Fourth Graders are from Heaven

Had another six-class elementary school day on Wednesday. Ended up staying at #3 Middle School til 10PM the night before trying to finish preparing. I still haven't found a way to deal with Wednesdays. Usually, there's no plan or idea given to me as to what I should teach. I generally receive a schedule about one week before class, but this week I got it the day before. The schedule tells me how many classes I will be teaching, the number of students, and the names of the teachers. It also tells me what time each class starts. Under the space for lesson suggestions, it undoubtedly reads some variation of: 'ALT(Julie) Gives Introduction, Song, Game, Goodbye'. This week's schedule read: 'We hope to play children's game in America,' and 'Please tell us that junior high school.' Uh...
I'm doing my best. We played a couple of silly counting games with racquets and foam balls in 1st and 2nd grades. 3rd grade practiced the alphabet, did an alphabet maze and played bingo. We made a calendar together in the 4th grade class. In 5th and 6th grade classes we played a card game, kind of like Memory, but speaking in English.

I usually try to come up with one 'quality' idea, and really work hard to make one class really good. I usually pick 4th grade to do it with, because I think 4th grader are at a particularly interesting time in their mental development. I think 4th graders embody the best of elementary school. They are curious and cute, but are able to hold onto concepts and work on projects as a group or by themselves. Thank iPods for the 4th grade.

And otherwise:
It's been quiet after the holidays.
Although,... the naked man festival is this Sunday; I'm looking forward to that. ; ) It's called Matobakai, and actually, the men wear loincloths. It's been freezing cold out, but I've heard it doesn't stop them from going to the shrine to celebrate. What they are celebrating is yet unknown to me.
Also on Sunday is the Dondoya Festival, where families take down the decorations that adorned their house for New Year's. They gather at another shrine, make a fire, and toss the decorations in to pray for good health in the New Year.
details to come...

On the plus side, my Japanese has really started improving rapidly as of late. Also, since I gave up caring what anyone thinks of me here, I feel much happier overall.