Reporter: Amber

On the cool autumn morning of Friday, October 12th, two of JESIE's experienced teachers taught a special lesson about the Olympics. Christine's class focused on the names of sports and what you need to compete. For example: To compete in rowing, I need a boat and oars. She was full of energy which captured her students attention and even motivated the shy ones! The class was separated into 3 teams which represented their own country and they competed to win the gold medal playing English games. 

The aim of Matthew's lesson was for the students to understand and say two sentences regarding the Olympics. For example: I like archery. I can shoot very well. He had a full use of toys and the students were excited to see how they would be able to use them in their lesson. He even demonstrated some of his sentences such as doing a long jump in class, which really surprised the students! By the end of the lesson, the students had a good grasp of this new knowledge as well as some extra cheers for the team that won the gold medal!

Reporter: Jaf

It was a lovely morning at Yincheng Primary School, and the two lucky classes of first grade students selected to take part in the Open Day, were visibly excited to meet JESIE's experienced teachers Val and Chris. Both teachers were very enthusiastic and well prepared to teach lessons based on the day's Olympic Sports theme.

After the eye exercises, Val began his class by clearly establishing the classroom rules, followed by a TPR warmup where the students had to follow orders such as: stand up, sit down, turn around, hands up and hands down. The warmup clearly had the students ready and eager to see what the day's lesson would bring.

Val's class consisted of the sports vocabulary: football, volleyball, basketball, and baseball. To review the sports, Val used a "hidden picture" game which pitted students on two teams against each other to see who could say the sport that was slowly being revealed on the board quickest. Once the students got the hang of the game they became very excited to earn points for their team, however Val used his expertise to bring their energy back down between each round. After the game, some verbs were added to eventually be combined with the previously taught sports: throw, kick, catch, and hit. 

In another classroom, Chris was exciting his young learners to participate and learn 6 new words: gymnastics, running, swimming, rowing, cycling, and boxing. Each word was displayed with some very fun animations, and it was easy to see the students truly enjoyed acting out the words throughout the lesson. Chris then played a game using a dart gun, and a target on the white board. The students had to make the sentence, "I like (sport)." and then were given an opportunity to shoot a sticky dart at the target on the board. The presence of the sticky dart gun clearly added an exciting element to the classroom, and combined with Chris's fantastic energy, drew the attention of all students toward his lesson.

Overall, it was a successful Open Day at Yincheng Primary school, with smiles all round. A job well by both teachers, Val and Chris, for their tremendous efforts and teaching mastery.

Reporter: Davean

On Thursday, October 18, teachers Daniel and Tim taught two informative Open Day lessons to the students at Wangzhuang Experimental Primary School in Wuxi. Students in Teacher Tim's class learned all about the history of Tim's favorite food-pizza! Throughout the lesson, the boys raced the girls to be the first to grab the giant fuzzy die. The winner was given the chance to answer Teacher Tim's pop quiz question! All the students did an excellent job of remembering the facts they learned about pizza, but the boys were too fast! They beat the girls, seven to two. 

Meanwhile, the students in Teacher Daniel's class learned about the Olympics. Teacher Daniel challenged students to read facts about the Olympics for the opportunity to earn points for their teams. Afterward, the students competed in a quiz game with boys versus girls. The boys and girls impressively recalled the facts they learned! Although the score was very close, the boys won the game!

Reporter: Megan

Xincheng School had its first storytelling style open day on Thursday. Teachers Tom and Theard taught the students all about the history of the Olympic games.

Lots of information and facts on the Olympics were covered. From who was the founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, to why the logo has 5 rings, to represent the different continents.

Both Tom and Theard finished their lessons with a big quiz on everything Olympic related. In Tom’s lesson if the student got the answer correct they got to throw a sticky ball at a target on the board, and were then awarded points depending which part of the target they hit. As you can imagine the students thoroughly enjoyed this game and were very eager to answer. The students had just as much fun in Theard‘s Olympic quiz but when they got a correct answer in this class they got to throw 5 paper balls into a small bin. The number of paper balls they got in the bin, were the points awarded.

Overall the students enjoyed themselves whilst learning about an interesting topic all in English.

Reporter: Will

The Tokyo summer games may still be two years away but Langyalu Primary School third graders got a taste of the Olympic experience this past Friday. 

Teachers Matthew and Craig arrived with no shortage of fanfare and both teachers had the students divided into teams, putting them in a heated competition to get the gold. The students were familiarized with several of the classic events, e.g. high jump, long jump, archery, and shooting. They had to be able to identify the name of the event and describe in perfect English how the event is done. The students even participated in (classroom appropriate editions of ) said events themselves. So intense was the level of competition that one might forget - if just for a moment - that these were not actually Olympic athletes but primary school children. When all was said in done, the victors got the gold but all received something far more valuable: knowledge.

Reporter: Kris

The day started with a lesson about space, mostly oriented on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. Teacher Matt took the students through the main details of these missions in a lesson that he has developed over a few months. Starting with an introduction to our Solar System, and the main things we know about it, he then moved on to a storytelling of how the Voyager missions increased our understanding of the planets, their moons, the Sun, asteroids and comets, and then the Universe beyond. It was highly entertaining and the students had a great time, showing good knowledge about these things before learning more about it.

Freya then gave a class on the history of what we now call the marathon race. It originated in Greece, when a messenger called Pheidippides ran a marathon distance between a town called Marathon and the Greek capital Athens. Teacher Freya also taught the kids about the Greek-Persian war, along with many other facts in this part of classical history. Both teachers mixed things up with a variety of games, holding the students' attention.

Both lessons were well practised, and planned, and all the teachers and students had an enjoyable morning. Teacher Edmund also served as scorer, very dutifully, for both classes as they broke both classes into two teams (Boys vs. Girls). The Open Day also benefitted from the excellent amenities provided at the Yaochen Lu Campus in Qixia. It was held in an auditorium that accommodated about 80 students for both Grades 5 and 6, and more to spare.