Dr. Seuss and English Day

I went to my elementary school today. Most of the day was normal for my visits to Kita Sho: the teachers explained the lesson plan, I studied Japanese in my free time, and the kids were simply awesome. (I taught a food shopping dialogue with the fourth-graders, identical for the most part to the same lesson I'd used with my high school freshmen.)

Every year, the school has an English Day, and they gather as many ALTs as possible to play games and have fun with the students. Last year, they got all eight of us--no small feat. This year, they were only able to get the four southerners, plus Tsuiki, a local Japanese lady who speaks excellent English. English Day officially began at 2: all the students gathered in the gym, and they made a line of flower arches for us to enter through. Two students were the official announcers, and the principal gave an opening speech in well-practiced English. We each gave our self-introductions, and then the activities began.

The five of us each had a station, and the students would go from station to station every ten minutes. We each had prepared an activity: Tsuiki taught them one of those clapping rituals girls do all the time at recess in elementary school. Rose played musical chairs. Gavin had the students design and create their own flags. Joe had them make Valentines. I decided to be bold: I brought in Horton Hears a Who! and read it to the students.

I tried. Really I did. Tsuiki taught me a quick explanation of the book's rhyme to give to the students, and I read as loudly and clearly as I could. I used different voices for the narrator, Horton, the kangaroo, and the Mayor. (I even tried using a tiny voice for the Mayor and the Whos.) It didn't work out very well. It just wasn't the right setting for story time, situated as I was right after Valentines and flag making. I tried, though, and the kids paid attention to me, but it definitely wasn't a success.

We finished by playing a game of Sharks. The gym floor is strewn with several hula hoops. The hula hoops are islands, and everything else is the ocean. One person is the shark, and everyone else is a swimmer. A teacher calls out "Swim! Swim! Swim!" and everyone swims casually, while the shark swims among them. At some point the teacher calls "Shark!" and everyone races for the nearest island. The shark tries to grab as many people as he can, but he can't hurt anybody on an island. Anyone he catches becomes a shark.

This was a hit with the kids. The call of "Shark!" always got a scream from all 130 kids as they made a beeline for the closest island. Hula hoops were taken away after each round, until eventually there was only one hula hoop and about 20 sharks.

After this, English Day was formally ended. As with all Japanese events, I do mean formally: the vice principal thanked us in English, and the two student announcers officially ended the assembly.