Bring your notes from your research!!

Halloween!

wow -- It's my first post THIS MONTH! Sorry I've been so busy, guys!

So are you ready for Halloween? November 3 is the big day - we are going to start the party at 7:00 (isn't that what we agreed on?! Please correct me if I'm wrong on that...), so be sure to have dinner before you come OR you can bring a dinner bento and come a little early to eat it here before the party if you like. In any case, people should be their costumes and ready to have fun at 7:00!

Things to bring:
- Costume
- Flashlight

Please remember that Kidz Group will NOT meet in the morning on Saturday, November 3. See you in the evening!!!

Homework for September 29

Christie's group:

BOYS: Please finish your detailed outlines
GIRLS: Please write the first draft of paragraph 1

See you Saturday!

P.S. Graeme and I have talked about Halloween, and if it's ok with everyone, we'd like to hold our Halloween party a few days AFTER Oct 31 - in the evening on Saturday, November 3. No details have been decided yet, but put your thinking caps on! You guys will be planning the events!

P.P.S. Christie is going to be REALLY BUSY in October, so Graeme will be the main teacher for October 6 (Christie will be in California), October 13 (Christie & Sophie will be in Hamamatsu), and October 20 (Christie will be in Seoul, Korea).

Last week's fun

There was lots going on last Saturday! First, we had a few of visitors -

Sami will be joining the class pretty soon! (It was great to see Mom, too!)

Stripey's bilingualism is improving day by day...

And then Scott fired up the ice cream maker for a special treat:

Anxiously awaiting

Ready!

Mmmm ... sprinkles and chocolate sauce

sprinkles IN the bowl, Jojo!

A masterpiece...

Thanks to Sami, Junko, Stripey and Scott for the day's excitement!!

Updates!

1. This Saturday we're going to have 2 visitors! (Hint... 1 is very small...)
2. I heard something about a "cool" treat after the lesson ...

Homework for Saturday, September 22

Just a reminder that even though the 22nd is a national holiday, we are going to have Kidz Group as usual.

Christie's group - I'd like you to outline your mini essay for homework. Click here to get an outline handout that may help you to gather your ideas together. For your homework, please decide on the topic of each paragraph and think about what information you might like to use in the supporting sentences. You don't have to actually write the topic sentence or supporting sentences yet. Just write notes about your ideas to get started organizing the information.

See you Saturday!

To do for Saturday, September 15

Christie's group - please choose a topic for your mini essay. As we discussed, everyone is going to choose a topic related to nature and will write a 3-paragraph essay about it. We'll do the first couple of stages in the writing process first:

1. Choose a topic. These are some of the general topics we brainstormed today...

mosquitoes
leaf growth
flowers and how they grow
how rain happens
how thunder & lightning happens
where do rocks come from
how do earthquakes happen
how do tsunamis happen
what is dirt
about bears
how and why does poison oak or poison ivy make us itch
all about the corpse flower
what are falling stars
air

2. Brainstorm at least 5 questions about your topic. They should be things that you want to find out as you research your topic. They should be questions like these that we brainstormed for the corpse flower topic:

- Why does it smell bad?
- What does it smell like?
- Where does it grow?
- What does it look like?
- How often does it bloom?
- How does it multiply (seed? bulb?)

3. Do a little research on the internet. Try to find at least 2 points to answer each of your research questions. Make notes. Bring all your papers to class next time. Ren and Nozomi, I know you will be absent BUT I still want you to send me your homework by e-mail!!!

Have a good week...

First September meeting!

Hello, Kidz Group members!!

I hope you had a great summer... I guess everyone is back at school now, and it's time to get started with English, too!

As we discussed in our last class before the summer, let's do another BOOK REPORT this coming Saturday. The Provenzanos had a bit of a READING FRENZY while we were on various airplanes or at the lake... how about you? We are looking forward to sharing some information about the books we've read.

Please let Christie know if you will be able to come this Saturday, September 8 at our usual starting time.

(p.s. here's a hint about one series we were a little obsessed with over the summer!!)

Next Kidz Group - July 21 - SWIMMING HOLE!!

