Halloween

I have mentioned it before, I think, but I work in a tiny elementary school outside of Nayoro. There are only 13 students in the entire school. I told the staff that I wanted to do a Halloween party, and they generously gave me an hour and a half with the students, as well as 4 giant pumpkins. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me carve them. That was probably for the best, because I can't imagine things going smoothly if I were to whip out a few giant knives, give them to the kids, and say "Go for it!" So instead they got giant pens, and drew their own Jack - O - Lantern faces on them.

I made a bunch of games for them to play, and most were successful. A few games didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped though... I had them throw balls through giant paper Jack-O-Lanterns I had made. The boys decided it would be funny to throw the balls as hard as they could, which made it so much fun for me and the other teacher holding the pumpkin. I didn't enjoy that, but I kind of saw it coming. However, the one problem I didn't forsee was this. I decided to play "musical pumpkins," and I printed off a bunch of pumkins to put on the floor. Paper would rip, so I thought a good idea would be to laminate the pumpkins. I didn't consider the fact that this school has hardwood floors. Put a laminated pumkin on a hardwood floor, and then add a kid racing to stand on this pumkin, and you get slipping and sliding all over the place!! I was terrified the entire time that some kid was going to sail across the room and land on their head. However, there were only a few minor slips, thank GOD!!

The best part was at the very end of the class. I told them that I had candy, but if they wanted to get some they had to dress up and say "Trick or Treat!" I had bought a bunch of costumes from the 100 yen store for them to wear. They really loved it! Which was good, because it took me awhile to prepare all of those costumes. After the party, the students came up to me saying thank you! thank you! in English, which made me even happier!! Even some of the really shy ones. I could even hear them talking about the party after it had finished. Overall, a successful halloween!! I didn't do anything for halloween myself, and I did miss Halloween at home, but it was nice to share it with my students!