This is a photo of 3rd grade Japanese class. We looked for an environment where we could sing as loud as we could in order to read Misuzu Kaneko's "Watashi to Kotori to Suzu to" (With me, with a small bird, with a bell) aloud. Appreciation of poetry is a perfect teaching material for deepening the way you see and think through words, such as reading silently, reading aloud, and considering the ingenuity of expression.

In today's play, we also appreciated poetry. This time we will be looking at the lyrics of "Yumenomori no Uta (school song)''. Yumenomori no Uta, written by Shuntaro Tanikawa and composed by Kensaku Tanikawa, is a song that everyone loves.
When I say appreciation, I don't mean flipping through a dictionary on my desk and looking up the meanings of words. Together with designer Kimujun, a theater professional, we will use our whole bodies to think about the school song.

The first thing we thought about was the words "gungungun" and "runrunrun" in the lyrics. What does Gungungun feel like? What kind of movement is Runrunrun? Together with our friends, we will try to express myself using our body.

In the Gungungun expression, everyone squats down, gathers up some strength, and then jumps as high as they can! It reminds me of a small seed gaining power and growing vigorously. Runrunrun is an expression of skipping while holding hands. Actually, there is no sound like "Runrunrun", but for some reason it seems like a very fun sound.

The next thing we thought about was "Hitori" (alone) and "Minna" (everyone). When we divided them into people who like one person and people who like everyone, the split is exactly 50/50. The designers stand between them and listens to each person's good points. Some children moved around listening to each other's opinions, such as, "I can play my favourite games when I'm alone!'' and "It's better to eat dinner together!'' In the midst of all this, a sixth grade student said, "Sometimes it's good to be alone, and sometimes it's good to be together. Both are good, and I think balance is important.'' Everyone looked satisfied with this opinion.

At the end, we gathered together to the tune of the lyrics, "Demo Yappari Minna to Issho ga iina" (But it's better to be with everyone). Since there are only a few people, everyone was already good friends, but it looked like they were having a lot of fun together playing along to the school song.

Some people like to be alone, while others like to be together with others. At first glance, this may seem like "everyone'', but the gathering is actually made up of singular "individuals.'' And I feel that the song is about the obvious, yet very important thing that "everyone'' is made up of people who are completely different from each other.
In today's workshop, we felt that we were able to better understand the essence of the lyrics, which is difficult to reverberate, through the process of theatre. Practice for the theatre workshop continues. The designers in charge have many discussions with each other and aim to provide even better theatre guidance.

In the Living Environment Studies class for 1st and 2nd grade students, students and their designers investigated unidentified insects that they had caught. We also researched how to raise stag beetles, which we had been raising for some time.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that one of the animals was a locust. We were able to narrow it down to whether the other one was a bell beetle or a cricket, but it seemed too difficult to choose. We decided to find someone knowledgeable about insects and ask the school custodian.

His answer was, "Suzumushi has larger wings, so this must be the Enma cricket.'' The second grade students also watched a video on how to raise grasshoppers using the "NHK for school" TV channel. They used this as a reference for how to raise crickets by comparing it with what they researched in books. As a result, we found out that we need grass to feed crickets.

Yumenomori is rich in nature, and insects may wander into the school. This time, a cricket is one of them. After consulting with designers, they decided to raise locusts and crickets along with stag beetles as new members of Yumenomori. It looks like the learning in the Living Enviroment Class for the 1st and 2nd grade students will continue to grow.