Events as of late: Part 1

Events as of late: Part 1, Halloween

The month of October had me very busy in the elementary schools. I was asked to plan all the grades at all my schools for the day. Since I go to one elementary school a week, this month went by fast with the lesson planning. The idea of a major game came to me a couple days when they announced that I’d be running classes. So far, the classes have been in the room. Usually we’d play with flashcards, sing a song, play a game, and other elementary stuff. However, when it came to me planning, my mind drew a blank in what to do.

My first and second graders about to hear my Halloween story

I formulated my game from what I wanted to get the students to do. First, I wanted them to learn about the holiday. Second, I wanted them to get tired. Finally, I wanted them to remember this day and have fun. The first idea was simple, practice the ritual of trick or treating. I did this first by borrowing Joe’s cardboard cutout of a house with an opening door. I also borrowed some costumes and candy. I then thought of a story to tell the kids. I’ve told it so many times that even I memorized it. It went a little something like this:

In America, children come to my house

In a costume

And knock on the door

I say “Who is it?”

Students say “Trick or treat”

You might think this would take a couple seconds to say, but believe it or not, this took up 10 minutes of class time. I would progress one line and then repeat the story. I asked them if they understood and had Goto sensei (my support teacher) have them recite what I said in Japanese to make sure they understood. During my whole speech, I asked the homeroom teacher to hide behind the blackboard (which was setup for me) and put on the costumes I brought. After my little story, I would say “Ok, now we practice trick or treat.” That was the queue for the teacher to come out. The kids were hysterical to see their teacher dressed up. We would go through the motions of trick or treat while I tell the story once again.

The kids trick or treating at my "house"

Following the run-through, I asked the students to make one line and have a go at trick or treat. I brought more costumes for them to choose before knocking on my door. I took this opportunity to take the pictures (I now have pictures of all my students in all my elementary schools). Now I can study faces and try to start remembering names. That idea was fairly constant in all my schools.

The next idea was to get them tired. This was the part that had me thinking for a long time. I wanted them to have fun, but so many ways to do so. I finally settled on a game that was faxed to me by Joe, however with my variation.

This game needed the gym. In some schools, this was a 20 minute discussion in a staff meeting whether or not I could use it (even though no one was using it at the time I wanted it). I had the students break into two teams. The makeup of teams varied from school to school and grade to grade. Some classes did a janken with no scissors and broke it up from there. Others had designated colors that they belonged to. When team games came around, all they had to do was go to their color.

Team 1 ready to go

Passing the baton "Here you are!" "Thank You!"

I had two sets of three cones ahead of the starting line where each team stood behind. There was a broom by the first cone and a small, unbalanced rubber ball at the starting line. I explained the rules to them. Each student must run to the broom and spin ten times. After that they run to the ball and sweep it in a zig zag fashion around the cones. When they come back they must pass the baton (in my case the hat/wig and broom). The passer must say “Here you are” and the taker must say “thank you”. While the student is spinning around, everyone counts in English to ten.

At first I thought this would be an ok game, but I severely underestimated the competition culture of Japan. The kids went nuts! They would come up with baseball cheers for the running student. It got so loud with the chanting and counting that other teachers who had no class that period would come and watch. I motivated them by making up times that the other schools did and challenged them to do better. The loudest bunch I found were the 3^rd and 4^th graders. They went absolutely insane. The students waiting would jump up and down while the others ran by the sidelines cheering their team mates on. I really didn’t need to have them spin around, but I needed a laugh. It was a hit in all my schools. The teachers would often come in the teacher’s lounge afterwards and talk about how tired they were (they ran too if the teams were uneven) and how fun it was. However, the downside was that some students went to the nurse’s office for headaches…haha!

The third idea of having fun just fell into place. Some students have older siblings that talk to me about their younger sibling(s) played a fun game and got chocolate. Some parents have even contacted me saying that their kid talked about the class. So I’m pretty sure that the game had a positive impact.

Overall, I think the Halloween lessons went beyond my expectations. I had no idea students would react so enthusiastically to running them ragged and sending them to the nurse. Maybe I might do a bigger Christmas game.