Elementary School Visit
Yesterday morning myself and three other JCMU students got into a taxi, chartered by JCMU to visit one of the Elementary schools in Hikone. We arrived at the school and went straight into the principals office, where we were served hot tea and made veyr comfortable. The principal and the vice principal came in and talked to us both in Japanese and in English, and they told us how happy they were that we came to visit their school. After a little while we headed off towards the 6th grade classroom. The school was huge, I was very surprised, and very modern looking. It had two floors, and each classroom was very very large. They had about 82 6th-greaders, and how the room was set up was like this: There were 3 separate classrooms that all opened up to one very large room, which was the gathering center, or meeting place for all the 6th-graders. Maybe you can see by some of the pictures, but it was very very nice. In the 6th grade classroom we introduced ourselves in English and in Japanese, and then we broke off into grous where we were “suppose” to teach the kids oragami. In my group two of the girls showed me how to do it, while everyone else silently made their own creations. The girls next to me made perfect cranes, they were folded to perfection, and they looked like an actual crane. Mine, on the other hand, looked like a crane after it had been stepped on, broken in half, and put through a garbage disposal. I thought it looked wonderful however, because as it was my first time making a “crane”, to me it was a work of art. I was feeling quite proud of myself until this little girl came up to me to give me what she made. She made a crane about 1/10th of the size of mine, and it was the most perfected oragami animal i have ever seen. She gave it to me for a gift, which then was followed by everyone else in the class giving me what they made. Now when I stand them all up on my desk next to my crane, mine doesn’t look to good, but I love it all the same. I gave my crane to Noel, for he is very very sick with some awful sore-throat-coughing-cold-thingy, and he was unable to visit an elementary school. I didn’t take any pictures yet of the gifts I receieved yesterday, i thought i would make a video later, to show how good some of them are.
After we left the 6th grade class we went to the fourth grade class. As many of you know, the lower you go in grade-wise in an elementary school, the more you are liked, and worshipped for that matter. The fourth graders were great, they were insane though, like bunnies on drugs or something, and they all wanted to be your friend. In their classroom we just played games, but very fun games. We divided into groups as usual and we played a game exactly like our “hot potato” game. The music would start, we would pass the dodgeball around and when the music stopped, the kid holding the dodgeball would have to say something in English, which was usually: “I like sports.” or a sentence equally as simply. They were very good though, for being in fourth grade and learning some English. After the initial game, the classroom went into another “game mode” where everyone broke off into smaller groups and each kid had a different toy to play with. A group of girls taught me how to play cat’s cradle, and other games with a piece of yarn, while other kids practiced juggling (2 balls, not 3), and some jump-roped, it was a very fun time indeed.
Before we left, everyone all of the sudden wanted our autograph, and while the teachers were trying to pry off the kids from us, we were trying to sign as many little notebooks as possible. Finally they got us into the hallway, where we were followed by a heard of 4th graders to the princlipals office to pick up our oragami from the 6th grade class. Then the fourth graders disappeared, we figured they just went back to the classroom, so we said goodbye, put on our shoes, and went out to the cab, where we found our heard of fourth graders waiting for us. We all got into the cab, and waved to the heard as we pulled away from the school. That was probably the closest I will ever come to being a celebrity, and it felt great.
Here are some pictures:
This is the fourth grade class, and they think it’s so cool to make peace signs around here, so you should see a lot of little hands holding up “peace” with two of their little fingers.
This is a picture of some of the girls teaching me some games with yarn, they were some talented 4th graders, let me tell you…
This is a picture of the girls following us in the hallway when we were leaving, I turned around and took their picture, which they of course posed for happily.
This is a picture of the cutest little boys in the world waving goodbye to us as we were inside the cab pulling away.
I hope you enjoyed my visit to an elementary school!!! I sure did!