A day in the life...

So I thought I'd write about a typical day in kindergarten but was thinking about today and thought, well it wasn't really a typical day. The long and the short of it though is that though there are patterns during the days and weeks there is no typical day so here we go...

Up at the crack of dawn (or maybe slightly after as the days are getting longer) after pressing the snooze button twice. My bed is so warm and the apartment so cold. (Well, what would you expect with no central heating?) Shower, get ready, pack my bag and out the door at 7ish to catch the bus to school. Rats, it's Tuesday and the day to put out burnable garbage, well it'll have to wait till Friday now. Every day is a garbage (gomi) day for different types of garbage. Even though I'm in an apartment I can't just put it out whenever I want. Catch the bus; it's not a 'school bus' but it primarily transports students and teachers to our school, the last stop being in the driveway of the school.

At school (about 50 minutes before school starts) I get to our room turn on the lights and the heat and set the sand toys out by the sandbox. Catch up on (school) emails as this maybe my last chance till schools out at the end of the day. We're painting this morning so I set up for that- paint out, etc. The other teacher arrives and we chat about what's happening during the day. The music teacher's sick so I'm asked to cover our class for music. No problem, we're just watching a movie but what happens to that hour I'm supposed to have today to do other things? (I should explain, for all the other teachers out there, it's a private school and the prep time we have is quite generous compared to public/state schools.) That means though, that since I'm going to be in class, lunch and on playground duty non-stop for 4 1/2 hours with no break I need to dash to the toilet before class starts otherwise it will be a long morning.

8:30- everyone who's here is sitting on the stairs waiting to come in. Open the door and check bags for lunches and lunch money. Once everyone's in I settle in on the 'rainbow carpet' to listen to students read and start morning circle time. Whoops, just now realised we forgot to talk about what day it was. On the plus side though we managed to count up around the circle to 17 and back down again without any major pauses. You would think after doing this every morning for the whole year we'd be able to whip through it no problem, but no today's the first.

After that everyone's off to morning activities: small groups and paired activities. For the 100th day of school we're making a poster with 100 hand prints. It requires far too much coordination- how hard is putting paint on your hand and then putting it down on paper in a line, keeping your fingers closed, as opposed to spread out?! This has taken two days so far. Time's up and it's now time for snack. Sometimes it's a struggle, perhaps a better word is a challenge, to find a table to sit at as there can only be 3 girls and 3 boys at each table. I'm still cleaning up from painting but in the background I can hear the other teacher ask the snack question of the day; usually a math question that all must solve or have a go at before eating. Then it's off to music and PE. Usually at this time we write in home books, get set up for the afternoon and other things but today I'm off to music.

After music, lunch with our kids and after that recess supervision. It all goes by in a flash. Usually in the afternoon I have math with two different groups and then it's time to go home but today is our planning afternoon so we spend the afternoon talking about our students and how they are doing and about the upcoming potluck lunch for students and parents.

After school we stop to talk to a specialist teacher about one of our students who's struggling. It's good to hear how students are doing in other classes. Is it just us? No.

We stop in to the office to check on buses for a field trip and while there I stop by to the woman in the office who has been primarily repsonsible for setting me up here with housing, gas, electricity and water. There's mail that's come in that looks like it's about utilities but it's in Japanese. Is it important I ask? No. Okay, moving on. Very little comes through my mailbox that I understand. Sometimes its a lucky guess whether to check things out or immediately bin. This woman would be very busy if we all brought everything in for her to see.

Can't spend too much time upstairs because today is clubs day and I'm leading a Ukrainian Easter Egg making club for 4th and 5th graders. Just enough time to set up before they arrive. When they do the come in, say hi, sit down and start on their snack. So orderly, so without fuss. What a treat. They are lovely. Some spend lots of time working on the design, others just want to get going. The 50 minutes goes by quickly. Soon it's goodbyes and time to clean up. Then we pack up to leave for the day.

I get a ride home but on the way we stop at the 100 yen store to pick up supplies for the potluck. After being dropped off I make an additional stop to pick up supplies for dinner. It's Shrove Tuesday and pancakes with Canadian maple syrup are definitely in order. Soon I'm home and in for the night. Dinner, crummy US rerun tv and a chance to finally sit down (lunch hardly counts).

Can it really only be Tuesday?

The pancakes were delicious.