Telling your students to "Go Away!"

 

Go away, kids!

A risky strategy if you want to get paid next month!

My kindy classes fell on Feb 3rd, which is 'setsubun' festival in Japan this year. It's an occassion when children throw (soy) beans at a monster (usually the oldest bloke in the house) shouting 'oni wa soto' - literally, go away monster.

The idea is to shoo away bad luck/evil spirits from the house, and to invite good luck in through the open door. I am sure many cultures have similar mid-winter superstitions/traditions (what are they?).

Monster mash

Who doesn't like making masks?! I wanted two different ones so I could divide my class into 2 groups, to shout at each other by the end of the lesson. Content was reviewing/recognising some letters of the alphabet & following colouring directions. We had not done a Hallowe'en theme last year - for several reasons including I think it is a cultural imposition & inappropriate! But the Super Simple Song "Go Away" from Halloween fits this task rather snuggly, so first time of hearing, my monsters quickly got the idea and could use their new English phrase at home on demand :)

What do you think? Monsters banished?!