Hand Print Halloween Spiders

This week, to celebrate Halloween, Aurora made handprint spiders. We started the activity by discussing spiders and where they live, introducing the vocabulary word, "web." I explained that people live in houses and spiders live in webs. 

The first step of the project was drawing webs with white pastels. I gave my students a book to look at, so they could see an example of one. I explained that every web is unique and they can create theirs however they please.

The second step was pressing their hands in the black water color paint. I helped a few students through this part, demonstrating the way to put their hands on the paper, but the rest were able to successfully do it on their own.

The last step in the project was having the children color eyes on their spiders, once the paint was dry. Each spider turned out so differently from the others, and the kids had a lot of funny getting their hands into the paint.

Getting into the Spirit

October is my favorite month of the year, because not only is it the time when it really starts to feel as if Fall has arrived, but it's also the month with the greatest holiday ever... Halloween!

Americans are crazy for Halloween. We go absolutely nuts the entire month leading up to the 31st with decorating our houses, schools and stores, setting up haunted houses around town, stocking up on a life time supply of candy and preparing our costumes, hoping that ours will be the best, whether it's gory, scary, cute or clever.

Last Halloween I was living in Thailand, a country that hasn't really caught onto celebrating the holiday. We has a costume party at work, but aside from that we didn't teach our students about the history or traditons, and there were no crafts involved.

This year, working in an international school, I have the opportunity to share my culture with my students. Talking about Halloween and the way that Americans celebrate it is a good way to introduce new vocabulary while also talking about a subject that is fun for them and myself.

We started our month of Halloween crafts with Jack-o-lanterns. A Jack-o-lantern is a pumpkin that we cut open at the top, hollow out, carve a face into, and then keep a burning candle inside. We normally carve them a week or so before the 31st, and leave them outside our front doors for display. While many people still choose to carve simple but scary faces, some Americans put much more effort into their Jack-o-lanterns, creating carved works of art on the front.

Since my class of three year olds are too young to carve their own pumpkins, I thought we could make them our of paper instead. On large pieces of orange paper I drew pumpkins for the kids to color and cut. The activity was also a good way to have Aurora practice working with scissors, as I asked them to do all their own cutting.

Before we started the Jack-o-lanterns, I explained to them what Halloween is, and how we celebrate it. I  described how everyone dresses up as their favorite monster or character, and then walks from door to door, knocking and saying, "trick or treat!" I also explained how after you say the magic words, the resident of the house hands you a giant bowl of candy to pick from. I walked around the class with a bowl and each child told me, "trick or treat," as they reached in and grabbed handfuls of imaginary goodies.

We also practiced drawing Jack-o-lanterns on the board, to demonstrate that they have all types of faces and it didn't have to look a certain way. Afterwards we practiced writing the word and sounding out the letters. Aurora did a great job with the activity and I was impressed with how independent they are becoming with crafts.

Here's how it went....

Proud Owner

Monday morning my three year old student rushed into the classroom waving what appeared to be the gift of a lifetime. It was a pair of underwear, with the bum covered in pictures of the most recent popular super heroes in Japan.

The pair of undies were still held together by the original packaging, which he had chosen to leave in place. He was so happy to own them, he wasn't ready to actually wear them. First, he had to bring them to school and show all his friends. Which he did. All day long.

To say that the underwear were shoved in my face at least ten times while the student shouted, "Allie Sensei, Mi Te!" (Miss. Allie, look!), would be a huge understatement. Each time he waved them in front of me I reacted with the enthusiasm I imagined he was hoping for, but he kept coming back. Either he was making sure I hadn't forgotten his newest wardrobe addition, or he was hoping to make me jealous. 

Throughout the day he ran from classroom to classroom showing off his favorite new possession. He wanted to make sure everyone knew how special they were to him. I didn't stop him or ask him to put them away, because I figured at his age things like new undies really are special, and being able to show them to your friends and tell the story of how they came into your life is actually kind of a big deal.

While it was hilarious to say the least, it also left me leaving work with a huge smile on my face. It's days like those where I realize how simple and happy life can be. 

Sometimes all it takes is a new pair of actions figure underwear to truly make your day.

Coconut Trees in October

One of my favorite books when I was a little kid was "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," which is a silly story about the entire alphabet trying to fit in a coconut tree. The alphabet becomes too heavy for the tree and all the letters end up falling down and getting injured.

My partner and I are currently working on teaching Aurora the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. I asked my boss to order the book, as I knew it would be a great teaching tool to have in the classroom, since it introduces children to both capital and lower case letters in a fun way.  We've read it about fifty plus times now, but the kids still chant along with the chorus, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," clapping their hands and stomping their feet.

To go along with the story, the Aurora class constructed their own coconut tree with the alphabet underneath it. Each child made their own pair of letters, and all helped in painting the tree.

The "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" mural will be used to play different games using the alphabet, as well as work as a constant visual of the English alphabet.

