Wednesday

Woke up at 7:15am, had ketchup rice for breakfast, and set off for school. A much busier day today with 5 classes. First up was 2-3 in period 1. We continued reading Brown Bear, but they’ve practically got it all memorized! We read it through once, and then once more with the rhythm CD. Then we played a game to change up the pace! I had completely forgotten about Heads Down Thumbs Up (America and Canada call it Heads Up Seven Up apparently!) until another ALT was talking about it at the weekend Hakuba trip. We used the game to have fun and practice the vocab by giving each “picker” an animal picture card, so that when the kids guessed they would say the animal (e.g. Brown Bear) instead of the person’s name as it’s usually played. The kids absolutely LOVED the game and kept asking to play it, and I heard a few kids talking excitedly to each other about playing it at lunchtime. 2-2 up next, and although they were relatively quieter, they still read very well. Since 2-2 is a quieter class, it takes less time to explain the game, and just run the game in general cause they’re so quiet. That allowed us to do two full rounds of Heads Down Thumbs Up, which they were very happy about.

2-1 in period 3 and they were super great today! They read super loudly and clearly (more so than 2-3 actually which I was pleasantly surprised at!), and they also loved the rhythmic version, bobbing their heads to the beat and just being super enthusiastic in general. They also loved Heads Down Thumbs Up, and were very sad that we couldn't play more rounds. All the 2-1 kids are also super concerned about my wrist – as soon as I walked into the classroom, they’re all like “JAIME IS YOUR HAND BETTER YET” and a few kids were even saying to me that my hand’s colour had returned to normal haha (it was pretty swollen and purple last week). Their reactions are just too cute though – when I tell them that my wrist is going to take at least 5 weeks to heal, they’re all like EHHHH!?!? As if it’s totally normal for a fractured wrist to heal in a day haha. 4-2 in period 4, since I wont be here tomorrow for the usual schedule because of an office day. There were at least 10 kids away sick today, so 4-2 is going to be quarantined from tomorrow onwards. We did country flag quizzes, and they were insanely fast at guessing when I was doing the demonstrations. I’d literally just say one hint (blue) and they’d be like “AUSTRALIAAAA” and it’s just like, how did you guys know so fast (when there are other flags with the colour blue like France or USA or NZ)! They then made their own flag quizzes and presented them. There’s never a shortage of volunteers in 4-2, they’re all super enthusiastic, it’s so great.

Lunch with 4-1 again today, and the 4-2 kids were all like “whaaaat you’re not eating with us???” at the end of period 4 haha, sweeties. Lunch today was cream bun (my favourite!) with one strawberry, and chocolate sauce, wonton soup, and salad. 4-1 was doing seating arrangement changes today so the kids were all very excited. Cleaning time was a breeze again today, I love this week’s roster. Last class of the day with 6-2 in period 6, and we finished off the presentations on their dream jobs. They were a bit noisier than usual, probably cause it was 6th period and everyone loses focus then. Got off work at 16:15 after having a quick meeting with Grade 1 teachers for tomorrow’s lesson. Went to wash my car and get some stuff from the drugstore, and also went to the bank to update my bankbook. Had udon with mushrooms for dinner again.