Today, there is another music teacher at Yumenomori, Naohito Sekiguchi. Mr. Sekiguchi is the teacher who composed and taught us the music for the play last year. Children who have sung together since they were in Aizu, and the children who have met him for the first time, all sung together when Mr. Sekiguchi played the piano. It started with vocal practice to see how low our voices could get, matching Mr. Sekiguchi's piano.

They sung as low, and high as they could go to check their range. "This low note reminds me of when a strong person comes out in a play" a child said. Mr. Sekiguchi responded "Yes, its not just the pitch that changes the impression, but also the speed".

As everyone had felt last year during this workshop, Mr. Sekiguchi's piano playing is a mysterious performance where the sound as if it were bursting, and everyones voice naturally comes out with his. He then held a watch in his hand and invited the children to "try to see how well they can make their voices heard." When I heard that he was exhaling, we were surprised to see that he was naturally conscious of his abdominal breathing, saying "If you use your abdominal muscles, you will be able to get more out." Thinking that we will be able to listen to everyone's wonderful songs in this year's play, we are looking forward to practicing.

During lunch break, the 2nd and 3rd grade students, who usually run around outside, set off somewhere with their expedition bags. In the joint study of life sciences and social studies, they went to explore Ogawara, using a map of the town to guide them.

The map has pictures of landmarks and roads of the town, which was drawn by the children. They have almost no experience walking around town, but the teachers followed behind so as not to interfere with the childrens exploration. They had to walk while looking at the surroundings and write down their thoughts.

When they walked following the map, they arrived at a house owned by a local. They gave her their business cards, said hello, and were shown a chicken coop.

Last year, Yumenomori also raised chickens in Aizu. They collected some fresh eggs, and also some cucumbers that also grew on the property. These were much fresher than the ones you can get in a store.

They were allowed to eat some of the cucumbers. The cucumbers were eaten with miso, which made them very delicious. We were also given some cucumbers for our families, and they brought them back to school with great care, although we did wonder "If is was possible to not eat them all on the way home?"

By walking around Ogawara on their own, they were able to learn a lot of new things that cannot be learned simply from looking at maps or staying on the road. Thank you very much for your warm support to everyone in the area. We would like to ask the 2nd and 3rd grade students to teach us what they learned, and would love to go exploring with the other grades.

The 1st grade students went to the school area. After entering the rainy season, we found the hydrangeas had gotten even more beautiful, and explored the area while taking pictures. After returning to school, we discussed which was our favourites. Some children found not only hydrangeas, but also small white flowers. Thank you very much to everyone in the area who showed us the flowers.