A Day at Alps Park

A few weeks back we spent the best day at Alps Park. The sun was shining, the kids were smiling, and everyone was in the best mood. Couldn't have asked for a better day with my Shooting Stars!

You know life is good when this is what you call a day at work.
So fortunate.

わたしはロボト

Working in a Japanese preschool there are often times I forget that I'm in a foreign culture and not my own with a bunch of little kids. Through my experience working in various countries I've learned that although every culture is unique and different, children all behave like children and before they've learned specific cultural behaviors they really are very similar. 

And then there are moments like these, where one of my students spends the morning building a giant robot from blocks and speaking in a robotic voice and then I suddenly feel thrown back into Japan and I love it for how special and silly this memory will be.

Christmas Trees: Round Two

More fun with Christmas trees!

Making Funny Faces

It never occurred to me how difficult the human face could be to arrange, until I gave my preschool class the assignment of building a face. Our theme for the week had been facial body parts, and I thought a fun activity would be for them to color, cut, and arrange their own faces on a piece of construction paper.

We spent the week primarily focusing on the vocabulary words eyes, ears, nose and mouth, because in the future we will move into the theme of the five senses, and we wanted to give them the vocabulary to use before we explain the function of each facial body part. Our daily exercise on working with facial body parts was having the children touch the part of their body which was called our by either myself or Miss. Y. For example, one of us would say, "if you can hear me, touch your eyes," and the children would all have to point to their eyes. This style of teaching encourages the children to recognize the English vocabulary as well as associate it with their own bodies.

Although the faces didn't turn out as I had imagined, the kids of Aurora each produced their very own unique picture. Miss. Y and I were laughing the whole time at the silly creations the kids were coming up with. It really surprised me that although they look at human faces all day long, when it came down to assembling one before them, they really struggled with where the pieces went.

My favorite part of the activity was the hair. For the hair I chopped up different lengths of yarn that they could glue to the top of the face's head. I wanted them to be able to work with materials other than paper, and they seemed to enjoy playing with the yarn, and giving their characters hair cuts.

The finished products were hilarious, and hung them all over the classroom so the children could share with one another their creations. Even though many of them turned out missing an eye, a mouth where an ear should be, or the nose on the chin, the main objective of the project was to review the vocabulary eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, as well as, teeth, lips, and eye brows. It was also to work on developing their motor-skills, by requiring them to work with colored pencils, scissors, and glue.

Future of The World

The theme for last week's English topics in my preschool class were occupations and When I Grow Up. Miss. Yuki and I introduced a range of occupations to them with flash cards we made, and explained what jobs are and how most adults go to work. We had the class sit in a half circle, and as we went around from child to child, each student was given a turn to share with the rest of the class, what they wanted to be when they grew up. The children were allowed to choose from the flash cards if they didn't have an immediate idea of their own, because we didn't want them to feel pressure from being put on the spot. We explained that it was their decision in what they wanted to be and the choices were limitless. We didn't want to restrict their dreams or goals in anyway, and no answer was too silly or too fantastical. We allowed children to answer superhero or Spiderman, because being three years old,  they don't need to think seriously about future careers. What we were really looking to see is what they found interesting, or who their heros were. We were curious to know who they would like to imitate, and what reality they imagined for themselves at this age. It was also just an activity to reinforce some of the occupations vocabulary that we had introduced, as well as allow them to add to the list of vocabulary words with their own career choices. 

 When asked what I wanted to be when I was in preschool, I responded the owner of a pet shop. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved animals, and I guess at four years old, I figured that owning my own pet shop would be the best way to always be around them. Over the years I have bought a dog of my own, as well as adopted countless other animals that have needed homes.  At twenty-five years old, I can say with certainty that becoming a pet shop owner is a career choice I no longer desire, but there will always be a soft spot in my heart for all animals.

After the children shared with the class their dreams for the future, they were given a piece of paper with their occupation on it, and they drew pictures of their future selves. Among some of my favorites were the children who said that when they grew up they wanted to be like their mothers and fathers. It was sweet to see how much they loved and idolized their parents. While we change our minds throughout life when asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?", as of right now, Aurora is a classroom full of future astronauts, fire fighters, dancers, superheroes, photographers and even a mermaid.

One of the occupations that we introduced was a doctor, and on Friday we had a physician come to the school to give the children a quick checkup. It was the perfect way to wrap up a week of talking about career choices, plus one of our children aspires to be a doctor when she grows up. The children were beyond curious of everything the physician did, and they were so well behaved. Miss. Yuki and I are so proud of our little Aurora professionals.