Thursday

Woke up at 7:15am, had a banana and some rice for breakfast, and then drove to school. A day of play practices with grade 4 and 1 today. First up was 4-1 and for today we separated into the groups that they would be performing in. Today’s focus was not only reading/memorizing the lines, but also putting them together with the corresponding actions and gestures. 4-1 has been really good about practicing on their own, so most of them are at least able to read/say their lines. One or two kids have their lines memorized. I was only able to check 1 group fully, and 1 group a quarter way through, but from hearing their practices in the classroom, I’m not worried at all because in each group there’s a “leader” like figure (usually the kid who is better at English) that runs the practices very properly, so they’ll be fine. The wolves and mothers in particular are also putting a lot of expression and emotion into their lines, so that’s really good. Officially we kinda only have 2 more lessons to go before presentation time, so my JTE is a little worried we might not make it in time. It all depends on how well the kids memorize their lines over the winter break, since they can at least all say their lines with the script in front of them.

Next up was 1-1 in period 2 and we practiced the play two times in preparation for tomorrow with the character headbands I made. Then we played the game that we’d be playing with the 6th graders tomorrow. 1-1 was super energetic and hyper as usual, so practice was a little tough, as well as playing the game. Out of all the 1st grade classes, they’re probably the only class who I’m a little wary about, in terms of how they’ll perform tomorrow. I feel like the other classes’ homeroom teachers have better control over their classes (more discipline) and also they’re more involved in the lesson, whereas 1-1’s teacher is hovering the sides and background during the lesson and only occasionally stepping in to say some things in Japanese. But I also don’t blame him too much because all the hyper kids really are gathered in his class! In the 20 minute morning break, one of the 4th grade kids came to find me cause he wanted help for the 4th grade’s play script! I was in 1-1’s class packing up and he was just waiting patiently outside, it was so adorable. I didn’t realize he was waiting for me otherwise I would’ve just told him to come into the classroom! Such impressive manners. 4-1 is really taking their play pretty darn seriously, it’s great.

1-2 in period 3 and they had super great practices. Both their homeroom teacher and I were very happy and pleased, and we look forward to tomorrow! One of the kids asked how many points I would rate their performance, and when I answered 100/100 he was so happy and was like ONE HUNDRED? REALLY? YAY! So cute. They loved playing the game as well and kept asking to play more rounds, but we didn’t have enough time. One of the girls also came up with a great way to tie the character headbands around their waist like a belt, instead of around their heads because it would keep slipping down! It was a great idea, and we decided to do as such tomorrow. 1-3 also had perfect runs through the play and if possible they seemed to love the game even more than they did when we played it last week. I was able to play the most rounds with 1-3 since they’re a good class who moves quietly and settles down quickly, leaving much more time to do games and activities. It was funny seeing the kids play the role of the wolf in the game though, because they’d shout out huge numbers excitedly in order to get everyone close enough so that they could catch them. It was also hilarious because a lot of the 1st graders were purposely not running away, or purposely standing super close to the front and not budging, because they wanted to be caught and become the wolf role. They seem to always do that though, for these kinds of games, like when we play Fruits Basket it’s the same, they just stand and waddle around in the middle cause they all want to be the middle man! Too funny.

Lunch today was ketchup chicken fried rice, and egg + tofu soup and half a mandarin. I forgot my phone today though so I couldn't take a photo. Today’s lunchtime was also a great one with the special needs classes, and we talked about favourite ice cream flavours and disliked foods (the kids in the class don’t like vegetables and beans). One kid is allergic to eggs though so sadly he has never eaten ice cream before. But he can still eat shaved ice so that’s good. Cleaning time was again a breeze – it’s really nice that the usual naughty girl has been behaving really well this week! Rewarded them with some leftover Halloween stickers which they were really happy about. Final lesson today with 4-2 in period 5, and we ran through the play once with each group, just lines though. Again same with 4-1, the wolves and mothers are especially good with their expressions and emotions. It took a little while to settle 4-2 down though because they’re just a more noisy class in general, so always talking a bit and stuff like that. But everyone was serious in the practice room during the run through so I was pretty happy. One of the kids took the wolf picture I had made to use to tell the story and taped it to his head, and it was actually a genius idea because it meant I wouldn't have to make masks for the kids, and then we wouldn't have to spend a class hour making the props, so now we have 1 more class time of play practice which is great and what we needed! Since I also printed in colour and laminated the picture cutouts as well, they look great stuck on the kids head. Probably much better than just a paper mask, so it was a great idea.

Got off work on time at 16:00 and drove home to get my phone before going back out to the bank (pay day!) to pay rent and the last of my car payment! After that I picked up an ALT friend at a nearby station and we went to Aeon Mall to meet up with two other ALT friends to watch Star Wars! Went for a little bit of shopping before that, since we were watching the late night 21:00 show. Found a lot of jumpers that I liked at a shop that was on 50% sale everything storewide, so I was able to buy 4 new jumpers. Jumpers are the best thing to wear at school and I also needed some for the upcoming snowboarding season! I went to have a look at some humidifiers too at the pretty interior store there, but they were all too expensive for my humidifier budget. After we finished shopping we went to watch Star Wars! It was decent – there was one “wow” moment, but the rest was predictable and expected. Still a good watch in the cinema I guess – awesome soundtrack and CGI as always. The movie finished way later than we all thought so I got home after midnight after dropping off my friend.