Halloween Uzumaru
I'm Halloweened-out... didn't think it possible.
In the past 2 weeks I've:
-planned and executed 17 Halloween lessons (on my own!)
-organized and hosted 2 school Halloween parties
-attended one JET Halloween party and
-entertained 26 trick-or-treaters.
I never did nearly that much celebrating in the States.
The AJET annual Halloween Party was held at a club called Bananas in Uozu. The party was specifically for JETs living in Toyama Prefecture but there were a few Japanese people also present (friends of friends?) As usual I procrastinated up until the last minute to find a costume. I was teetering between a few ideas but ended up going as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill. I was sorta against it at first since it'd been done by my sister already, but that's how it worked out. It turned out pretty well even without the other characters- people were able to recogonize it from the weapon alone (the most expensive part of the costume was the chain). Some other costumes from JETs in the tonami region included South Parks canadian duo Terrance and Phillip (francois and timmy), dorothy (amanda), japanese construction worker (ivy), and Charlie Chaplin (timbo).
Bananas- club in uozu.
mononoke, tobi, and gogo
Outside of my in-class Halloween lessons I was asked at my 2 elementary schools if I could organize and host Halloween parties for the whole school. At Chubu that was pretty much impossible since there's over 400 of 'em in total, so I just decorated the main lobby and let them have the option of making paper plate masks with me during recess. What I didn't anticipate was that pretty much every student decided to participate. Luckily I had enough plates but since the kids weren't able to punch holes in their mask or tie the elastic I took over the role as human-hole-puncher for 30 minutes with blunt safety scissors. Not easy...
lets make masks with diana sensei!
At my other elementary school there's only 27 students in all so I was able to throw an actual 2-hr Halloween party in the gymnasium. After closing all the curtains in the gym and lighting candles the kids came in with masks and trick-or-treat bags they made themselves (adorable btw). After giving a brief speech explaining Halloween to the kids (in broken japanese) the kids played musical cusions (altered from musical chairs) to the music of "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. We played a few more games and ended the party with a pretend trick-or-treat game where each teacher represented a house, and the kids came to each "house" and had to answer a question in English to receive candy.
me handing out candy in the gym
Even though it wasn't real trick-or-treating the kids really enjoyed it and I think they got a better idea of what trick-or-treating is, or at least better than the kids who actually came to our house Tuesday night...
...So Ivy and I thought it'd be fun if we invited our junior high and a few elementary students to our school for trick-or-treating. Although being the only house actually giving out candy they weren't really able to grasp the idea of house-hopping. Starting at about 5:30 they came in their costumes (most of 'em) but once we gave them candy they shuffled their way past the door, proceeded to take their shoes off and gathered in the living room where we stood akwardly in the dark for several minutes trying to decide what to do with them all. Apparently even after our in-class explainations of the concept of trick-or-treating, many of them were under the impression that there was a party at the ALTs house. Feeling bad about sending them all home (since a majority walked or biked pretty far) we put on The Nightmare Before Christmas on my laptop and cooked the remaining food in our freezer for for younger kids to snack on. Amanda came with more decorations and goody bags for the kids and some more of my Chubu students brought a few snacks and cookies for everyone (their parents also thinking it was a party dropped them off in cars).
me and my Chubu Elementary students and 2 third yr girls from my JHS
Ivy and her 3rd yrs from Yoshie JHS
me and my 3rd yrs from Fukumitsu JHS
I think we did rather well all considering...
In the past 2 weeks I've:
-planned and executed 17 Halloween lessons (on my own!)
-organized and hosted 2 school Halloween parties
-attended one JET Halloween party and
-entertained 26 trick-or-treaters.
I never did nearly that much celebrating in the States.
The AJET annual Halloween Party was held at a club called Bananas in Uozu. The party was specifically for JETs living in Toyama Prefecture but there were a few Japanese people also present (friends of friends?) As usual I procrastinated up until the last minute to find a costume. I was teetering between a few ideas but ended up going as Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill. I was sorta against it at first since it'd been done by my sister already, but that's how it worked out. It turned out pretty well even without the other characters- people were able to recogonize it from the weapon alone (the most expensive part of the costume was the chain). Some other costumes from JETs in the tonami region included South Parks canadian duo Terrance and Phillip (francois and timmy), dorothy (amanda), japanese construction worker (ivy), and Charlie Chaplin (timbo).
Bananas- club in uozu.
mononoke, tobi, and gogo
Outside of my in-class Halloween lessons I was asked at my 2 elementary schools if I could organize and host Halloween parties for the whole school. At Chubu that was pretty much impossible since there's over 400 of 'em in total, so I just decorated the main lobby and let them have the option of making paper plate masks with me during recess. What I didn't anticipate was that pretty much every student decided to participate. Luckily I had enough plates but since the kids weren't able to punch holes in their mask or tie the elastic I took over the role as human-hole-puncher for 30 minutes with blunt safety scissors. Not easy...
lets make masks with diana sensei!
At my other elementary school there's only 27 students in all so I was able to throw an actual 2-hr Halloween party in the gymnasium. After closing all the curtains in the gym and lighting candles the kids came in with masks and trick-or-treat bags they made themselves (adorable btw). After giving a brief speech explaining Halloween to the kids (in broken japanese) the kids played musical cusions (altered from musical chairs) to the music of "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas. We played a few more games and ended the party with a pretend trick-or-treat game where each teacher represented a house, and the kids came to each "house" and had to answer a question in English to receive candy.
me handing out candy in the gym
Even though it wasn't real trick-or-treating the kids really enjoyed it and I think they got a better idea of what trick-or-treating is, or at least better than the kids who actually came to our house Tuesday night...
...So Ivy and I thought it'd be fun if we invited our junior high and a few elementary students to our school for trick-or-treating. Although being the only house actually giving out candy they weren't really able to grasp the idea of house-hopping. Starting at about 5:30 they came in their costumes (most of 'em) but once we gave them candy they shuffled their way past the door, proceeded to take their shoes off and gathered in the living room where we stood akwardly in the dark for several minutes trying to decide what to do with them all. Apparently even after our in-class explainations of the concept of trick-or-treating, many of them were under the impression that there was a party at the ALTs house. Feeling bad about sending them all home (since a majority walked or biked pretty far) we put on The Nightmare Before Christmas on my laptop and cooked the remaining food in our freezer for for younger kids to snack on. Amanda came with more decorations and goody bags for the kids and some more of my Chubu students brought a few snacks and cookies for everyone (their parents also thinking it was a party dropped them off in cars).
me and my Chubu Elementary students and 2 third yr girls from my JHS
Ivy and her 3rd yrs from Yoshie JHS
me and my 3rd yrs from Fukumitsu JHS
I think we did rather well all considering...
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