Before we take a summer break, let's get together for a swim! Our plan is to go to Bouzugataki, a great water hole that we have been to before. Click HERE for a link to a Japanese page about that place. The plan is to meet at Provenzanos' at 9:30 a.m. Then we'll go together to the waterfalls.

Things to bring:

- towel
- bathing suit
- lunch
- drinks
- something to sit on
- sunscreen

If it's raining, we'll still get together, but we'll go to the Sawara Pool.

Please let Christie know if you are planning to come. Brothers and sisters are welcome to come, too!

Presentations! and Homework for June 30

Today was a big day for Christie's class! After several weeks of writing, practicing and PowerPoint creation, Sophie, Ren, Nozomi and Richie showed off their public speaking skills! Videos of the big event:

Great job, everyone!

About homework - everyone is READING BOOKS this week!! Christie won't be there on the 30th, but Graeme is going to work with everyone to decide what kinds of things to include in the book reports. Read, read, read!!!

Homework for Saturday, June 23

Graeme's class, click HERE for a spelling word list.

Christie's class, please bring your powerpoint slides and note cards. It's presentation day!!! Yahooo!!!!!

Spelling City link for page 44

Click HERE to practice

Very last minute spelling city link

Hi Kidz!

I JUST heard from Maya that there is a spelling list for today! It's very late, but if you want to practice, click HERE for a link to a spelling city list.

See you!

Homework for the 19th

Quickly! Click HERE for Graeme's word list! (page 38)

See you all on Saturday :-)

Happy Golden Week!

So we will not meet this coming Saturday (May 5). Graeme's class has some words to study for the next class on May 12 - click HERE to practice them.

For my class, I asked each of you to finish writing the introduction to your presentation. I promised I'd give a little model here, and I will do that soon.

HELLO! It's later now (May 10). I promised to give you a model for an introduction to your presentation. I guess I'm a little late, but here it is. Imagine that my topic is hiking. (It's an activity I really like!)

---------------------------------------------------------------
First give a greeting:

Hello everyone, I'm Christie.


And then you should ask a question, tell a joke, or hit the audience with a weird or very interesting fact about your topic:

(I'll start with a joke...)
So, did you hear about the group of hikers who were being led through the wilderness by a guide? Well, on the third day, the hikers noticed that they were traveling in circles! "We're lost!" one of the hikers complained. "And you said you were the best guide in the United States!" "I am," the guide answered, "but I think we have wandered into Canada."
(ha ha ha ha ha ha!!) 

After everyone is finished laughing, I'll introduce my topic...


Well, as long as you are careful not to get lost, hiking can be a great way to get some exercise and enjoy the outdoors at the same time.


Now I'll give a little preview of my presentation:

Today I'd like to tell you a little about the history of hiking. Then I'll explain some of the basic equipment you need to start hiking. Finally, I'll tell you about a couple of hiking trails near Fukuoka that you might be interested in trying out.
----------------------------------------------------------


Here's a simple outline for you to follow:

1. Greeting
2. Ask a question, tell a joke, or tell the audience a weird or interesting fact about your topic
3. Introduce your topic
4 Give a little preview of your presentation

Ok? I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with!

A little homework for Graeme's class

Hi everybody - I heard from Graeme and Maya that there are some spelling words to go over before class this week! Click HERE to go to the list on Spelling City.

Christie's class - we're going to try to finish the power point slides this week and think about WHAT WE'RE GOING TO SAY along with the slides! Looking forward to seeing you all...

Fun Dodgebee and Festival

It was nice to see everybody at Momochi Chuo Park today for a little Dodgebee action before the festival today! Great to have visitors, too - Takumi and Kojima-kun were good additions to the teams.

Takumi's in trouble!

Graeme attacks!

But Sophie grabs it!

The Littles taunt the Bigs - Ren is Mr. Max Relax!

Sophie engages in a little post-Dodgebee tinikling at the festival.

Update for tomorrow

Hi, Kidz Group Families:

Just wanted to touch base and say that, according to the weather forecast (click HERE to see), we might have rain late morning/early afternoon tomorrow, but we should be SAFE for dodgebee in Momochi Chuo Park from 10:00 a.m. Let's go for it! See you at the park at 10:00

Outing next Saturday

Let's go to Momochi!

