As any native speaker will tell you, one of the most important words to learn when you're starting to learn English is the word rectangle. As such, I've spent countless hours building characters in PowerPoint using this very important, nay, ESSENTIAL vocabulary that definitely shouldn't be removed from the textbook and replaced with something with more merit. Enjoy!
Start off by introducing the shapes set of vocabulary. I've added a few that aren't in the textbook, but useful for building things (moon, line). There are two additional ones I don't list here (tear drop and lightning bolt) because they're hard for the kids to say and I only use them once. You can have the kids practice saying them now, but it's not essential for them to say them until after the quiz.
Next, show them the character quiz one step at a time. I've separated how the character appears by the same shapes of the same color all appearing at once. So show them one step at a time, have them raise their hands and guess, and see how long it takes them to figure out who it is. I've been surprised at how fast they figure some of them out, so generally even if someone guesses the right answer, I still go step by step after that and take more answers so more students can have a chance to share their ideas, and everyone has to listen to the vocabulary be repeated more times.
Two notes: every year the kids always ask how to say 肌色 (skin color). They never seem to realize that this is a poor descriptor since people have a lot of different colors of skin. I've taken to calling the color they're referring to as "peach," but "beige" could also be okay since ベージュ is a loan word. Not sure which one of those would be easier for them to understand, but it's important to urge them not to use the term 肌色 to refer to a single color.
Secondly, I've included my town mascot in these (Daiton), so you'll have to remove that one since your kids won't know who it is. Make one for your own town if you can!
After the quiz, in the past, I've tried having the kids make their own shape characters in their groups. However, there's not really enough time for them to confidently do this in the same lesson, since many of them can't remember all of the shapes, and many of them also take an absolutely inordinate amount of time coloring in a single rectangle, so I've scrapped this idea for a year I've got time to spend two days on this dumb unit.
Instead, I have the kids do a card collecting game so they can practice saying the names of the shapes. Show the kids the instructions in the PowerPoint, written out in Japanese with furigana. You'll give each of the students five cards (see attachments; you'll need to make and laminate enough of these beforehand). They'll stand up, walk around the classroom, and play rock, paper, scissors with a partner. The winner can request a card. For example, "Star, please." If the loser has that card, they have to hand it over. If they don't, they simply say goodbye. However, if they do hand over a card, the winner has to give them one other card they don't want, ensuring that each student is holding exactly five cards at all times (this point is tricky, and someone always forgets, so really emphasize this point during the instructions). When they collect at least four of the same shape, they can come to you and get a sticker (or stamp or whatever reward you want to give them), then go back out and try to collect a different shape. I let them get a sticker for as many different shapes as they can collect four of within the time limit. Depending on how fast the character shape quiz goes, you may have more or less time, but usually there should be time to let them do the second activity for around 12-15 minutes.
I've included a lesson plan written in English and Japanese, so your Japanese homeroom teachers can read it and know exactly what the plan is.
The font used in this is UDデジタル教科書. It should be on all of your school computers, but I don't have it on my personal computer at home. I prefer it because it has the handwritten lowercase "a" as well as other handwriting differences, but doesn't look like garbage like Comic Sans. If you don't have it, there might be some formatting discrepancies.
Credit to the respective copyright holders for use of the characters' pictures.
Credit to flaticon.com for the use of the icons.
Thank you very much. This is great!
This saved me today. Thank youuuuu! :)