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?!

Luna's monster scrapbook

Cute and cuddly or stuff of nightmares?

Eeek! It's Friday the 13th and there's something horribly frighting I have to show you all! My students have been busy making a monster scrapbook, terrifying enough to give even the most composed of souls the creeps!

We began with a body as a starting point, and used a trusty die to determine how many of each body part we would add to our crazy creations. 6 heads with 1 eye, 4 feet with 4 toes, you name it, we had it! 

For the more advanced students, there was an additional twist where the activity was a dictation exercise, pairing an adjective (short, big, thin etc) with each body part.

Leave us a comment with which monster you think has the most resemblance to either Damian or Jim!

Horrible Halloween - what can a monster do?

Kotone's crazy creature's

Now I do realize I’m a little late to the party with a Halloween post, but this is what happens if you rely on 10 year olds to get their homework done and handed in on time!

We have been learning to use “can” and “can’t” for abilities recently, so I thought it would be interesting to combine these abilities with some spooky creatures. We started by sharing our own ideas on what a monster/vampire/ghost etc can or can’t do: “Can a bat drive a car?”, “No it can’t!!” Don't be daft Damian.

Moeka's mysterious mummies

We then set about putting our ideas down on paper. We did this by drawing a park scene which depicted Halloween creatures playing/having a picnic together; incorporating the various actions and abilities we had covered in lesson. Everyone did an excellent job showing what each creature can or can’t do, and we followed this up by writing sentences to describe our pictures on handwriting paper. Eventually we managed to arrive at the finished product and had a bit of show and tell session to show off our work, just in time for… Well classroom decorations for next Halloween I guess.

Quick Hallowe'en masks

 Workshop today at Luna was all about making Hallowe'en masks.

Yes, I am not into the whole Hallowe'en thing at all (erm but I love the whole Pendle Hill thing) as an utterly false American premise...but it does lend itself  to an very nice arts & crafts session. Hypocrite Jim sensei!

What do you need? An hour or so to get all the bits & pieces lined up for a start - after you've done the shopping. This after you have had a trial run on your own to get the steps sorted out/iron out wrinkles/fine tune design & process...otherwise you end up blowing your timing and having a project half undone. In cooking terms, mis en place.

Paper plates (pre-painted = save all the drying hassle) & draw in a pencil face. Chop off the top, turn upside down & re-attach via dangles as a mouth. Fill in with a black marker. Use a paper punch on either side to make ear-holes - rubber band through each & tie them together with a length of wool. More wool, threads pulled apart, to add a fringe and a beard.

One hour done :)

Remember, Remember, the fifth of November...

After my annual "ya boo" at Hallowe'en, here is my other annual Guy Fawkes' posting!

Check out these links to find out more about "Bonfire Night":

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/civil_war_revolution/gunpowder_robinson_01.shtml
• http://www.bonfirenight.net/gunpowder.php
• http://www.rhymes.org.uk/remember_remember_the_5th_november.htm



The Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, Laing Art Gallery (Tyne and Wear Museums) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• http://www.guyfawkes.me.uk/

Now before you ask "Why don't you have Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night celebration them?" I would like to point out that

1. There are rules about open fires in this city with an historic (WOODEN!) castle and we are very close to it.
2. Anybody got any fireworks?
3. We tried before - it is a very cold night!
4. It is just as irrelevant as Hallowe'en :) in Japan

Halloween: I don't get it

 Call me a killjoy, old and boring or just English...I really don't get Halloween. Actually, it should be Hallowe'en. Erm. Or in full, All Hallows' Eve.

For me, the real autumn party is November the fifth - Guy Fawkes; bonfires, fireworks, toffee apples -oh, my first kiss (in Endcliffe Park) too!

If we want to to do witches and stuff, then surely that has to be autumnal equinox - preferably somewhere nice and remote like Pendle Hill or Salem County, chuck in some bad weather...or just a fab location like Stonehenge or a Mayan pyrammid?

We are a long way from Luna! Compared to life in Japan 20+ years ago, things are a lot more multi-cultural (on the face of it). Kids don't point and shout 'GAIJIN' anymore for a start, like they did when I first landed on the moon (Suzaka). Christmas starts in October. I can get real Guinness...When my friends & I went carol singing in Christmas Eve 1990, the police were called.

