September's Refreshing English Board

Most ALTs who start in late July/early August will officially start going to their school(s) around September. So you have a good chunk of time to prepare that English board! Here’s an example if you are completely lost like I was.

Items I recommend on your first English board/space:

• Self-Introduction poster!

• Month (in this case, September)

• A poster about what you did during your summer vacation

Some schools I put a little questionnaire which was made by my area's junior high school ALT. I have been using it ever since my first year!

Success!!!

Materials:

• Irasutoya clipart website

• A3/B4 size colored poster paper

• Stickers can be found at any 100 yen store!

• School laminator and color printer

• Double-sided tape

July's English Board

Apologies for the delay, life got very busy very quickly.

Personally, July is an easier month to make a board setup since I can focus on introducing my country (the USA).

I decided to make the USA section smaller this year, and add some other interesting posters into the mix. Disclaimer for the dinosaurs, seasons and 'What Color?' posters. Once again, thank you so much ALT friends!!

Previous year's posters have looked like this:

Materials:

• Colored B4 size poster paper (purchased at 100 yen store)

• Board of Education's color printer + school laminator

• Colored markers (water-based)

Preparing for June's Rainy Season

Each school’s English board has a different purpose: an aide to the current lesson, with examples of what a poster can look like, or a showcase of culture: such as posters introducing holidays of the month, etc. My June poster has a little bit of both.

The main focus of my English board layout is the ‘Welcome to VT’ poster. My students have to make a similar poster for the final part of the current unit, and it’s a nice way to introduce where you’re from.

The second poster is made from printing out and laminating a Google PowerPoint presentation. I wanted to talk about the local animals you can find in Vermont, so I arranged some pics with a little bit of text (the text has a Japanese translation accompanying it, since the readers are Elementary students).

Lastly, I have a small cultural poster about Father’s Day and how it’s celebrated around the world. This one is also from an ALT friend!

Pro tip: laminate everything! Most school’s love to have windows open, and it gets super muggy here in Kagoshima!

Materials:

• 2 B4-sized blue poster paper (my school’s had a lovely shade of blue that went well with the greens of VT)

• Glue/Glue tape - from 100-yen store

• Printer - I used the BOE’s printer, since there was a lot of pics this time around

• Laminator - I used my school’s but if there are a lot of copies I need to laminate, I sometimes use the BOE’s laminator.