Advertisement
Published: November 27th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Yesterday was the annual school concert for two of my kindergartens. Yoshida Kindergarten in the morning, and Hinokawa Kindergarten in the afternoon.
I participated in the Yoshida Kindergarten concert because the kids and I prepared 5 English songs to sing to their parents. This was my second year doing this, and once again it was a lot of fun! Our English presentation was about 20-25 minutes long, and I was very nervous the entire time! Standing under a spot light infront of a hundred parents is not easy! But, for the second year in a row I sucked it up and braved the crowd so that the kids could show off the English they have learned. Our five songs were "Hello! How are you?" "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," "The Finger Family," "Rainbow" and "What's this?" The kids were really cute! I think the funniest part of school plays is when one student all of a sudden realises that he/she wasn't singing and decides to start belting out the words above and beyond the volume of everyone else! (Haha... especially when they don't really know the words!)
Apart from being nervous and having to lead the English portion
Yoshida Kindergarten Concert
In Yoshida Kindergarten there are two levels, tsuki-gumi and hoshi-gumi. This is 'Tsuki-gumi' or the 'Star Class,' they are the younger kids (most are 4 or 5 years old). I have come a long way with them considering that during my first lesson with them last September 8 of them cried their eyes out the entire time I was in the room! (Now they like me.) of the concert, I was able to enjoy the Japanese skits as the kids acted as frogs, witches, fairies, mushrooms, etc. They were all really cute! The youngest students of the kindergarten sang a song which outlined all of the new rules they would have to follow as students in a school. Because they sang it using childish phrases the song was really cute. No pushing, no running, flush the toilet when you are finished, etc., all with little gestures... very cute! After their opening song they each had to shout out their name as a sort of self introduction... well, when it came time for little Abo to shout out his name he was much more interested in shaking his head like a rock star and spinning to make himself dizzy on stage... haha! (He is also the one in my pictures who is politely showing the audience his butt while I introduce our English portion of the concert!)
I was unable to see the last few acts of Yoshida Kindergarten's concert because I had to head back to Yachiyo to attend Hinokawa Kindergarten's concert, but I am sure that the last bit was just as amusing and
Yoshida Kindergarten Concert
This is 'Hoshi-gumi' or the 'Moon Class.' These are the older students in the kindergarten. Their English is getting really good! These are the ones that chase me in the supermarkets to yell "apple" and "banana" or "nice to meet you." They are cute! cute as the first! Soo cute!
Hinokawa Kindergarten's concert started at 12:30 and was also 3 hours long. (I don't remember my school concerts EVER being that long when I was growing up.) The two schools had very different concerts - Hinokawa is a much bigger school and therefore required a public hall to hold their concert in (to accomodate all of the parents), which kind of took away from the family-like atmosphere I experienced at Yoshida. Also, Hinokawa is a private Shinto kindergarten so there was an opening ceremony to offer things to the gods. The last difference I noticed was that Hinokawa obviously had a lot more money to put into their costumes (I guess because it is a private kindergarten); this made the concert a little more 'professional,' but kind of took away from the cuteness. However, overall, both concerts were equally enjoyable, just in their own ways.
Anyways, I don't have many stories to tell of Hinokawa's concert because all of the kids behaved themselves (which takes a little of the fun out of watching). I think the most amusing performances here were by the really litttle ones who got on stage and
Yoshida Kindergarten Concert
This was the beginning of our English presentation. Notice the trouble-maker bending over for his proud parents to video his butt! LOL, between these actions and picking their noses, I'm sure the parents were very entertained! were so amazed by the crowd that they just stood and stared. Oh, there was also one performance where 6 or 7 of the youngest were dressed as bees and bopped up and down to the rhythm of a song...haha, one little boy bopped so hard that he fell over and apparently I was the only one who found this funny because I was the only one who laughed out loud... haha, oops!
So yeah, I had a great day yesterday. It is so rewarding to walk into a room and have the students so happy to see you that they drop their jaws in amazement that you are actually there (not that I haven't been visiting them every week since September!), and burst out "ahhhh! Risa sensei!!!!" Never fails to put a smile on my face!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.056s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0318s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
non-member comment
I think Abo wins the prize ! Cute little babies!