Thursday

Woke up at 7:00am, rice and soup for breakfast, then cycled to school. Busy day again today with all 6 periods filled with classes. First up was 4-1 and we were reading the picture book “Who stole the cookies?”. Started with a chant, and it was actually really cute (バナナじゃなくてBanana) and the kids chanted along with it well. I did the “guessing the animal sounds” game too, since I had the animal sounds saved from the 1st grade classes. They liked that, and similar to the 1st graders they couldn't guess mouse well! Someone thought it was a bird. We then read the story through a few times, with them repeating after me. After that was the footprint powerpoint quiz, and they just couldn't get giraffe which was really cute. They were just saying whatever animal names came to mind, and when they finally realized it was giraffe (I gave them a hint: “yellow”), they couldn't remember the English and kept saying to each other “キリン”.

Next up in 2nd period was 1-1 – they’re probably the most energetic 1st grade class, we did the “Left and Right” song/dance twice today since they like it too much. Like the 2nd graders, they had trouble with “library” and “shrine”, but they did good in the rhythmic vocab chant, going faster and faster! Town Basket with them was wild again, as this class is super duper 元気, running around everywhere and they all wanted to be the kid that stands in the middle instead of sitting down. We were able to move on to letting the kids say the place (instead of me) and I was really glad that they were able to say the places on their own without me helping them. They’re also the most affectionate class – I’m just walking down the corridor towards their classroom and they’ll peek round the door, see me, and yell “JAIME-SENSEI IS HERE” multiple times. It’s too funny and adorable – there was a teacher walking behind me and she laughed when she heard them.

3rd period was 2-2, and there was another teacher in the class today observing (maybe something like peer reviews between teachers?). Class was a bit noisy today as the kids were a bit restless. This class has the most trouble remembering the vocab (mainly ruler, eraser, and blackboard – they keep saying black boy, forgetting the “rd” at the end). 4th period was with 1-3 and they’re the most well behaved 1st grade class. They listen well and they’re not as hyper. There is this one kid who talks to himself a lot and it’s really cute – the rambling type? He’ll come up to you and say a whole bunch of random stuff really fast and walk away with a little dance. Class went well but they had trouble remembering post office, shrine, and library. For library they were just saying “berry”, it was very cute. They had a lot of fun in the Town Basket game as well, but all of them were purposely moving slow because they all wanted to be the one that stands in the middle!

Lunch today with 2-3 again, and we had mapo tofu with rice, egg soup, and an orange that was insanely easy to peel. The orange was served in halves with the skin still on, so I asked the kids how they eat it and they said you peel it. Some kids were using a spoon and scooping it out like ice cream though. Sat with the 3rd group today, and there was one girl who was so mature and asked me about my favourite celebrities (she knew them too!) and she named so many Kpop idols and Korean actors/actresses that she liked. She also said she likes Amuro Namie, which I was so surprised at because she’s only 8 years old but knows so much already!? It’s probably because she has a 15 year old older sister though. She said their family watches dramas and movies together a lot at home. Also found out one of the kids was actually Chinese and goes back to China all the time. I had no idea he was Chinese though so it was a surprise. Spent the lunchtime in the staffroom today cause I was tired. Cleaning time was a breeze again today, one of the kids was being funny and playing golf with the broomstick and the rubbish. They have successfully learnt the word “rubbish” now so yay for that learning opportunity.

Last two periods! 5th was with 4-2, and it was another very smooth class. I think out of all the classes, regardless of grade, 4-2 is the best in English – they’re responsive, well behaved, and are always super eager to answer questions. This time, as well as doing the “Aha!” part very enthusiastically, they also did the “Who me?” part with a lot of expression as well. They were also hilarious during the footprint quiz, as they were shouting the most random animals without even thinking about the actual footprint (it was a rabbit’s footprint but they were shouting out tiger, monkey, lion, etc.). We finished all the planned activities a bit early so we did some vocab drills with the beat, and they loved to make the beat go faster and faster.

6th period with 5-1, and we spent the first half of the lesson finishing off the alphabet worksheets, and the 2nd half playing the alphabet game I made. I was able to explain the game a bit better this time round, so it ran a bit more smoothly with the kids actually doing the activities written on the cards. There was a lot of crowding around the blackboard because of one card asking them to write all the months in English. Also, I learnt that Ironman is spelt アイアンマン in Japanese and not アイオンマン like I thought. It’s amazing how much a difference ア and オ make though because as soon as I changed to saying アイアンマン they’d be like “OH IRONMAN I GOT YOU”. I found that really interesting. Got off work promptly again at 16:00 and cycled home. Had dumplings for dinner before going out to get some stuff at Daiso.