Elementary School Days: Uo-sho

Uonome Elementary School Day

Today was my trip to Uo-sho. Due to scheduling changes, I’ll end up visiting this school on consecutive weeks. When I arrived, the kids were doing their morning run I placed my bag down on my desk and watched them from the teacher’s office. Suddenly, the science teacher teleported behind me and asked if I wanted to run with them. Holding back my laughter, I politely said no. He took off to run with them while I strolled out of the door to observe the kids from the field.

Coming to school seeing the kids on their morning run

I was greeted with enthusiastic hellos as I walked down the stairs to get a better view. By the time I got there, I had several kids surrounding me trying their English on me. God I wish my Jr. High kids were like this. They are a curious bunch of kids, always wanting to know what my IPod is playing, trying my glasses, and climbing me. It’s not surprising to let one kid wear my sun glasses and have them run off. I won’t see them for 30 minutes until a different kid comes back with them. I always check that they didn’t scratch it or I start busting heads. The morning bell rang and the kids shuffled in to get ready for school.

My first class of the day was with the sixth graders. If I had to compare my elementary schools, I think this one has a little better grasp of English than Kita Uonome, but not by much. I do have one star student in the bunch, who’s English is pretty good along with the pronunciations. The lesson was favorite sports. I first greeted the glass and asked them how are they, how’s the weather, etc. It followed by me explaining to them the new sentences:

“What sport do you like the best?” which is replied by “I like ~ the best”.

After having them repeat after me a couple times, I went ahead and taught them a variety of sports that came in the flash card pack I found online. They were surprisingly sufficient in the vocabulary. The game I had planned had them taking the cards I made and asking each other those target sentences. If they had the same sport, they would group up. I told them how many cards were in the same group and when they got that amount, they would sit down. However, I made this a penalty game in which the last group to get together and sit down would have to do “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” song. It really made the kids energetic to ask, albeit a bit sloppy at times, but at least they weren’t slacking.

The second game we played was a sports version of Fruits Basket. I told the kids to remember the groups they were in, as that was their favorite sport for this game. It went absolutely insane when the kids started to fire off 2-3 different sports and having kids literally diving into the open seats. By the time class was over, kids were sitting down saying “Tsukarreta” to each other, which was the point of my lesson. Anytime I get them tired, I believe I did my job correctly. We said our goodbyes and took some pictures.

My next class was with the fourth graders. These kids are very enthusiastic about English and would gladly initiate conversation with me. I have a sneaking suspicion that one day some of them will come knocking when I’m on the toilet just to say hi and try their English.

Anyways, the game we played for this grade was a restaurant game. After greeting the kids, I explained to them we are going to have a restaurant. They got super excited about this and even more excited when I pulled out my fake dollar bills. First we practiced new vocabulary so they know what they’re looking at during the game. I had flash cards of maybe 40 foods and drilled them for about 15 minutes. After the drill, I explained to them the new target sentences:
“What would you like”

“ ~ please. How much?”

“It’s ~ dollars”

You get the idea. The items had various prices on them, with the crab at $15. I split the class into 4 groups, 2 waiter groups and 2 customer groups and had them rotate once all the cards have been bought out. Passing out the money was a circus in itself, ALL the kids rushed me for their 10 fake dollars. I checked my own wallet to make sure those little vultures didn’t take more than I wanted to give. It was great fun, but the kids enjoyed it a little too much. I had a hard time getting them to pay attention to me when I was telling them class was over. I had to repeat myself several times in English then in Japanese to pay attention.

The restaurant game

This looked calmer than it really was

The next class was with my third graders. The plan was the same as fourth grade, so the results and mayhem were also similar. I had to guide more of them through the English because there are more shy kids in this class. However, everything worked out. I was even able to get control back after class.

The next class was with my 5^th graders. The lesson was the same as the 6^th graders. Nothing really different in this class, still the loud crazy kids going all over the place when I scream “I like all sports” during Sports basket.

After four classes, it was time for lunch. My lunch was spent with the 3^rd graders where they had a fun time asking me my favorite stuff. They also started asking me how old I was, my middle name, and if I wanted to marry their teacher. It turns out that my teacher is exactly my age but a few months older. My smooth Rico Suave character kicked in as I turned to her, sitting with my knees above desk level, and saying “Maybe”. This got the kids going and the teacher turned a nice shade of red as she went back eating her rice. The lunch period continued with the interrogations and then another dragonball z discussion.

After lunch, it was recess time! This is a time where social structures don’t matter and everyone is equal….in dodgeball. Today I played with my third graders. If you haven’t heard before, I take no prisoners in dodgeball. It’s my only outlet of frustration to counter the “anti-kancho kick in the face but I can’t” reaction. This time, no blood, and I think I pulled a muscle in my leg. After lunch I wobbled back as a kid returned my glasses (let someone wear them before heading out for recess).

Around 2pm, I had to teach my 20 minute English class to my 1^st and 2^nd graders. We did colors, because it was the only thing I found in the storage room after the teachers told me that they were changing plans and letting me plan it today. So we learned some colors. The game was set in the gym. I would yell a color and the kids would have to run somewhere and touch something of that color. My favorite colors were the ones the teachers were wearing that was in my vocab list. The children would swarm them. However, when I said blue, the kids swarmed me because I forgot I was wearing a blue sweater today.

20 minutes went by in a hurry and we said our goodbyes. The school drives me back to my Junior High school where I would wait for the bus to arrive. However, the teachers at my junior high school were playing volleyball to practice for this weekend’s teacher volleyball thing. So I played with them for an hour before finally getting a ride from the school nurse.

Today was pretty eventful! I love Wednesdays because of Elementary School and the crazy activities I make them do. Until next week!