Today I taught elementary school again. Last Friday was my first day teaching at elementary school. I taught at Horikawa Minami Elementary School. This means South Horikawa. The school has many students, about 500-600. I will switch between teaching at three different elementary schools. Each has their own plan for how the teaching should work. At HM, I will teach each class one time. They will only see me once, so I guess I better cram a lot of English into each lesson. I think they just hope to introduce the students to the idea of liking English. I taught a first grade class and a third grade class. The first grade class was so cute. As soon as I came in, the class leader said "Stand up!" and all the students stood up to say good morning to me. Then they said they had a present for me, and one girl played the piano while the others sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." It was really adorable. Their teacher knows English quite well, so they actually knew more than the third graders. It was a lot of fun. We did body parts and sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." We also did "I am tired, hot, cold, angry, fine, etc." The third graders got the same lesson.

Today I went to Sogawa Elementary School. It is very tiny, and has only 96 students in the whole school. The building is actually quite big, with 4 floors. I am surprised that it is such a big building. Maybe it used to be a bigger school. Many of the rooms were empty when I walked by them. The staff was quite friendly, but of course very small. I think there is only one teacher for each grade, 1-6. Also, there is a nurse, a janitor, an office lady, and a lady to help a student with a mental disability.

At Sogawa, I teach two classes. One class is 3rd and 4th grade combined (34 students). The other is 5th and 6th grade combined (29 students). I think the lesson went okay, but I couldn't get the Old MacDonald rhythm right. I think I need to listen to some tapes for kids. These same students will see me about once a month, so they will actually get to know some real English. As it is, they know quite a lot. The elementary kids are much better to teach than the junior high kids since they love all the games, songs, and they will volunteer to talk.

All the little kids don't wear uniforms like the junior high kids do, but when they go to and from school, they wear yellow hats. I think it is to help make them more visible. It makes them look really cute, so I love it.

Next week I will return to Horikawa Minami to teach different 1st and 3rd graders. I might do a similar lesson but this time I need a good game to play too.