Activity: Soft Toy Exchange

Activity ideas by Nishikawa Naoko (Murrumbeena Primary School, Victoria, AUSTRALIA)

Soft Toy Exchange is a great idea to bring language to life especially when you would like your students to learn Japanese authentically.
You can run the soft toy exchange for a term or longer.
Even if you cannot find a sister school in Japan, you can try another school in the same state or country.

Target Year Level(s):

Year two up to any Year levels (this sample was done for year 3 and 4)

There are mainly three stages during the exchange:

A. Before the exchange
B. During the exchange
C. Just before finishing the exchange

Objectives:

One of your classmates is going to Japan. What do you need to know about Japan and Japanese schools? (Teacher explains that the student is a soft toy after the announcement of this project.)
When you go to Japan, you need to bring some information about your country and your school.
Make a poster about your school and/or your country.
What is the basic conversation you need to learn before going to Japan?
Write a diary while you are hosting the Japanese exchange student.
Web conference [optional]
Power Point presentation/ Video letter/ Photo letter [optional]

Materials:

Soft toy(s) – your exchange school needs to also prepare soft toy(s) in order to swap them
Photo resource: The Lives of Japanese Elementary School Students and it’s website:
http://www.tjf.or.jp/shogakusei/index_j.htm (JPN)
http://www.tjf.or.jp/shogakusei/index_e.htm (ENG)
Photos (and/or digital camera) of the information that you use in your unit of study
Web cam / digital camera / Photo story (software) / Movie Maker (software) [optional]
Coloured paper (coloured card board), coloured pens and pencils
Souvenirs
*Please refer to the supplementary document for details of how to run the soft toy exchange.

Unit examples that you can run for the exchange program:

Unit contents (under different themes)	Before the exchange	During the exchange	Before finishing the exchange	Possible Activities & topics
Self introduction – Noun は Obj です。 Name/nickname/age/school year, etc…	✔	✔		1. Poster 2. Letter 3. Email
Family (include/exclude pets) – Noun が (number of people/pet) います。	✔	✔		1. Family Photo 2. Family puppets making/role-play
Favourites (likes & dislikes) – Noun がすき/すきじゃないです。 Possible nouns: name of sports/ food/ colours/ school subjects/ activities	✔	✔		Class survey (what they like/dislike) -> presentation (class or group activity)
Describing objects – これは Object です。	✔	✔	✔	1. School Information 2. Geographical information
Place (There is/are sentences) – Place に [Non-living object] があります/ [Living object] がいます。	✔	✔		1. School information 2. Geographic study 3. Family/home
Verb present tense with time expressions – TimeにActivityをします。 – Days of the weekにActivityをします。		✔	✔	1. Daily schedule 2. School timetable
Verb past tense – Activityをしました。Thingsをみました。Foodをたべました。Placeにいきました。		✔	✔	Diary writing
It would be ideal to work with teachers in other areas, such as: Art, Music, Library, PE, IT and other class teachers. You can run collaborative units with other teachers. For instance, while students are leaning their country’s geography, you can ask class teachers what students know already and what they are going to learn. Library teacher could help students to find Japanese atlas and their own atlas to compare both geographic features. Then you can reinforce their discovery of their country in Japanese such as: “Place に [Non-living object] があります/ [Living object] がいます。”. Students could create some art/ craft during the art lesson and send/show the work to the Japanese students by using the target language “これは [Name of the object] です。”.

A. Sample lesson before the exchange starts:

Making School Information Book (Poster) / location and identification of objects
Number of lessons: varies from schools (Sample: 45 minutes x 3 or 4)

Teacher introduces the soft toy exchange to students.
Teacher asks students what they want to know about Japanese schools/students, and/or teacher asks students what they already know about Japanese schools/students.
Students start to research Japanese schools/ students’ lives by using ‘The Lives of Japanese Elementary School Students (photo resource)’ and the following website.
http://www.tjf.or.jp/shogakusei/6-1/donna/kousya_e.htm
After the research, students will compare differences and similarities between Japanese school and their school.
Teacher gives examples of key grammar patterns to students by using students’ discovery.
e.g. きょうしつ　に　こくばん　が　あります。
ほけんしつ　に　ほけんのせんせい　が　います。
Students give quick oral presentation about Japanese schools to class by using the vocabulary given previously.
Students make a book/poster about their school by using the key grammar pattern.
Oral presentation of their poster/book from each group. [optional]
Listening practice: Teacher gives students a worksheet about imaginative school and tells what items are in which place in Japanese. Then students draw connect the picture to the name of the object. [optional]

