Halloween 2014 -- The Kidz RE-group!

Long time, no see, everyone! It's HALLOWEEN time again!! We have a lot of fun plans for our party, but we are still working on the details. Here is what we have decided so far:


GENERAL PLANS

• COSTUMES -- Of course, we're all going to wear costumes! Remember, your costume should be something that is easy to move/run in. This year, something a little spooky might be good because of our plans for a Haunted Walk (see next thing on this list!). If you already have a great costume planned that is NOT spooky, don't worry! It will be just fine.

• HAUNTED WALK -- We are going to make a spooky experience for our neighborhood's kodomokai kids, who will be coming by our house in their trick or treat event. They will probably be coming through the garden between 6:30 and 7:30. The idea is to make a kind of "haunted walk" from our parking lot up to the house and out the back gate. Please remember that these are ELEMENTARY school kids (sometimes with their very young brothers and sisters) so we can't be TOO scary (OK, Jojo?!). 

• FOOD -- at our Halloween parties in the past, we didn't usually have a big dinner, but this time let's eat together!! I'm going to make a big pot of soup (STONE soup?!), and it would be great if each family could bring a dish to share. We will provide mugi cha, but if you want something else to drink, please bring it. (Adults, feel free to bring beer or wine if you like.)

• GAMES -- As usual, we want to play some crazy games!! Maya and Sophie are busy planning... some old favorites are on the list -- The Doughnut Race and Wink Murder -- and we have some new ideas, too.

SCHEDULE

If possible, we'd like everyone to gather at our place at 5:30. If you are free to come a little earlier, that's ok! We need to set up some things for our "Haunted Walk", so if someone is free to help, that would be great. After that, we are not sure about the schedule... we have to figure out the timing of all of our activities. When should we eat?! Let's think about that a little more...

PREPARATION

We haven't been studying for several months, so I thought this would be a great chance to get you to practice WRITING!!  YAY!!! One thing we are going to do is the BEST SCARY STORY activity. Choose ONE of these story openings and finish it! We'll read them at the party ... in the dark ... WOOOooooooo...  You can send the story to me by e-mail or just bring it with you to the party. (If sisters and brothers want to work together on this, that's ok!)

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Story 1

Something really scary happened to me and my friends last year when we were out camping. We decided to go on a little hike after dinner. It wasn't dark yet, so we started to climb up a mountain near the campground. After a while, my friend Chris called out, "Hey! Check this out!" We ran over to him and saw that he had found a door built as an entrance to what looked like a cave. "Cool!" said Megan, another friend. "Wow," I said, "I wonder what's in there?" Chris said, "Let's go look!"

We all slowly entered the cave. We stood at the door for a while, letting our eyes adjust to the gloomy darkness. While we were standing there, I heard a voice. It wasn't Chris' voice or Megan's voice. It was a man's voice and it whispered, "We have visssssitorsss..." 

Just as I was turning to see where the voice came from, I heard the door behind me slam shut! I ran to it and tried to push it open but, of course, it was locked. Now we had to go on; we could not turn back . . . . Chris and Megan called softly to me and I groped my way toward them in the dark. "I think we can still make it if we just stick together and don't panic," Megan cautioned. She put something into our hands and said, "Here, let's use my belt to keep us together. We can each hold onto part of it as we walk along. Even if we can't see, we can at least know where ..." The belt flew out of my hands as Megan's voice fell away beneath us! I fumbled in the dark for a second and then said, "Darn it! Why didn't I think of this before?" I reached into my pocket and produced... 

(Click HERE to download a document you can print out and use to finish this story.)

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Story 2

Last winter my parents gave me a surprise Christmas present. It was a month's stay at a winter camp in the countryside near the city where I live. I had never heard of the camp, but the brochure looked really interesting. It described a lot of fun activities like sledding, ice skating and crafts. I was really looking forward to going, because my friends Mike and Lily decided to go there, too. We said goodbye to our parents in the school parking lot, where the camp's bus came to pick us up. The bus driver - he said his name was Chester - was a little strange. He had buggy eyes and he drooled a little sometimes -- but he seemed nice enough, so we settled in on the bus.

