Shougakkou!

My junior high school students are great, but it's my visits to kindergarten and elementary school that light up each week. All of the kids are so excited about English, and me, and everything that I say that its incredibly easy for me to lose myself and get really really excited about them in return. They're not preparing for tests or getting hours of boring homework, so English lessons are just tons of fun...almost entirely pictures, games and songs. I don't work with a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) at the shougakkou (elementary school), so I get free reign to plan whatever I want for each class...which is a lot more work, but also something that I really enjoy doing.

The weather was beautiful on Tuesday, so I took all of my classes outside for our lesson, running around playing a Harry Potter game and some spirited rounds of Simon Says "Please" (Simon is very polite in my world). I also take any opportunity I can to play kickball, so recess is always a great time to drown in nostalgia and the sea of adorable Japanese kids (I've got a group who went from calling me onechan--older sister, to just "sister" in an attempt to use their English... melts me like butter). They play "kick baseball," dodgeball, tag and climb all over the swings and jungle gym equipment with limitless energy... its my official theory that spending time with excited little kids will keep anyone feeling young forever.

jumping rope!
kickball... or "kikku yakyu" (kick baseabll) as the kids call it here
"cheeeeezu!" ...seriously though, how cute are these little girls?