The 4th of July is coming up and I’m trying to come up with some 4th of July activities for my JHS classes! If anyone has any short or long activities please let me know! Thanks!
Nothing really special about the 4th of July in Japan. Just another date around the world as well.
You should teach them about the pledge of allegiance, and how citizens are conditioned to be patriotic.
Edit: I want to be a little helpful, so I will all this part. It may be good to talk a little bit about the history, and how it’s celebrated. Fireworks, BBQ and anything else. Compare it to the Japanese holidays, Foundation Day or Constitution Memorial Day. I’m not sure what sort of activity would be good, but I would show a PowerPoint with some pictures of the celebrations, and use any pictures of myself that I have
Don’t bother.
I actually suggest teaching American holidays more broadly. I created a lesson that described holidays – what they are and what are the most important holidays in the US.
I chose to teach them about: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and New Year. Feel free to add in Halloween but would stay away from Veterans Day or Memorial Day. I wanted to make the vibe a bright and positive lesson about holidays – not about war or deceased soldiers.
Think about the 4th of July – Americans just drink, barbecue and set off fireworks. It’s somewhat underwhelming.
I’ve been working on some activities for the 4th this week! My students requested that I teach more about culture in the US, so here’s what I’m doing (JHS):
-USA/ independence day trivia PowerPoint game: they’ll be in teams, I’ll give some easy questions, and get to teach a little bit of culture
-State quiz: give them a blank map with the states numbered. See how many they can guess. I’ll give them the opportunity to get some hints. I gave this quiz to a few of my coworkers with some hilarious results, so I think the students will find it pretty funny too
-4th of July themed English board: I’m putting this up this week, but I’m not quite finished. Just general who/what/when/where/why/how. I’ll put some hints for the trivia/states quiz on there too. I’m also going to put a copy of the declaration of independence on it… the students are fascinated by cursive so I think they’ll get a kick out of trying to read it
-US state animals: I’ve been doing this with my special needs class, in the last week I’ve been going over 10 states and their state animals (so many states list “white-tailed deer”!) As a warm- up each class. They think the state names are funny and they like seeing pictures of the different animals.
Some other ideas you can do with your class:
– for ES: make USA flags. Count 50 stars and 13 stripes and review colors
– guess the American culture: show two pictures and have students guess which one is from the US
-Guess the American slang: I did an Australian version of this and the students found it fun. Show a word and give them a few options to guess from
Book reading: there is a great children’s book about immigration and what it means to be American called [Apple Pie, Fourth of July](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69ywP6y3gM0).
For my classes (SHS but at a level of English that is maybe comparable to JHS?) I usually use it as a listening practice lesson day. My 3rd years take listening tests and so i wrote a small about 1 page speech that I read to the class. Its a VERY watered down reason as to why we celebrate the 4th of July in the US and last year I also mentioned that recently America added June 19th as a holiday as well. So one minute is history then one minute is how people celebrate today. Even this though is a bit long for some classes so i adjust as i see fit.
I usually add a bunch of photos in a slide show for the kids who could care less because when I start to talk about BBQ that’s at least when they perk up a little bit. I include some information about difficult vocabulary words and such. Since its summer and I cant really get my students motivated after semester exams to do much of anything, I get them to talk about what fireworks festivals, parades, or celebrations of that nature they really like. What they get excited for in summer. Usually I have them in pairs jotting down some ideas (usually in Japanese) about what they are excited for or maybe if its a good class what things they think would be cool to experience from my presentation. Maybe if possible ill even have them right down a sentence or two. I might read the story again and have sentences from my speech on their handout that they need to put in order, again to focus on their listening. Maybe ill have a true and false section on the easiest bits of information to double check some basic comprehension.
After that I shift the focus back onto their desires because there is no way I can keep the focus of a class about American history/culture for 50 minutes. Maybe try to practice future tense or some basic infinitive stuff about their plans for summer.
For SHS my “Listening” lesson is pretty normal for them now. I think they expect it after final exams. They know the format since I did similar stuff when they were 1st years. We don’t often practice/focus on listening in class, so its a bit strange at first, but I think that the students get used to it and are interested when they realize they actually understand more than they think.
