My students, Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 at Lincoln Elementary presented a Japan program.  I have been teaching my students about Japan’s culture and music in conjunction with my Lilly grant over the past year. I spent almost 6 weeks last summer traveling across the country via trains, planes and buses seeing Japan’s beautiful country and meeting the wonderful people.

Over this school year I taught my students Japanese games, songs, history and some basic Japanese phrases.  They have enjoyed learning about a country half way across the world with a very different culture than our own. It was fun to help them discover that Japanese people aren’t completely different from us.  Japanese people enjoy  their families, food, fun and music just like we do, but they a different style and language than children from Indiana are accustom to.

We opened the program with an echo song called “Mrs. Muncy Came Back”. It is a short synopsis of my travels.

Mrs. Muncy Came Back (Mrs. Muncy came back)

From Old Japan (From Old Japan)

And She brought with her (And She Brought with her)

A beautiful fan (A beautiful fan)

Mrs. Muncy Came Back (Mrs. Muncy Came Back)

From Tokyo (From Tokyo)

She Rode Lots of Trains (She Rode Lots of Trains)

To and fro (To and fro)

Mrs. Muncy Came Back ( Mrs. Muncy Came Back)

From Oki Land (From Oki Land)

Snorkeling in the sea (snorkeling in the sea)

Playing in the Sand (playing in the sand)

Mrs. Muncy came back (Mrs. Muncy came back)

From Sapporo  (From Sapporo)

Where thousands danced (Where thousands danced)

For several days (for several days)

Mrs. Muncy came back (Mrs. Muncy came back)

From her Asian trip (from her Asian trip)

Thanks to the Lilly Grant (thanks to the Lilly grant)

And the Scholarship! (And the scholarship)

The first grades sang a song about a frog ““Kaeru no Uto” and another song –“ Kaboto” about 4 animals – a pig, raccoon, fox and cat.  It was darling!

The second grades performed two Japanese game songs  – “ Chichipapa” (Sparrows Singing School” and “Nabe Nabe” (Stewpot, Stewpot).  They sang, played Orff instruments and performed the games. The song was concluded by two of my second graders striking the gong.

The third grades sang about a festival called “Tanabata”. While they sang, several children waved beautiful colored scarves and before the song told the history of the festival held in July.  “Kuma San” is a jump rope song about an Honorable Bear. Several of the students jumped rope during our song, while others played Orff instruments to accompany our singing.

The fourth grades played their recorders combined with Orff instruments on two Japanese game songs “Se, Se, Se” – Rock, Paper, Scissors and “Nake Nake Hoi”.  The children memorized all their music.  I was very proud of them!

The fifth grades played the beautiful Japanese folk song entitled “Kojo No Tsuki” on their recorders (Moon over the Ruined Castle”) by Japanese composer Rentaro Taki. They worked very hard to learn the song and memorize it!  I was so proud of them! The 5^th grade girls cheerleaders, basketball players, and dance team lead the class in the lively “Soran Bushi” dance. My daughter Caitlyn and I attended the Soran Bushi Festival in Sapporo Japan in June of 2016.  It is a HUGE dance competition with thousands of dance teams participating. “Soran Bushi” is a fishing folk song about encouraging fishermen to work hard while pulling in their nets of fish!  Several of the fifth graders held signs that said “Hai Hai” – yes, yes!;“Dokkoisho!  Dokkoisho!  and Soran! Soran! (heave ho! ) These phrases were shouted throughout the song to encourage the fishermen to work hard! The other fifth grade children had colored a picture of a fish which “swam” during the song!  The girls leading the dance wore cute ukata (summer kimono) and had sakara (cherry blossoms) in their hair. It was a fun song and the fifth grade worked hard to coordinate all the parts.

The program was concluded by Grades 1,2,3,4,5, singing the beautiful folk song “Sakura” (cherry blossoms).

I was proud of my students.  They did a wonderful job of performing all the Japan.  Hopefully they learned a lot about Japan and found out that people are people no matter where they live in the world!