Activity

Teacher birthday presents

Students think about what they would give teachers for their birthday.

This activity is to practice the Subject-verb-object-object grammar pattern.

I start out by writing "It's (this class' homeroom teacher) 's birthday! What will you give him/her?" on the blackboard. I state this to the JTE and then ask what the JTE will get the teacher in question. When they answer, I write out the answer sentence, "I'll give him/her ____________."

I ask the students what they would give to their homeroom teacher. Usually junior high students are embarrassed to admit any affection for their homeroom teacher, so answers are usually something like "a boyfriend/girlfriend" or "tobacco." After that, I erase the homeroom teacher's name on the blackboard and change it to another teacher that the students know. Once again, I ask the JTE and students what birthday presents they would give to the teacher.

Once the students have the idea, I pass out the papers. It's a fairly short activity, so they only need half of the paper. The students can choose their own teacher, or if you think this might be a problem, you can give each student a number from 1 to 8 and assign them a teacher based on their number. They should write their teacher on the page and then go through the same dialog with their friends. "It's Ms. Abe's birthday. What will you give her?" "I'll give her a Twice CD." It's good to practice the sentences a few times as a class before starting the activity.

The students come up with some pretty funny ideas, so if you have extra time at the end, you could ask the class if they want to share any of the examples. You could also have them write what their friends said if they have any kind of notebook homework practice. "Kota will give Mr. Ozaki a cat for his birthday."

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Submitted by Jake W October 29, 2018 Estimated time: 20 minutes

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