What's all this horse'n around???

This is the black board after we took the hour reading our letters- I was trying to explain- horse to the students! Thankfully I was not a art major! (also Japan is huge compared to China hehe)

Today, finally after about a month of waiting the project Authentic Communication has been completed. My idea was for the first grade students of Kamijo Jr. High School to write letters to students, all over the world, using letter writing etiquette and the English Language to communicate. We started in December talking about letters, and practice writing our first letters using more of a daily dialogue with other students. First Grade students are very limited in their English capabilities but worked very hard to try to communicate with other students. Having this goal-the letters will be sent and returned- was a great motivation for students to take time and ask questions they wanted to ask students from other countries. We had letters sent to Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Wisconsin, and England. 

This photo is part of how I explained where the letters were coming from. The first step was showing them the US- which is partially erased, and then showing parts of Asia and Europe where England and Slovakia were. There were many letters that came back from foreign exchange students from Germany, Slovakia, and other countries! It was amazing! (and a test of my geography skills- I hope Slovakia is by Russia!). Any who after this explanation- We passed out the letters each child receiving two letters one from a younger elementary student and one from  a high schooler! The students were too excited! 

Also as a wonderful surprise each student received a Valentine- from my Mother- everyone loved these stickers (especially the girls!). The excitement was too high- I was kinda overwhelmed and scared they may rush me- but thankfully they are very calm even when they are excited!

I took video and pictures as I passed out the cards. Everyone was excited to read them thought they were MUZUKASHI DESU- meaning difficult. I think the kids said they were difficult because of their impatience to read and understand! They all ended up doing a great job! It was a great motivator to keep learning English so someday they may understand the letters 100%! 

Silly boys who might have received a letter from a cute high school girl! They were a little embarrassed but more glad they could keep a picture of an American friend with them all the time and brag about her. (It was so funny!)

These girls loved their cards too! These are some of the ping pong girls who I play ping pong with after school! The girls who received a wonderful card from my good friend Madeline were so excited! (the cards were so cute- I am pretty sure they said they were BFF after seeing the cards). 

This boy was very excited- He received a letter from my Father. He read the letter, with only a little need for help and wanted to write back. But after my explanation of what "Maybe I will meet you in March" meant- his face lite up and I felt like he wanted to jump out the window. (for those of you who do not know- Just a Guz's Mom and Dad are coming to Japan in a few weeks- 5 to be exact! not that I am counting and this will be my first visitor from America to Japan- I am so excited!) SO the children will be able to meet my family and this boy especially will be able to SAY thank you for the letter. He can't wait- and I agree with him! 

Some students were so excited to say Thank you that they started writing right away! This girl had a letter written before class was out! It was great! 

Ok the kids are a little shy- but this girl at least let me take a sashin- picture of her and her letter and wonderful stickers! She loved her letters so much! 

Peace and Victory signs were being thrown up all over the place! You could say there was a lot of Peace on Earth- (ok lame but true!)

To end this all the students had such a wonderful communication experience! They loved learning about other kids around the world and seeing how well young kids in America can write! This experience was so great I feel they will do this more often in years to come!

A special thanks to Kelsey Irwin and her 120 letters she sent, and Debra Wittrock who dominated her school and sent a huge number of letters back! Also to my sister Katy Strohm- who did a super job of putting a picture on each page- the Kids flipped with excitement! And to My Mom and Dad (for the stickers and love!), Sara Moser, Sarah Abbas , Colette Veldhorst, Christa Hydeen (in England- they also flipped because they got something from America and England!!!!), Evan Mattice (who got the kids interested in Missy Elliot), Madeline Lewis (for the cutest letters and always writing such fun letters- everyone should write her- she send the coolest letters back-and since about 9th grade has sent me stickers with every letter!!!! Its been fun!), and everyone who made this possible- it was a wonderful experience and a special time for the students.  Domo Arigato!

Remember: it may just take a letter to make someone feel extremely special- why not take the 5 mins to care! ( ok that was kinda old-person like, and teacher all combined!)

~MOlly

PS to those who helped out- I am creating a movie/slides of pictures of the entire experience as a thank you! If you would like a copy of this for your class or your memory- Please tell me! I will be sending them out and putting the movie online!