Japanese day
The whole school went Japanese on Friday. All the children and staff came dressed in Japanese outfits ranging from sumos to samurais! Some of the cleaning staff very kindly lent me a beautiful kimono for the day. It involved having two 'dressers' to wrap the swathes of fabric round me and took about twenty minutes to be fully 'bound'. It was surprisingly comfortable and I felt quite sad to be back in my regular clothes at the end of the day! The children had a huge range of activities to take part in including Japanese dancing (bon odori), origami, watching anime, making yaki soba (noodle dish) and a special Japanese comedy show.
More pictures in the gallery.
Ski Trip
Last week the Year 5 team travelled to the North Star lodge in Norikura for the second time this academic year. The winter wonderland that greeted us was almost unrecognisable from our sunny summer destination! The first afternoon saw us unloading all the thermal filled suitcases before settling into the welcome haven of the lodge. The children then got the chance to take part in activities that included igloo building, sledging (my favourite) and wall climbing before a warming dinner. This was followed by a group task to construct a model ski lift from basic materials; the children came up with some ingenious ideas which put the BST adults to shame! The next two days were spent on the slopes learning and perfecting skiing and snowboarding skills. There was a huge range of abilities within the year group but everyone made amazing progress with the beginners even negotiating a black slope by the end of the second day! Our final morning was a new experience for all of us – snow shoeing. This was a superb morning walking (and stumbling!) around in the deep, fresh snow that had fallen overnight. A great end to a great week; staff and children all returned exhausted but with big smiles on our faces. More pictures in the gallery.
Odaiba Trip
On Wednesday the whole of Year 5 went on a trip to Odaiba. Odaiba is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, across the spectacular 'Rainbow Bridge' from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1800s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential and leisure area. The trip was a little different in that the children have spent the last 6 weeks planning the trip themselves. They researched the area and chose activities they would like to do within their budget of 3500 yen (about 17 GBP). They had to get to Odaiba using public transport and a route decided by them. Various groups used the subway, monorail and even the water bus! Odaiba has a wide range of museums including the excellent Museum of Emerging Science which some groups visited, however other groups went to the arcades and huge shopping malls. Unfortunately the famous ferris wheel was not running and so we couldn't experience that but other landmarks visited included the Fuji TV Centre and the Statue of Liberty (a smaller replica of the New York landmark).
The day was a real success and everyone got home in one piece!
Visit this website to find out more about Odaiba: http://www.tokyoessentials.com/odaiba.html