Term 3 Week 6

Last Wednesday morning 70 Japanese students came to visit Elm Park School.  They came to experience what a New Zealand school was like.  They only stayed until lunch time but we did some fun activities with them before they left.

When they first arrived we started with a big Powhiri in the auditorium.  For about 30 minutes we listened to them singing songs and saying stuff about how they are excited to learn more things about New Zealand. They were also excited about how they were going to come to visit our classes for the day.  We also listened to the Kapa Haka group perform.  I enjoyed watching Mrs Graham speaking Japanese.

Next we split up into groups and did some activities.  The activities that we did were Cards, Calligraphy, Origami and Kendama.  For the origami you could either do a Crane, Rabbit, Clover, Sailor, Yakkosan or a Balloon.  Calligraphy is a activity where you have to tell 1 Japanese student your name then they paint it in Japanese. There was about 4-5 Japanese Students painting peoples names in Japanese.

Then after all those activities we came back to class because it was morning tea time the Japanese students stayed in the auditorium with their buddies then they came back to our class with their morning tea we ate for 10-15 minutes then the bell went for us to go outside and play for half an hour.  Then it was time for us to come inside and we started to do some weaving. For weaving we had to get 10 strips of coloured paper of any colour.  Then you get a big black piece of paper with some holes big enough that you can fit the pieces of paper through them.

Finally it was lunch time but the Japanese students were leaving and when they were in the drive way by the office some boys and girls did the haka before they left.  I enjoyed doing the activities and lots of things. I hope they will come and visit us again soon and if they do I hope that they have more new activities for us to learn and do!! :)