6 comments
Nothing really special about the 4th of July in Japan. Just another date around the world as well.
You should teach them about the pledge of allegiance, and how citizens are conditioned to be patriotic.
Edit: I want to be a little helpful, so I will all this part. It may be good to talk a little bit about the history, and how it’s celebrated. Fireworks, BBQ and anything else. Compare it to the Japanese holidays, Foundation Day or Constitution Memorial Day. I’m not sure what sort of activity would be good, but I would show a PowerPoint with some pictures of the celebrations, and use any pictures of myself that I have
Don’t bother.
I actually suggest teaching American holidays more broadly. I created a lesson that described holidays – what they are and what are the most important holidays in the US.
I chose to teach them about: Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and New Year. Feel free to add in Halloween but would stay away from Veterans Day or Memorial Day. I wanted to make the vibe a bright and positive lesson about holidays – not about war or deceased soldiers.
Think about the 4th of July – Americans just drink, barbecue and set off fireworks. It’s somewhat underwhelming.
I’ve been working on some activities for the 4th this week! My students requested that I teach more about culture in the US, so here’s what I’m doing (JHS):
-USA/ independence day trivia PowerPoint game: they’ll be in teams, I’ll give some easy questions, and get to teach a little bit of culture
-State quiz: give them a blank map with the states numbered. See how many they can guess. I’ll give them the opportunity to get some hints. I gave this quiz to a few of my coworkers with some hilarious results, so I think the students will find it pretty funny too
-4th of July themed English board: I’m putting this up this week, but I’m not quite finished. Just general who/what/when/where/why/how. I’ll put some hints for the trivia/states quiz on there too. I’m also going to put a copy of the declaration of independence on it… the students are fascinated by cursive so I think they’ll get a kick out of trying to read it
-US state animals: I’ve been doing this with my special needs class, in the last week I’ve been going over 10 states and their state animals (so many states list “white-tailed deer”!) As a warm- up each class. They think the state names are funny and they like seeing pictures of the different animals.
Some other ideas you can do with your class:
– for ES: make USA flags. Count 50 stars and 13 stripes and review colors
– guess the American culture: show two pictures and have students guess which one is from the US
-Guess the American slang: I did an Australian version of this and the students found it fun. Show a word and give them a few options to guess from
Book reading: there is a great children’s book about immigration and what it means to be American called [Apple Pie, Fourth of July](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69ywP6y3gM0).
For my classes (SHS but at a level of English that is maybe comparable to JHS?) I usually use it as a listening practice lesson day. My 3rd years take listening tests and so i wrote a small about 1 page speech that I read to the class. Its a VERY watered down reason as to why we celebrate the 4th of July in the US and last year I also mentioned that recently America added June 19th as a holiday as well. So one minute is history then one minute is how people celebrate today. Even this though is a bit long for some classes so i adjust as i see fit.
I usually add a bunch of photos in a slide show for the kids who could care less because when I start to talk about BBQ that’s at least when they perk up a little bit. I include some information about difficult vocabulary words and such. Since its summer and I cant really get my students motivated after semester exams to do much of anything, I get them to talk about what fireworks festivals, parades, or celebrations of that nature they really like. What they get excited for in summer. Usually I have them in pairs jotting down some ideas (usually in Japanese) about what they are excited for or maybe if its a good class what things they think would be cool to experience from my presentation. Maybe if possible ill even have them right down a sentence or two. I might read the story again and have sentences from my speech on their handout that they need to put in order, again to focus on their listening. Maybe ill have a true and false section on the easiest bits of information to double check some basic comprehension.
After that I shift the focus back onto their desires because there is no way I can keep the focus of a class about American history/culture for 50 minutes. Maybe try to practice future tense or some basic infinitive stuff about their plans for summer.
For SHS my “Listening” lesson is pretty normal for them now. I think they expect it after final exams. They know the format since I did similar stuff when they were 1st years. We don’t often practice/focus on listening in class, so its a bit strange at first, but I think that the students get used to it and are interested when they realize they actually understand more than they think.
Good luck!