School Days-- A Day in the Fifth Grade

O-Soji... The Honorable Cleaning;-)

Once a year the kids have school on Saturday-- an "open house" day when moms and dads can drop in any time during the day to watch their kids' classes.  Fortunately everybody recovered from colds that have plagued us all week (all three of my boys home for the last three days-- Koshi, Teddy, and Papa--in case anybody was wondering where I went;-), so Yokohamapapa and I were able to go watch classes all day.

 
I always especially like watching the kids during Cleaning Time after lunch and recess (in that order)--it's so different from my experience in school, both as a student and as a teacher.  In Japan, there is no cafeteria--students eat their lunches in the classrooms, waiting for everyone to be served before they put their hands together and say "Itadakima--su!" (I humbly partake).  The students do the serving and, after recess, the cleaning up, too.  One of those things that educators would term an "invisible part of the curriculum".

Kids with rags wait for the Sweepers to get done...

Such a small thing, but one that teaches so much--responsibility, care for one's environment, teamwork to get a job done...

Rooms and halls are swept and cleaned with damp rags (there are sinks out in the hallways for this and for brushing teeth after lunch--another good idea) every day.  At the beginning of the year, the sixth graders go down to the first grade classrooms to teach the new first graders what to do (and make sure things actually get clean;-).  There are several jobs, and the children do them all on a rotating basis.

Buckets of water, all up and down the hallway, which manage not to get kicked over...

The Science room

Koshi wanted us to watch his science class today--interesting because I'd never seen the science room.  Do American elementary schools have science rooms?  I know mine didn't-- I never saw a science room like this until I was in Junior High.  Seventh grade, to be exact.

 This is an actual science classroom, mind-- complete with microscopes, scales, test tubes, voltmeters, and petri dishes.  Science is started right off in first grade (though it isn't called that until third grade)-- and by fourth grade they listen, take notes, do experiments, and take tests from their notes.  Things I know for a fact I wasn't exposed to until seventh grade.

Scales and weights (metric, of course)

Test tubes... petri dishes are on a lower shelf.

All I could do was shake my head and think that if American parents and school boards and educational policy makers could see inside an elementary school here-- the mysterious Asian "advantage" in science would immediately cease to be a mystery.

They start earlier.  Plain and simple.

The experimental results...

Today they were continuing their study of seeds and the conditions necessary for seeds to sprout and grow-- an appropriate activity for kids who have been growing plants from seed every year since first grade (another day I'll put up what Cici's growing).  Now that they're a little older, they can study those cute little seeds in more depth.

Seeds without air (left)... and with air exposure (right)

The window sill in the classroom was crowded with plastic cups--all labeled, some with sprouted seeds, some not sprouted.  The conditions (air, temperature, water) were labeled on the cups and collated on the poster charts on the wall with the results noted.

Aha!  That's what it needs!

Some plants were growing nicely:-))

Back in May, the fifth graders planted rice in a paddy across the street.  They go over from time to time to take care of the rice, weed the paddy (their section of it, anyway), and watch its progress.

Some things just can't be taught via worksheet-- and where your food comes from is one of those things.

rice seedlings...

Plant the seedlings just... so.

They got help from a local farmer who owns the field-- community involvement!  The kids not only plant and cultivate the rice, they also go over from time to time to draw pictures of it and write about the process of cultivation and the growth of the plants.  I *love* the layered approach they take to teaching--  this is science, health, writing, and art all rolled into one memorable experience.

...the fifth graders' section.

Awww...... planted a bit-- willy-nilly, shall we say?  It was loads of fun, though, according to Koshi.

... somehow the farmer's section is *much* straighter;-))

As Papa and I stood surveying the rice paddy during recess, Yokohamapapa decided to rest his arm on a bamboo post marking the corner of the paddy.

He gave a sudden shout...

Amagaeru-- Japanese Tree Frog (Hyla japonica)

...and lo and behold, he'd nearly leaned his arm on the cutest little green frog you've ever seen!

Well-- I knew just what to do.  Camera out of the camera bag and into my purse...catch little frog... put frog into camera bag.  I have a ten-year-old who would just love him:-))

 "Are you sure that's ok?"  Yokohamapapa wanted to know.

I assured him it would be fine, since Koshi's project group ("Ikimonogakari"--the Living Things Group) was already taking care of a turtle...

...a crawdad (one of those big American Zarigani, from the looks of him)... or two or three...