Vocabulary	Key grammar	Pre-knowledge	Assessment	Materials
Names of places/things at school: きょうしつ、としょしつ、こうてい、たいいくかん、おんがくしつ、びじゅつしつ、ほけんしつ、いりぐち（げんかん）、おくじょう、いっかい、にかい、さんかい、こくばん、うんどうじょう、ぷうる（プール）、どうぶつ、うさぎ、あひる、こうちょうせんせい、ほけんのせんせいetc… *students choose words from this list and use appropriately	Place に [Non-living object] があります/ [Living object] がいます。	1. Self introduction (name & age) 2. Numbers 3. これは[Name of the object] です。	1. Thorough understanding of Japanese school/culture 2. Presentation: hand written work, grammar and cultural understanding	1. Photo resource: The Lives of Japanese Elementary School Students 2. Websites 3. Worksheets (sample sentence pattern, grammar practice)
Intercultural awareness
1. Japanese school building and surrounding 2. School timetable 3. School subjects 4. Different/similar roles at school (monitoring job) 5. Different people at school (eg. We do not have school nurses at many schools in Victoria, Australia.) *Teacher explains or encourages students to research the topics that they are interested in.

B. Sample lesson during the exchange:

Diary writing (えにっき)
Number of lessons: varies from schools (Sample: 1 or two lesson(s) and on going project)

Introduce (a) soft toy(s) to students when you receive a soft toy from the exchange school.
Teacher encourages students to take the soft toy to places where students go (eg. sports, after school activities, excursions, school trips, or classroom) and to take pictures with the soft toy(s).
Hand out sample diary pages and dictionary + phrase book to students.
Teacher shows ‘The Lives of Japanese Elementary School Students’ and ‘Kentaro kun no Ichinichi’ with sample diary (Teacher makes the sample pages of Kentaro kun)
* Website is also available for students if the want to check it from home.
http://www.tjf.or.jp/shogakusei/6-1/donna/ichinichi_e.htm
http://www.tjf.or.jp/shogakusei/kentaro/index_e.html
Diary writing practice on the white board: each student tries writing simple sentences on the board with the help of a dictionary and sample pages.
Students take a turn to host the soft toy with a diary pack (diary, dictionary with sample phrase pages).
*Many students enjoy hosting the soft toy, and they are happy to share what they did during the toy’s home stay.
*Students do not have to write everything in Japanese. You can set a minimum requirement such as: including at least three Japanese sentences, photos and drawings. Allow students to use English words if the word is not in the dictionary.
* NOTE: please try not to make a correction on the actual diary pages. Students need to feel free to make mistakes in writing when they are hosting the soft toy. If you want to make a correction, you can photocopy students’ pages and make a correction on it, and give it to the individual student.

Vocabulary	Key grammar	Pre-knowledge	Assessment	Materials
にっき、てんき、はれ、あめ、くもり、ゆき、ときどき、ひづけ、がつ、にち、うみ、かいもの、すいえい、てれび、えいが、ぴざ、すし、おもしろかった、たのしかったetc… *students use words that they use in their diary only	1. Activityをしました。 2. Thingsをみました。 3. Foodをたべました。 4. Placeにいきました。	1. Self introduction (name & age) 2. Numbers 3. これは[Name of the object] です。	1. Neat writing 2. Presentation 3. Sentence pattern (word order) check	1. Diary 2. Dictionary and phrase book 3. Sample pages 4. Digital camera [optional] 5/Photo resource: The Lives of Japanese Elementary School Students and Kentaro kun no ichinichi 6. Websites
Intercultural awareness
1. School activities 2. School timetable 3. School subjects 4. Different roles at school (monitoring job) 5. After school activities 6. Excursions and school trips 7. Students’ life style *Teacher explains or encourages students to research the topics that they are interested in.

Students’ works ->