Week 7: Sports festival!

Ok, so you know, no names will be mentioned, you will not know where they are, and I'm going to be referring to this obliquely, because we were WARNED.

So! Sports festival! I remember there was one in Korea, and I was actually a little disappointed, because it wasn't a big thing like I thought it would be.

Well, turns out that's because it was Korea and not Japan.  I'm teaching Elementary, but it was BIG. They were EXCITED. They prepared for WEEKS.

They practice Everything.  (yes, it is capitalized on purpose.)  Over the last four weeks, I have seen them practice the marching, the lining up,

look at those rows!

the games

it was a beautiful example of how to approach practicing something possibly dangerous.

The cheers

Japanese Hakka, didn't I say?!

The dances and presentations

now imagine trying to pitch this to an American Elementary school

Just...the amount of practice gone into this. I cannot describe.  It was GREAT though!

It was Saturday school, so it made it a long week. Getting myself to wake up early on a Saturday was not easy.  Still, it was nice because I didn't have to wear school clothes.  And I got to bike there!  I wanted to wait for a weekend to to see if the distance was do-able, and if the weather is nice (especially since it has cooled down some) I actually take less time getting there than if I take the train!  And I get some exercise in. :)

Anyhow! The kids seemed a little surprised to see me that morning! Or maybe they were surprised to see my incandescent orange shirt I wore... I changed into a sports day polo when I got there, didn't want to distract from the kids. :)

I got there a good hour before it started, and guess what!

it starts.

They were already gathering.
 Those white tents in the distance were for the students to sit under, which makes sense.

They came, they saw, they enjoyed.

Everything was done with great decorum and order. They lined up, the principal talked to them (I'm going to guess about fair play and honor and stuff.) and we had some morning warm up exercises.  (I participated, so I don't have pictures.)

Then the kids sat down.

apparently, making those sitting mats was another school preparation

All neat and orderly.

This is something that continually throws me about Japanese schools. As far as I can tell, a lot of it is culture, but also...they have these expectations for the kids. So they fulfill it.  I gotta say, having a set order makes sense.  No "I wanna sit next to!" because it's already been dealt with.

They mostly had relay races, I'll be honest. 

I cheered for everyone in turn. it was fun. "C'mon orange, pick it up! Yellow, he's catching you!"

As an educator/organizer, I can really appreciate the practice they put into EVERYTHING, because I'll tell you, these races went like CLOCKWORK. there was no downtime, no "do I go next?" Nothing.  The kids who ran sat in one spot, the ones who were yet to go were in another, they were all in order, it was stunning.

In between races, each grade level would do a presentation dance.  Not class. Somehow, they choreographed dances that included the whole grade.

it helps that there weren't any solo performances.

a traditional fishing song, apparently.

great noise-makers from water bottles.

What really surprised me was that for everything, they used musical cues to tell the kids what to do. They'd line up, a song would start, they get in position, THAT bit of song would end, THEN their performance song would start.  Time to start a race? Play a song. Changing out teams? Song.  It seemed to really help.

They had modified relay for the littler kids, and I won't go into it, but I got some great ideas for chaos control for when I have my own class again!

My favorite thing was, I was sitting near a poor kid who had broken his leg. Couldn't participate.
Right?

Right?

nope.

He didn't have to roll as far as the others, but he went, and it was under his own power.
My co-teacher is partner to an Autistic child, and she ran too.

They also had a fun version of tug-of-war.  The kids would race to their stick and pull as fast as possible.

you'll notice each stick had its own referee

IF they made it to their side within time, they stopped. otherwise, the stick lay where it stopped.

They did horse-fighting (as far as I can tell, that's what it's called)

the goal is to snatch the hat off the opposing rider.

We had lunch

tell me it doesn't look like that black thing is going to try and eat me.

 And I realized I was getting a bit red. One of the girls had pity on me and let me use her sunscreen.

Then it was back to the action!  They kicked off the afternoon by having the parents get up and move!

Well, they moved a few feet at least.

That flag is tied to the rope, and when it falls over, it decides the winner. Good idea, I think!

And there was the BEST game EVER for the little kids. BEST GAME.

 I could not stop GRINNING

It was the cutest thing EVER. Each group only got 55 seconds, but they had a blast for every single one of them.
Speaking of, I was thinking of trying to do this in the US, and I couldn't help but think you'd get people saying 'you can't expect kids to sit for that long!"

While Japan seems to say "well, of course we can."

They'll get up for their performance and for their games. 

We'll have them cheer,

The older ones will help lead the younger ones.

We'll make sure they're hydrated

these kids do NOT fool around when it comes to water bottles.

And it's not like we're asking them to stay STILL and pay attention ALL the time.

"They'll be fine"

And they were.

White team won, by the way, but only by about 30 points.  :)  Awarding of the trophy was done, again, with all decorum, and they had a farewell speech.  During which, one of the kids keeled over. I'm guessing he locked his knees.  He seemed more embarrassed than anything, but they walked him off to recover.

The weather was perfect, too. Nice and clear.

Unfortunately, there was a lovely breeze cooling everything down. I say UN fortunately, because it fooled me into thinking I wasn't as exposed as I was and I ended up with some LOVELY red all over my neck.

My tan lines are stronger too.

I look like a cat!

I helped clean up and put stuff away, and then biked home and collapsed in an overheated mess on my bed.  So, that was sports day! It was fun, and the best part is, because of it, I don't have school Monday! 

ta-da!