.... ants to watch them build tunnels and nests...

...and a newt, which Koshi bought at a pet store with his own money earned by washing the windows for me...

I figured-- what could it hurt to add a frog?

Sensei didn't mind at all... and Koshi's face was like Christmas:-))

Land of Cute-- Erasers

My kids get cute erasers every time they go to the dentist-- that's an eraser in the photo at left.  Came in a pack of erasers I found at the snacks-n-stationery shop at our Daiei.

Please bring color pencils, tape, and stapler by Friday!

As a matter of fact, it came in a set-- the "Going to School Set" of erasers.  I bought it and have taken pictures of it, because it struck me as a mini-pack of Cultural Differences.

What do you think belongs in the pack of  "Going to School"?

Well, the scissors, of course.  And the pencil sharpener (the handle turns around:-))  The tape and stapler (yes, they have to take those things to school--mostly for art.  They are kept in the students' desks).  So far, roughly the same, I think.

All outdoor shoes go in the shoe boxes by the entrance-- heaven help anyone who walks into school with, *mercy!*, Outside Shoes on!

The Uabaki--the indoor shoes (scroll down to the bottom of that post to see Cici's uabaki).  Not what you'd find in an American (or European, I think) version of this set-- but since I've written about these before, you may have been expecting them.

So what are these last two?...  Note that they are not in proportion to one another...

These are important!

Ah-- the Landosel (left). The iconic Japanese school backpack (in which the eraser version has the straps upside-down, but... oh well.  You get the idea.)  All textbooks and notebooks are sized to fit in it, every elementary school child has one--traditionally black for boys and red for girls, although that's changed over the last decade.  Cici's is yellow:-))

And that other thing?  It's actually close to actual size--you would see one dangling from the side of a child's Landosel.  That's the All-Important O-Mamori (mamoru-- vt, to protect).  A protective charm--usually to do with traffic safety, or traveling safety, although the one above says "accomplish goal"--clearly an academic charm:-)  It's the thing that made me smile when I looked at the pack of erasers--at what they think is included in the Set of Things You Take To School.  Of course you have to have an O-Mamori--who in the world would go to school without one? ;-)

School Days-- Off To School On A Rainy Morning

Itterashaa---i! (Go and come back!)

We haven't had much rain so far this year, but we're getting it now.  I'm sitting here listening to it pour outside, which it's been doing since about this time last night and looks to continue doing 'til about this time tomorrow night.  The kids walked to school this morning in rain boots, carrying umbrellas.
They walk to school like that every day--in a line, keep it straight, don't let the first graders straggle (actually, the first graders are usually put in the middle, so that older children behind them can keep an eye out). 

Koshi is Han-Cho-san this year (line leader) since he's in fifth grade, which means he always walks in front, has to watch out for traffic (though there isn't really any on their route to school), and shout "Narande!" (line up!) at 7:55.  I remember being surprised to discover that there are no school buses past kindergarten here.   That's because all public schools are neighborhood schools--close enough to walk to.  Germany, as I recall, was the same.  If it was a little too far to walk to school, you just used public transportation (train or bus) to get there.  It used to be that way in the US for the most part, too--until school consolidations and mandated busing for desegregation, and the growth of suburbs effectively put an end to the neighborhood school.  That's not to imply that the Civil Rights movement was a bad thing, just that something important got lost in all the fuss.  I'm pretty sure that most kids in the US could do with the exercise that's part and parcel of walking to and from school.

I get carsick myself, so I know I'd have preferred walking to school over riding the school bus.  Although, as those who know my walking style will attest, it's unlikely I'd ever have made it on time...

p.s.-- the rain we're getting will surely do the plums a world of good...

A Ra! Teacher's Coming!...

Don't look at my messy house!  Here... look at this butterfly.  I found it yesterday.  Kiageha... Papilio machaon  The Old World Swallowtail (the type species... yes, I know. I'm looking up butterfly taxonomies when I'm supposed to be cleaning my house...)

This won't be a terribly long post--I've got house cleaning to do, as I mentioned-- because today is the day that *all* the moms are rushing around frantically cleaning their houses.  Today is Katei-Chimon, the parent-teacher conference where the teacher comes to you, instead of the other way around.  All the other parent-teacher meetings take place at school, except the first one of the year (usually right after Golden Week).  For this first meeting, the teachers trek to all their students' homes (over the course of several days, and they go to all the students in a particular district/area one day...second area the next...and so on).  So, actually, not *all* the moms... just the ones in this area.  We're all frantically scrubbing.  

