One goal teachers of CLIL lessons have is to connect the content of the lesson with the student's real life. However, sometimes it is the teacher's real life that connects to the lesson!

A fun lesson we recently created for BIG BOW English Lab was one on carnivorous plants, such as a Venus flytrap or a pitcher plant. Students love to hear about how plants can eat bugs because it sounds like something from a science fiction movie. Some of the students have shared stories about owning a Venus flytrap or seeing one for sale in a plant nursery.

Soon after we finished this lesson, it was an unexpected surprise to see so many of these carnivorous plants for sale at Tsuboi Kenjuen plant nursery near Takabata station. This plant nursery has many kinds of unusual plants.

They had pitcher plants,

Venus flytraps,

and cobra lilies. It's interesting that cobra lilies are from the United States, but I saw my first one in Japan!

It's nice to learn about something in a book, but nothing beats seeing the real thing!