Kokoro and Kyoichiro dressed up for our play lesson this morning...for once mums not in matching garb. But, both families featured in this month's life & style magazine...so maybe some teacher envy?! Nooooo. We have the best train set in town!



A few links:

• All Hallows' Eve from the Beeb
• All Saints' Day images from the Grauniad
• An 'out there' link
• What does Wikipedia say?

Gunpowder, Treason & Plot: plasticine, glue, and snacks

What are you making? What are you doing? I must remember to keep the plasticine in a warm place during the winter, or we'll end up with house bricks for toys...was jolly hard getting the stuff up to a workable temperature this morning. Snow on the mountain tops a telling sign that we need extra layers & warm slippers now.

Now, a pet moan: I don't get the whole Hallowe'en kerfuffle. It's an American import at best. Only good if you happen to know where all the student nurses are going to be partying. Guy Fawkes? Now there's a proper story you can work with! Head, shoulders, knees and toes (all ended up in separate places). Head bone connected to the, neck bone etc. Admittedly did cannibalise some Hallowe'en material, but the fun was in trying not to cut off toes or knees as we re-built our skeletons and glued them together for a Bonfire Night collage.


Left-handed scissors are essential (for lefties!) and can be found even in Japan now - like the Catholics, olden time Japan had a thing for converting southpaws into ortodox righties.


Fortunately, fish are ambidextrous (?!), though they are sensitive to having their heads squashed in a bucket - less so than a tank full of gunky slime though. We retraced our 'neighbourhood shops' walk to get some 'magic water' and a new filter. Ugh! Fish poo stinks, but not as much as the prices in Starbucks (our pre-schoolies were demanding we stop in for a coffee break!)

Your challenge with the picture right is to decide what interaction is taking place, and what language structures should be used! how do you think this is going to end?

Halloween witch

by Ritsuha and Haruno

Festivals in other cultures - Halloween

Image via Wikipedia

Haruka & I had been talking about 'Coming of Age' Day (Seijin No Hi) in Japan - it's a long way off for her! She used to live in Florida, and has first hand experience trick or treating. This is what she wrote for homework.

Every Year - Hallowe'en

In some countries there is Halloween. We go around neighbours in the afternoon and get candy.

It's on October 31st, every kid dresses up as something. Last year I was a witch, and before that I was a fairy. I don't like plastic Halloween bags to put candies in because they will break. My plastic bag broke because of too much candy.

Finally, if it's started, every house is ready to go get candies and give them. It is a lot of fun. I hope you could know how fun it is.

By Haruka (10)

Tokyo Bookfair & Bledisloe Cup

Last weekend I spent in Tokyo at the annual Tokyo EFL bookfair/English Teachers in Japan jamboree. I try to go every year, to dig up new ideas and remember old ones, figure out what the next big thing in teaching will be etc. It is also a good opportunity to meet old friends in the industry - teachers as well as publishers - and to catch up over a few beers on the Saturday evening.

Delightfully, somebody organised the Bledisloe Cup to coincide at the National Stadium...and along a good sized group of us went, finding a row of seats up at the back of the stand. No problem except we couldn't see the screen/scoreboard for replays, score updates etc; neither did the beer dollies manage to make it far enough up the stand with any supplies for our thirsty mob. Some parts of the ground apparently ran out altogether. Bad planning again, JRFU. Why do they insist on selling canned beer, openning each one and pouring it it a cup? Think this is why draft beer was invented...

Anyway, good game, and as will be with this weekend v England, Australia outclassed. We lost a few stragglers on the way to Shinjuku, picked up a few others including one of my old students at Waseda now. A fairly bizarre night as it was also Hallowe'en!

The presentations over the weekend proved valuable for me; these days I orientate towards the more technical ones as I have seen enough happy clappy ones to last me a while. One in particular on using Google documents more effectively made the trip worthwhile.

A year in my life

I like to sleep in my hot bed in January.
I like to cook sweets and udon in February.
I like to read exciting books in March.
I like to watch baseball on TV in April.
I like to listen to Japanese pop music in May.
I like to swim in the Imai outdoor pool in June.
I like to go shopping in Parco in July.
I like to play at bonbon in August.
I like to win swimming races in September.
I like to eat baked sweet potatoes in October.
I like to build small snowmen in my yard in November.
I like to ski at Hakuba 47 with my family in December.
My favorite month is October, because of Halloween.

Kiho was here :)