Monday

Woke up at 7:00am, ate some snacks for breakfast, and then drove to school. Used the spare time before period 1 to print some things for Grade 3. First class of the day was 2nd grade. We didn't manage to get a meeting in on Friday (since today’s class was a schedule change – 2nd graders are usually on Wednesday), but the homeroom teacher was all goods and the lesson still ran fairly smoothly despite a minor dispute between one group of kids. Today was their final lesson on “My Town”, so it was using a game to test their knowledge of “left” and “right”, and all the location names too. We did this by using a train game, and the kids had a lot of fun, but there was also a lot of cheating where the last person (the navigator) wouldn't really say left and right, but just drag the team to where they wanted them to go. So the “left” and “right” practice was a bit iffy, but at least they all did great on remembering the location names! As expected “shrine” is still the hardest for them. The “shr” sound is the hardest, so all of them are pronouncing “shiiiiine” instead of “shrine”. This class in particular also has a thing for calling “library” “raspberry”! But they got the others in the end. The minor dispute between one group was when they didn't end up fairly distributing turns between the members, so one boy cried because he only got to be the train driver once. The homeroom teacher sorted it out though, and the rest of the groups managed to enjoy the game, so it wasn’t too bad.

Next were the 3rd graders. I have no idea why, but the 3rd grade classes are the most tiring for me. I thought it would be 1st or 2nd grade, but it’s always Mondays (all 3rd grade classes in a row) that tire me out. Today wasn’t too bad, as the usual rowdy class was actually relatively well behaved today! I had talked to my pred about it and did what she suggested – telling the kids about the lesson plan and writing it out on the board (and putting the game last so that they have something to look forward to) did help them to be less rowdy and more organized. Magic! This class did pretty well in remembering vocab – stomach, teeth, and leg were the hardest for them to remember. Leg and feet are the same word (but different kanji) in Japanese so I don't blame them for having trouble remembering “leg” and “feet”. During the 20 minute break a lot of 1st and 2nd graders found me to hand in their emoji worksheets and get their sticker rewards.

After the break it was the other two 3rd grade classes. They also weren’t too bad and did a great job remembering the body parts. They were also really good at the game, so I had to add in extra levels to make it harder for them. It was pretty funny though, because each time I added in a level they would be like “EEEEHHHHHH” with a very dramatic reaction. The final 3rd grade class always seems to finish a little earlier than the others (I guess they’re the most well behaved class?) but the homeroom teacher is great and always jumps in to fill in those last few minutes with some random questions and stuff. One of the 3rd grade teachers also commented on the body parts video I had found and said she liked it a lot, and that it was really helpful for the kids, so that was great!

For lunch this week I had moved onto the 2nd graders (sad to say goodbye to my grade 1 cuties!) and was eating with 2-1. Their teacher said they had been so excited about me coming, and this class was so talkative and eager to ask me questions that their homeroom teacher had to constantly remind them to sit down and move on with serving the school lunch. For lunch today we had rice, soup with tofu, mushroom, and carrot, and fish. There was leftover rice again today, but instead of bringing it home I decided to eat it for lunch since I didn't have a lot for breakfast, so I was extremely hungry. During the lunch break the 2nd graders all got me to sign their books (kids are just so into signatures here, it’s so funny), and then the 1st graders hunted me down so they could get their stickers for their emoji worksheets. One emoji has gone missing though so I will have to hunt that down, so that the kids can continue finishing their worksheets! During cleaning today the 2nd graders were really cute, with one girl acting as a leader and telling the others to clean and do a good job. I didn't even have to do anything!

Last class of the day was the last 1st grade class. This class was also able to remember the animal names very well, only forgetting giraffe. It was also quite hilarious because they all seemed to get too hyped during the game, so they forgot a lot of animal names too. They were all like “Ah I know this animal but I forgot!” and then when I told it to them they’d be like “Oh so I was right!!!”. Cuties. This class also loved the gathering game, giving big shouts of やった! when they found their matching buddies. This class also had a lot of good drawers too – in the drawing your own zoo activity, one girl was super good and literally replicated all the animal flash card cartoon animals. Amazing. The teachers had a meeting in the afternoon but the VP said I didn't have to go, so I stayed in the staffroom with the caretaker and the librarian. The librarian was cute as – she was like “Ok all the teachers are gone! Now’s my chance!” and told me about next Monday’s plans. She had very kindly offered to take me out to one of her favourite shrines in some faraway mountains, and had even written out a very detailed itinerary like a tour guide! So hardout.

Got off work at 16:45 and went straight home. I’m trying my best this month to limit all spendings so that I can have at least ¥80,000 left in my bank account, which is my ideal monthly savings goal.