Monday, June 1, 2009

Lolly Pop Kindergarten

Carl here...

I'm fully aware that the last few posts (excluding the intern interviews) on here have been all about sightseeing. I thought that I should write a post about work, since when not training, eating chocolate, sleeping, reading the mammoth 'Wheel of Time' series (I'm onto book 11 if you were wondering!), climbing mountains and generally having a great time, I do occasionally have to work... OK, not occasionally actually. I work Monday to Saturday and my schedule is crazy busy, even if I do say so myself...

Anyway...

I landed a job at the Lolly Pop Kindergarten in Iwatsuki in October last year, where I now work every Friday morning. It's really a dream job, all the teachers are really cute... I mean, nice... really nice people... the kids are great, the pay is very good and they even feed me! What more could you ask for?


This is me working hard!


My usual routine is this:

09:30
I get picked up at Kita Kasukabe Train Station

10:00 - 11:45 ish
I have a great time with the kids, building sand castles, playing football, playing Sumo with the kids (no really!) etc...

11:45 - 12:45
I help the teachers serve the lunch to the kids. This is actually pretty impressive, the kindergarten cater for approx 300 people everyday, the foods always delicious and totally healthy and it's all done like clockwork.

12:45-13:45
Teaching, yes I do actually do some proper work too. My hour is usually broken down into 3x 20 minute slots for 3 different classes. The classes are soooooo easy to teach because the kids and teachers are so enthusiastic...

After finishing work here, I get dropped off at Toyoharu Train Station on the Tobu Noda Line. I catch the train to Omiya and chill out for an hour or so before I catch the 15:30 new shuttle to Yoshinohara for my second job of the day.

The past two weeks however, have been a little different... Apparently the principle decided that I'd been working too hard so I should go with the kids on their next field trip. And this is what we did:



...we went to a nearby farm... and were met by a local farmer and a Cable TV Crew!



...were given a short talk about 'chicks'



...we then handed out the animals to the kids... with mixed reactions...



...uncertainty



...indifference




...fear(?)



...though most of the kids had a great time...



After stopping a few of the poor animals from getting squashed to death by over-zealous kids, and 'saving' a few birds from their occasional bids for freedom, the kids were all instructed to turn around and face the rice field and release the birds en-masse...





All that was left was the interviews with the teachers...


This is the kids bullying a shy kindergarten teacher into giving a TV interview...


...and the kids for the evening news...



After the birds had been set free, and the interviews finised, we loaded up the kids and headed to a local supermarket where we were all treated to small ice cream and chocolate snacks. Then it was back to the kindergarten for lunch and my short teaching stint.



The following week was just as good... I went on a very short bus trip to the local temple with the kindergarten 4 year olds, which is around the corner from the kindergarten.



We split the kids into two groups, the first group went to see the small garden and pond and the second went to the temple.





Camera shy... indeed!



Pose!


It was a very sunny, but very windy day and more than a few of the kids caps were teken away by the wind. After looking around the temple and garden the kids went hunting for acorns and seeds for the craft classes back at the kindergarten.



Then it was back to the kindergarten for lunch.

See, as my readers will no doubt agree, I DO work sometimes....!

1 comment:

rcytrcy said...

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