Kids' English Festival

Today was the kids' festival! We had 40 children perform songs, games and plays, and over 100 parents and grandparents watching! The proceedings were opened by Nicola's Wednesday class and then they were joined by two of her Saturday classes to sing "Five Little Monkeys".

Next was Susan's class demonstrating their ABCs and then Careen and Hiroko's class presented Bill Martin's "Brown Bear".

Next Ryan's class did a skit based on the story of the Candadian who exchanged his way from a red paper clip to a house.

Then Nicola's Elementary 2 class told the Story of Momotaro using Kamishibai story boards.

Kazuko's class treated us to a quiz and many audience members answered questions about famous stories.

Careen played a Chinese Whispers game (伝言ゲーム) with her Elemetary 4 class.

Next were two plays, the first called "Lion and the Little Mice" by Ryan's class and "A Bullying Bear" by Yasuko's class of Elemetary 5th years.

After a little break while everyone could eat their snacks made by Hiroko, we all played a giant game of "What's the time, Mr. Wolf?".

Mini Music Night

Some people might remember when Karen worked here, she often organized Music Night at the Zenrinkan. Unfortunately, when she finished working here, so did Music Night! Many people missed having Music Night, so, last night, we had a mini Music Night!

One of the important things about Music Night is that it is NOT a concert! It is a time for people to get together and enjoy music of all kinds. Some people bring musical instruments, some people sing, some people try instruments for the first time, some people just listen, and everyone enjoys being surrounded by all kinds of sounds. No one is a professional, and any level, beginner to expert, is welcome to perform.

Last night, we had 13 people come to the mini Music Night, performers and listeners.

We heard a few songs from students in Zenrinkan's Niko (二胡) classes.

We heard a man play the Quena, which is a wind instrument from South America. He played the standard quena, and also many other sizes (which all have different names, but I don't remember them)

Also, students in the Saturday Let's Sing class sang a couple of songs for us, Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are", and "I Say a Little Prayer" by Burt Bacharach.

Ryan played the didgeridoo, which is an instrument from Australia. It was originally made and used by aborigines.

We also had a kind of drum circle (actually, a percussion circle). People played many kinds of percussion instruments while we took turns playing the didgeridoo. Then, we had a guitar performance including original songs.

All in all, it was a fun evening for everyone. We also had delicious snacks that Hiroko made for us. Thank you everyone for coming!