Japanese School Field Trip

 On Tuesday Feb 2, I got to chaperone Marian's 7th grade field trip to a Japanese school.  The object was for our kids to assist their kids with their conversational English.  We came in with 30 7th graders, and they had maybe 50 of their students.

It took a while to get things settled, as they paired the kids into 6 groups of about 15 kids.

Then it was ice-breaker games.  This one here, the kids had to ask a question, and then pass the ball on after they received an answer.  (No outside shoes in the school, slippers or "indoor shoes" only.)

After the games, our kids went to their classes and spent about 30 minutes in 3 different classes.  Marian got to learn to draw Kanji- this is the symbol for Winter.  And it is a lot harder than it looks! 

Science was next.  Marian said she enjoyed this, but I found it dull.  Check out the cool tables with the wooden block seats though! 

This was math class. Marian was unenthusiastic, but her friend Angel enjoyed the challenging problem they were suppose to solve. 

FYI, they don't really heat their schools.  Some classrooms have a portable heater, but the smaller ones do not.  All of them are quite chilly!  Check out the temp gauge.  15C is 59F  in case you were wondering.  Aren't you glad you don't go to school in a building that is only 59 degrees! 

 Lunch time was long overdue.   Our kids brought lunch from home, but we had to wait for the school to bring up their hot lunch and serve it to each other. It looked a little questionable, but smelled yummy.  We all ate together.

The last event was at their gym room.  They had some awesome looking equipment on the side (think, wooden samurai swords and armor wearing dummies!) but the kids just got to learn some dance.  The Dancing was really just patterns to clapping and stomping.  I was cold enough I wanted to join in, but lazy enough I did not.  (Clap, clap, smile, stomp!)  We got a group photo and said our goodbyes.  It was a long day, but I think it was a good cultural exchange.