As we discussed last Saturday, our next meeting will be an outing to the Momochi area. If the weather is good, we'll start at 10:00 a.m. (a little earlier than usual) in Momochi Chuo Park (click HERE to see a map), where we'll play a bit of Dodgebee (click HERE to see photos from last time)!! Then, at around 11:00 a.m., we'll walk down the street to Fukuoka International School so we can take part in their festival. We had a great time there last year - I'm looking forward to having some yummy international food and checking out the used book tables. There is no decided finish time for Saturday's activities. You can leave the festival whenever you like.

Please let Christie know if you CAN'T come. So far, I think Natsuko is the only person who might not be able to come...

See you on Saturday at 10:00.

Some spelling words and a plan...

Hi everybody.

1. Check out a new list of links on the right side of this page. You can click on any one of them to visit our group members' blogs! Why don't you try it? You can leave a comment on their posts.

2. Maya tells me that Graeme didn't say you needed to study some words, but I thought, "Why not?!"

So I made a spelling list of the words on page 27. Click HERE to study!

3. Do you remember last year when we went to the Spring Festival at F.I.S.? It was a great chance to speak English with people outside of our circle, eat some tasty food and (this was the best part) buy a lot of CHEAP ENGLISH BOOKS!! (The flea market was pretty good, too.) This year, the festival takes place on Saturday, April 21 from 10:00 to 3:00. I'd like for the Kidz Group families to attend. What do you think? Check out this poster for details (in Japanese...?!?!?)

more words to study!

Click HERE for this week's list.

By the way, Kidz Group will not be held on the last Saturday of this month...

Angus' Survey

Hey everybody! Angus needs people to do his survey!

Please click HERE to try. Thanks!

Last-minute homework!

Sorry! I forgot to put this week's words in Spelling City till just now. Here's the link -->  CLICK ME!

Homework for Saturday, March 10

For Maya, Jojo and Natsuko: click HERE to practice this week's spelling words.

Richie: TABULATE YOUR DATA!
Ren: Write at least 10 sentences as a journal entry on your new blog.
Nozomi: Ask Mom to help you get a Google ID so you can make your own blog.
Sophie: Continue writing your presentation. Talk with Christie about basic structure.
Angus: Send your survey link to everyone you know!

Homework for Graeme's group

Hello, vocabulary!

Click HERE for this week's word list.

Homework for Graeme's group

Click HERE to go to Graeme's word list for next week. Practice, practice, practice!

Survey link

Richie has a new survey - click HERE to try.

Spelling City Word List

Hello everyone:

Click HERE to go to the spelling city word list for this week. Study hard! There's a little test on Saturday! Also, if you haven't done them yet, Sophie and Richie would be really happy if you tried their surveys. Please look at the blog post below this one for links to their surveys. (Please ask your parents to do them, too!)

SURVEY TIME!!

Sophie and Richie have finished their surveys! Everyone please try them!!

For Richie's survey about your transportation habits, click HERE

For Sophie's survey about your screen time habits, click HERE

GO! Try it! Ask your friends to try it! Share!! It's fun!!

Homework for February 11

Graeme's gang -

I heard that you have some spelling words to learn! Maya has practiced spelling using a website called spellingcity.com, and she thinks you all might like it, too, so I made a spelling list with the words Graeme has asked you to learn.

Click HERE to go to the word list.

Then you have some options. You can click "play a game" to try some different activities to practice the words. Maya says "Unscramble" is the game that helps her to learn how to spell the best. She also plays "Missing Letter" sometimes. Finally, she said "Hang Mouse" is fun, too. After she plays those games for a while, she tries the "Spelling Test" to check how well she has learned the words. You can try the games and the test as often as you like. Give it a try!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick note to remind you that our first meeting of the year is THIS SATURDAY (Jan 7) at Provenzanos' place at the usual time. See you then!

(Richie, you DON'T need a computer this time. We'll be working with paper and pencil.)