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Tochio Higashi on the move
Students hold up billboards with their wish for people to keep water clean and to save killifish. 99.12.9/ Temperature: 0.5C/ Weather: Partly cloudy/ Wind Direction: W
Current Location: Tochio Higashi Elementary School, Niigata 37 46 12 N 139 12 55 E
Distance Traveled: 0 km (Children's Point)It's not all that often that one gets invited to a magic show, a festival, and a presentation about students' wisdom gained through their learning. Tochio Higashi Elementary School students asked me to join them in the school's 23 anniversary and their Cedar Child Festival. I played hard with all of the excited students in festival games and listened closely to what they had to say when they spoke of the wisdom discovered from their studies.
Students explain about the depletion of forests throughout the world. Students of Tochio Higashi sat lined up on the hard wood floor in the chilly gym waiting for the event to begin. Teachers stood in back of rows watching over the students. The curtain went up and out came Piero, a professional magician, dressed in clown clothes. Flowers and doves appeared out of handkerchiefs, endless amounts of umbrellas came out of bottomless boxes. The veteran magician made the impossible appear possible and all present watched with giving their full attention.
Following the magic show was pavilion time. Each class from each grade had prepared some sort of event in each of their classrooms. Similar to American carnivals, one had to pay fake money to play different games which award small prizes. There was a horror house, an old Niigata folk tale acted out as a play, and some of the youngest kids were teaching people how to play games from the old days. I left the festival games with several awards of accomplishment and small shrinky dink prizes.
Niigata folktale play. The morning fun passed quickly by and the entire school returned to the gym for the students' "School-wide Learning presentation- let's tell everyone our wisdom!". To my amazement, each grade had prepared a presentation to share the students' wisdom with fellow students, visiting guests from the community and myself. First year students taught the secrets to top spinning, pick-up sticks, juggling, etc. Second year students taught of their adventures learning about living creatures such as crayfish, killifish, and frogs. Third year students also went out on the town to discover what is in their own community. Fourth year students explored the local dialect of Tochio. Studying about the wisdom to protect forests, fifth graders explained about the rapid depletion of trees worldwide and how kenaf may be a good substitute for tree products. Lastly, the sixth graders of Tochio Higashi taught me about their attempts to learn why they can no longer play in the Kariyatagawa. Not only did they discover the sources of pollution, but also they made attempts to share their concerns with members of the community, and took action themselves to clean their river water.
All classes of Tochio Higashi Elementary have begun their studies by looking at their communities. Some students spoke of the importance of their local culture, others spoke of the need to protect the local environment. Most importantly all of the groups have started to take action to improve issues which they feel are important.
Though many of the environmental problems that we are all currently learning about may seem overwhelming, studying hard to understand present issues and taking action for what we believe in, we might be able to make what appears impossible possible. If we all put our heads and activities together and share our wisdom, we too may become magicians.
What kind of celebrations do you have at your schools?
Greg
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