It's a traditional thing.  The purpose is, ostensibly, to familiarize the teachers with the exact route their students take to school.  But the real purpose is, as I understand it, to give the teacher an idea of what the child's home environment is like.  Kids can be present or not during the meeting--often not, since they get out of school a little early on these days.  Most kids take advantage of it to get extra outside play-time.  At least, mine do.  I won't be at all surprised if Koshi comes in carrying a bucket of tadpoles... or crawdads... dripping muddy water all over my clean genkan.  *deep sigh*

So I have to pick everything up and hide it all in the closet.  Put all the laundry away.  Put all the shoes away in the genkan.  Get an old rag and get down on hands and knees and wipe up all the dirt (yesterday was baseball! *Moan*  The sand... the sand...).  Hang up laundry, fold laundry, put laundry away.  Put futons out, bang futons, put futons away-- sometimes I think housekeeping in Japan is nefariously designed to keep women chained to the home...

And take a shower.  Gambarimasu!

On Design-- Pencil Cases

My kids' pencil cases for school in the photo above (Sugar Bunnies for Cici, Pokemon for the boys).  From the day Koshi started first grade (or rather, slightly before, when we got the list of things to get *for* first grade), I thought these were the coolest pencil cases I'd ever seen.  Seriously. 

...Look at this!  I'm slightly jealous of my own kids, they have such awesome, well-designed pencil cases.  I *know* I didn't ever have anything this cool when I was in elementary school...

...see how the sharpened pecils slide right down into their own little sleeves?  And how the whole piece lifts up (you can see my fingers over there, holding it up) for ease of putting in and taking out?  That way you can go to school prepared with nice, sharp pencils that won't break on the way to school--an important consideration for first graders:-))

And there's plenty of space for erasers, and even a built-in pencil sharpener that actually works well...

Can you see how to use the pencil sharpener?  You don't have to take it out to use it (though it comes out to dump out shavings)...

Ja jan!  There's a little door that slides to the right on the outside--just slide it over, and sharpen away!  Take that piece out and slide the end open to dump the pencil shavings

Teddy's pencil case..

...and that's not all!  That's Teddy's case above, and flipped over in the photo to the right.  The underside has storage for extra pencils, small rulers, erasers, or whatever.   (For the Sharp-Eyed Reader:  yes, Teddy has managed to lose his pencil sharpner out of this case, which is fairly typical...)
To be completely honest, though, I don't know how much studying I'd get done at school if I had a pencil case that fun...

Mata asobou, ne!

School Days--The Writing On the Wall

...And we are looking at a construction site, because....?

There's been a large construction site next to the elementary school for a year and a half or so now--lots of kids walk by it every day.  So you'd expect to eventually see that pristine white wall covered with graffiti...right?  Well...sort of.  You see something on that wall, right?  Here's a closer look:

...that's a nice drawing, isn't it?  I liked it--that's why I took a picture of it.




Here's another one:



Awww...carp streamers!  And an anime-style girl, both nicely drawn.

Another one I liked...

....a detailed dragon!











Can you see in these pictures that I've taken of the construction wall, that the drawings are not actually on the wall?  That is to say, they are not graffiti?

Here's what the kids are actually drawing on:

A white board--there are two of them, in fact.  The legend at the top says "Drawing Corner".

Somebody had the brilliant foresight to realize that a looong white wall like that was bound to shout out to kids "Draw on me!", and put up a couple of white boards...

...and whiteboard markers (there are always several markers in different colors), with a sticker on the holder that says "Everybody's Markers".

Ok...so why aren't the whiteboards just filled with rude pictures and words?

Because they take photos of the really good (or cute, in the case of the first graders) drawings and post them permanently on the wall for everyone to see and enjoy.  Go look at that top picture again--see all the drawings posted all the way down the construction wall?  Kids are kids, so I'm pretty sure not every single drawing is innocent and pure--but the non-offensive good drawings are the ones that get photographed, laminated, and posted.

Somebody is *really* good at drawing Pokemon characters!

...awwww.  First graders drawing Doraemon (Gadget Cat from the Future, in blue), and anime-style girly-girls ("I'm Anri!"). 



