English in elementary school teaching materials collection 2013 the jet p rogr amme

ADVICE AND PREPARATION 
Here are a number of tips and ways of preparing for a successful kindergarten or elementary school 
visit. These have been collated from a number of JET participants with experience: 
• Bring indoor shoes. Running around in vinyl slippers may be entertaining for the children but 
will make things more difficult for you. 
• Use the teacher for crowd control. They are usually pretty good at keeping things quiet, getting 
the children into groups and playing fairly. 
• Make a lesson plan, but keep it flexible. Prepare more activities than you have time for. 
• Avoid games that could potentially get violent. Students often get carried away. 
• Do not wear anything restrictive or expensive. 
• Try to meet the teacher before the lesson and explain the games. 
• Laminate anything you want to use again. 
• Do not scrap an activity just because it did not work in one class. It may work fine the next day 
with a different class. 
• Keep the class student-centred at all times. Have the students give out handouts and collect up 
afterwards etc. It takes the pressure off you and keeps them occupied. 
• Use incidental language as much as possible. This will help them remember it and how to use it 
(ie., “Hello”, “Here you are”, “Thank you”, “You’re welcome”, “Bless you”, etc.) 
• Keep things simple. Games you spent hours preparing are often the first to flop. Explanations 
should be carried out within a minute or two. Where possible, demonstrate with the Japanese 
teacher rather than explain. 
• Eating lunch with the children helps to get to know them and create a little informal 
internationalisation. 
• Do not jump randomly between topics. Keep activities related. 
• Phrases should be repeated frequently. 
• PLAY between classes and TEACH during them. 
• Try teaching with other classes like cooking or gym for a bit of variety. 
• Praise individuals. 
• Using a game more than once saves explanation time. 
• Make sure the Japanese teacher knows what to do. 
• Make vocabulary posters to save time. 
• Balance activities that “stir-up” and “settle down”. 
• Make name cards so you can address the children as individuals. 
• Prepare an activity or video in case you are absent. 
• Let the children teach you something each lesson. 
• Buy teaching aids. Invest in self-training. 
• Children will understand a lot from tone, gestures and facial expressions. 
• Use lots of English words which are also used in Japanese in the katakana form. 
• Keep notes of what you taught, so you can re-cap on previous areas. 
• Try repeating explanations and phrases in several different ways. 
• Use a toy to talk to if the Japanese teacher is not already prepared.
• Try to get feedback from the children as well as the Japanese teacher. 
• Use commands and phrases in various contexts to highlight their usefulness. 
• Have an emergency teaching pack ready for unexpected circumstances. Some ideas for things 
to include: 
Bingo cards 
Glitter pen for autographs 
Posterboard 
Mr. Bean video 
Blank Karuta cards 
Book of games 
Colour markers and pencils 
Nametags 
Stuffed animals/Mascot 
Blindfolds 
Music tape 
Prizes 
Book of games 
Indoor shoes 
Photos/Slides/Video of your home country 
Advice and Preparation

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19
English
in
Elementary
School