Thursday

Woke up at 7:10am feeling super full from last night’s hotpot buffet! Had a bit of rice for breakfast still though, cause today is all 1st grade classes so I need the energy! In the morning, 6-2’s homeroom teacher gave me the page of the 6th graders’ graduation book to write a message in (yay! I was wondering when it would come cause all the other schools’ ALTs have been asking me to help translate their messages) – the page was super cute, all the teachers wrote their messages in pancakes! First up was 4-1 today and they were super great! Their hard work practicing in all the 20 minute breaks/lunch breaks paid off, and their plays are very polished. We were able to go through two full runs of the play in class, and it’s looking absolutely fantastic. Everyone is saying their lines with nice and loud clear voices (some have great pronunciation as well) and moving their puppets with appropriate actions as well. They also waited very quietly for their turns, which 4-2 didn’t do so well in in comparison.

1-1 up next and it was just another fun class. Funnily enough, they were the only 1st grade class with no tears today during karuta! We sang the Hello and Colours song first, and then finished off the colour bingo that we started last week. Then we moved into shapes! Took a lot longer than colours to learn (triangle and square were especially hard for them, whereas star and heart were super easy) so we spent a bit longer in repeating the vocab. Played the missing game to test them, and then played shapes karuta. I was very impressed that no kids cried in class today (there’s always usually some tears in karuta). It was also super hilarious because a lot of them still hadn’t got the hang of the shapes, so they were just slapping their hands down on whichever card, and if they happened to get the right one they’d yell a massive YAAAAAY as if they’d just won the World Cup. Cuties. Spent the 20 minute break with 4-1’s kids again practicing the play, but this time with the puppets as well. My JTE organized practices because she thought (and I agreed) that we should keep them practicing so that the play would be fresh in their heads. Even though they’re really good now, if we don’t keep up the repetition, they’d just forget it. The practice was great, and we agreed to meet again during lunchtime!

1-2 in period 3 and they were pretty much the same as 1-1, except there were a few smart kids who got all the shapes learnt pretty fast. Had a few tears in karuta, but they stopped relatively quickly, and even their homeroom teacher laughed at it cause it was just too cute. 1-3 in period 4 and they were the class that struggled the most with learning the shapes. They said the vocab fine, but when it came to karuta it was just a free for all where they were grabbing whatever card, instead of actually thinking about what shape was what! It was hilarious to watch though, they were just way too cute. Lunch today was really nice as well – salad, soup, and a hotdog with mince sauce (that had beans in it? Kind of like a nachos dip). Today’s broadcast was the storybook reading session though, so that’s why today’s lunchtime was pretty quiet. One kid did ask me very cutely what colour a pig is, and when I answered pink he did this little pose and says “正解!” and also told me very enthusiastically that pig’s noses were purple. Spent the lunch break practicing with 4-1’s kids again, and I filmed their practice and played it back for them. They loved being in front of the camera, and when one kid came back from playing outside, and the other kids were like “Hey our practice got filmed and we got to watch it”, he got so jealous and was like “Awh what! I want to be filmed!” and regretted not coming to practice haha.

Last class of the day with 4-2 in period 5 and we were also able to go through 2 runs of the play, but they weren’t as good. Everyone is just a bit more talkative in 4-2, so they weren’t quite able to wait as quietly, or say their lines when it was their turn, had to keep being reminded, and so on. They’re also not as put together as 4-1 when it comes to practicing on their own. There’re more kids in 4-1 who have their lines memorised than in 4-2. We’re going to continue practice with 4-2 in breaks though so I think it’ll be alright. And when it comes to the final performance I’m sure they’ll buckle up and be a lot more quiet for the real thing. Period 6 was club activity time (they have club activities once every few ish weeks?) and it was cute cause you could hear the sounds of clubs all around the school (music, sports, one group was playing those old school wooden racquet + feather things so the sounds were floating through to the staffroom). I really want to play with the badminton club but I keep missing the chance! Got off work at 16:15 and drove to Daiso to get some stuff before going home.