Using English in Performances

Using English in Performances

November Speech Day (on Zoom)

The past few eventful weeks have been full of memorizing English speeches and scripts for recent big events at the kindergarten. From the beginning of November, our selected Speech Day kids practiced their speeches every day with the English teachers. We started by reciting each word together and then practiced on the stage leading up the the big day.

On the 25th, we celebrated Thanksgiving by performing a short skit. Jupiters played turkeys, Saturns played Native Americans, and Mercuries played Pilgrims. Each class spent time learning some basic lines, then we performed all together while wearing our specially crafted Thanksgiving hats.

Our Native Americans gathering their harvest

As December approaches, our focus shifts to the upcoming Christmas show. This year’s theme is Home Alone, a story about a boy who gets left behind by his family on Christmas Eve and has to protect the house from burglars. Everyone has a lot to remember, especially Mercury class, so we’ve all been working very hard!

Mercury boys playing Kevin in Home Alone

When getting ready for a big event like these, whether it be a short skit, a speech, or a big holiday show, there are certain things we always work on with our kids.

  1. Getting them able to speak loudly in front of a big group of people
  2. Remembering certain words and phrases without teacher help
  3. Adding the right pronunciation and inflection to what they’re saying
  4. Showing them how to use their whole body for their performance

All these points are what makes a normal presentation into a great one!

We are so proud of our kids at the kindergarten for slowly becoming more confident in their English skills and performance skills!

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Recording Memories in Art

Recording Memories in Art

Since our fall semester is so busy, it’s easy to get caught up in all our events and forget everything we have done up until now! In order to properly enjoy all our holidays, we make sure to talk about them a lot both before and after they have ended.

Our favorite way to keep school memories fresh is to draw them out on large pieces of paper. The kids start out by drawing the main part of our picture in crayon. After everyone finishes, we paint the background and let the pictures dry in the sun.

English Teachers will pull each student aside after the pictures have dried and ask the kids for a description of their picture. We then translate into English and write the description for them as a caption.

This month, we drew our memories of Halloween and our fall field trip to Kanazawa Zoo.

Our favorite moments from Halloween were our fashion show and –of course– trick-or-treating! It was so fun to see whose costumes were everyone’s favorite by looking at everyone’s artwork.

Our fall field trip from the beginning of November to the zoo was also so memorable! Many kids loved drawing pictures of the elephants, okapi, kangaroos, and other animals!

Looking back at our recent events, it’s been fun thinking about all the things we have done and seen together as a school.

Now it’s time to look forward to Christmas and other school events!