I walk by and check from time to time to see if there are new drawings up.  Every time I look at that wall, all I can think is--what a smart end run around inevitable behavior!  Japanese parents and teachers are incredibly good at positively interpreting what children are doing.  They always seem to me to do this instinctively.  I've tried to pick up on it.  My instinct is nearly always negative--and it leads to arguments or anger or punishment that maybe wouldn't have happened if I'd assumed a positive motive.  Kids, for example, like to grab mom's keys.  I used to demand that they give them to me (assuming they would lose my keys, or drop them in the toilet, or some such).  A much better way to get those keys back?  Look as genuinely surprised as you can, smile broadly, and say "Oh!  You *found* mommy's keys!  Thank you!  Mommy was looking everywhere!  Thank you!"...all while holding your hand out.  Toddlers will look confused, then echo your smile, then drop those keys right into your hand.  The same kind of generally positive spin on behavior works with older kids, too.  Those white board were a way of saying "Hey!  You all draw so well, please come and draw some pictures for us that we can put up!  Thank you!"....so the kids came and drew pictures instead of graffiti.  It always makes me think of zen master Shunryu Suzuki--"If you want to control your cow, put him in a wide field and watch him."  In other words, only by observing and watching first can you know when and how to help or what kind of instruction to offer.  I'm not sure, though, whether Japan is infused with Zen ideas, or whether Zen--after coming to Japan--became infused with Japan... 

Mata asobou, ne!

School Days--4th Grade Ukiyo-E

Koshi's woodblock print

About the end of November, Koshi (my 4th grader) came home with an order form from school.

"Mama!  I have to get one of these for school!   Hayaku, kaite! (hurry--fill it out!)"   These.  One of these...what?   Hmmm....another case.  He has two other similar cases--second grade was a case with paints, a palette, and brushes (not Prang, either--they use acrylic paints in a tube from kindergarten).  Third grade was the calligraphy set--brush pens, ink, weights, inkbox, a roll-up mat.  I was ridiculously jealous of my own son for getting to have something that cool for school in the third grade.  Iiiiii naaaa....

He picked out a dragon case (again), and I put in the money (Y2300--$25) and filled out the form, without really understanding what it was he was going to get or what they were going to do with it.  When the set was delivered to school, he brought it home to show me.

"Neat-o, honey!  What is it?"   "Tools!"
Thanks, Koshi.  I could see that they were tools, but I couldn't get from his explanation ("They're for art!") what exactly they were going to be doing with those.... hmmmm.....what *are* those?  Exactly?

No matter--I figured I'd find out eventually.  Parent-teacher conferences were coming up in December, and they always have out the things the kids had been making in art class.

And  then he brought this home:

Wow!  So *that's* what those weird-looking tools were for--making a woodblock print!  I don't ever remember getting to make anything that cool in elementary school art class (iiii naaaa....).  Or anything that difficult, either, for that matter.

...a closer look

...the claws...

...the teeth....

...the dorsal striping...

Can you see the red and blue paint staining the carved-out areas?  All the fourth graders made prints, several, in fact, in different colors from their carved wooden plates.  They were all displayed in the hall when I went for parent-teacher conferences:

All the prints were very detailed, and the kids had clearly worked hard on them.




A brief moment of sickening parental gloating:

   (I thought Koshi's was the best one.)

Sorry.  All done ;-))

Here's a closer look at those tools.

Yeah--that's exactly what I thought.

Those are *sharp*.

And every kid in the fourth grade has a set like that.

That's a lot of sharp.

They trust kids in Japan.  They trust kids,  because they know the children have been carefully taught how to be careful.

I noticed it before my kids were born, while teaching English in various language schools.  All the jr. high and high school students I taught usually had a cutter knife in their pencil case.  They used the cutter knives to trim down handouts so they could be glued into their notebooks, among other uses.  I was always fascinated by how carefully every student I saw used their cutter knife.  Remove cap and set aside. Push the blade out one or two notches--no more than necessary.  Cut.  Cut.  Cut.  Slide blade back.  Replace cap.  Put away in pencil case.  *Then* glue the paper in the notebook (or whatever else).  Under no circumstances do I ever recall seeing a cutter knife carelessly left out on a desk, certainly not left open out on a desk.

This was astounding to me until I had kids of my own, and *really* began to watch how the Japanese teach and interact with children.  I can think of a number of examples off the top of my head, but I know that as soon as I hit "Publish",  I'll think of ten other better ones.  So since this post is getting a bit long...

...To Be Continued.... ;-))

Koshi's favorite print