Itadakimas

In Japan it is customary to say, "Itadakimas," before eating a meal. It is a phrase that people use to say "thank you," for the meal they are about to enjoy. At The World, we have a poem that the children always say before eating lunch.

It goes as follows:

"The sun shines in the sky. Clouds bring us rain and water to drink. Many people help to bring us our food from the earth. Itadakimas, thank you for the food."

Although the children have memorized it and repeat it daily, it occurred to me that they may not even understand what they are saying. Is their English level high enough to visualize what the poem is describing? Since I was unsure, I decided to embark on a project for the entire class to work on. Over the span of a week and a half we made a large mural that depicted the poem they had learned. I hoped the finished project would help with their understanding of English and the vocabulary they have learned.

First we started with each child choosing a picture from the mural to color. They could choose from clouds, the sun, people, food or flowers. As they each chose their picture we reviewed the vocabulary in the poem.

The second step was having the children use oil pastels and water color paints to create the earth and the water. On large pieces of paper they worked with blues and greens and painted anything they wanted. When the paint dried we ripped the paper into little peices that would be used like mosaics on the mural. This way everyones' artwork was being used equally, and it was a communal project from the entire class.

The final step was putting the mural together. When it was finished, I labeled the objects that are referred to in the poem, and then I let each student choose which person they wanted to be in the picture.

Coming Home

I am the first to arrive this week to work, as it is my turn to take the early shift.  Myself and the other foreign teachers rotate weekly with coming in a half hour before the kids arrive.  After going home to America for two weeks, it is the first time in almost a month that it has been my turn to take this shift.  Although I love my sleep and sometimes it feels like every minute counts, I have found that I really enjoy coming in early to work.  It is the only time of the day in which the school is still silent, with the exception of the occasional phone ringing down the hall in the principal's office. As I enter the school, I stop in the foray and slip off my outdoor shoes and exchange them for my indoor sandals. I walk into the dark hallway and into the principal's office, and flip on the power board, illuminating the entire building. The day is beginning.

Arriving early in the morning gives me time to prepare for the day. To get papers in order, art projects ready, lessons put together, or just time to think about how I'd like the day to run. As much as this small slice of silence is appreciated, I can't help but feel the total emptiness of the school. The classrooms still all look the same, everything is here. Nothing is missing from any of the rooms, or from the library, playroom or music room, but yet, without the children it feels overwhelmingly empty. This space doesn't truly come alive and become the preschool I love until the kids arrive. They fill it with energy, with excitement. 

As previously mentioned, I took two weeks off from work to return home and visit my family and friends.  More than a year had passed since I had seen the people that I love and I wanted to get a chance to spend time with them before the major Western holidays arrived and I wouldn't be able to afford to make the trip. While it was nice to have fifteen days to myself in beautiful San Diego, I couldn't help feeling like something was missing. 

Every time I flipped through the photos on my phone, smiling back at me were the adorable faces from the children in Aurora.  When catching up with friends, I made them watch countless videos of my class singing and dancing and being silly.  My family and friends didn't admit it, but I probably drove them crazy with how many stories I told about my working life in Japan. 

There is no denying that while I was home in California I realized how homesick I was for the place I grew up in. Being around my family and friends was incredible and I felt guilty for forgetting how amazing these people are. I miss the familiarity of my city, of my neighborhood streets, the smell of the morning beach air. I miss the Mexican food San Diego is known for, and the ease of being able to communicate something as simple as a food order. I miss that the most; the ease of communication. You don't realize how hard living abroad is until you can't talk to anyone in your native tongue. The wall I face everyday with language makes the simplest tasks unbelievably challenging. 

But more than those things mentioned about, I realized while I was home that I am attached to Aurroa in a very real way. Working at The World has become a huge part of my life, that I will always remember. Part of the way I define my identity is by the job I do, and I am happy to be able to tell people that I am a preschool teacher in Japan. 

I have been working with Aurora since April, and the progress I've seen from my class is remarkable.  Most of my class can speak to me in English, even if on the most basic level. Everyday kids are learning new vocabulary and are becoming more independent in completing tasks themselves. Of course we still have our ups and downs but the ups are becoming so much higher, and the downs are becoming smoother to pass through. My class is incredibly intelligent, and seeing their growth in less than half a year is beyond rewarding for me.  I have a lot of pride in the work that my partner and I do, and I am grateful that we are able to work so well together. 

More than being proud of them for their improvement as ESL students, I realized that I love them for the unique and adorable kids that they are. They are each so different from one another, and so different than any of the children I have worked with over the past ten years. I missed them while I was home, and returning to The World after two weeks of absence felt like an adrenaline rush. As they came in the door and saw me in the classroom they charger towards me, jumping on me and hugging me, while screaming, "Allie Sensei!!!!" One student grabbed my leg and wrapped his body around me and wouldn't let go, no matter how much I tried to shake him off . They were just as happy to see me as I was to see them, and it was good to see the strength in the relationship I have formed with them.