We drove for about two hours. The road became narrow and winding, and we seemed to be getting very far from any towns or houses. The snow was piled high on both sides of the road. When we arrived at the camp, it was strangely quiet. There seemed to be a big main lodge, with some cabins around the shore of a small lake, where we could see a spot had been cleared for ice skating. The driver pointed to the lodge. He told me, Mike and Lily to take our bags up to the lodge. He sent the other kids to the cabins.

My friends and I went to the lodge and opened the creaky front door. Nobody was there, so we stepped inside and put our bags down. Just then a door opened to the left. A person came out of the door, but we had never seen anyone like him before. He was deeply bent over, with a large hump on his back. His body was shaped like a question mark. 

The hunchbacked figure motioned to us to follow him, and we walked behind him down the hallway, our teeth chattering. The hunchback turned and looked at us. He laughed softly and said, "Don't fall behind. People have gotten lost in these hallways and starved to death before they were found . . . hee-hee-hee!" 

He led us into a huge room where a whole tree was blazing in the fireplace. I noticed some golden eyes glowing in the far-off corner. "Don't be worried, my dear," our host assured me, "that is just Fiona and she's not one bit hungry. She ate an entire piglet just this morning." At the sound of the hunchback's voice, Fiona growled sweetly. "I will be back shortly with some hot chocolate. You warm yourselves by the fire until I return." He turned sharply, and with narrowed eyes, warned us: "But do not attempt to leave this room..." 

(Click HERE to download a document you can print out and use to finish this story.)

Wonderful!

You guys did an amazing job with the Stone Soup play! I am still working on editing the video -- I'll get that posted here soon.

I wanted to post some photos I took of Graeme's lovely card, made by Maya and containing messages from all of you.

I also wanted to share a link with the recipe for the "Stone Soup" we ate for lunch yesterday: 

Click the photo to go to the recipe:

(By the way, I changed the recipe a little -- I did not use mushrooms, and I added several diced potatoes. I also used fresh herbs instead of Italian seasoning: chopped rosemary, thyme and oregano.)

Stone Soup

Performance day is coming soon! Please study your script so that you can remember your lines for the performance. We don't want to be holding scripts during the performance!!

About food, families have been choosing what kind of dish they will bring for the pot luck lunch.
These are the dishes we are hoping people will bring:

2= veg/salad (green salad, veggie tray, etc.)

2= rice/bread (baguettes, onigiri)

3= fruit/dessert

2= meat

1= anything is ok! 

Drinks = please bring your own

And these are the categories that people have signed up for so far:

Graeme's group

Trevor L. -- pasta salad / meat

Trevor H. -- grilled chicken

Graeme -- onigiri / bread

Greg -- fresh and grilled vegetables

Stephen -- Veggie something

Ronan

Christie's group

Christie -- Stone Soup :-)

Scott -- gyoza or similar

Doug

Mayumi -- Dessert/fruit

Yuka -- Veggies and dip

Fumi / Emi -- appetizer

April Schedule

Things are moving along with VoiceThreads -- it has been so great to see all of your interesting presentations online! If you haven't finished commenting on everyone's work, please continue with that. Don't forget to check your own VoiceThread and respond to any questions that other members have asked you.

We also have a good start on our Stone Soup production. The script is well underway and, thanks to everyone's efforts, most of our props are ready to go. Next Saturday, April 12, we will hopefully have a finished script and you can run through it to see what works and what doesn't work. Speaking of work, I have to work that weekend :-( so Graeme will take care of the class by himself. It will be Graeme's last teaching day at Kidz Group, so please come if you can!! (We will see Graeme again at the Stone Soup performance, of course.)

On April 19 and 26 we will continue to practice and perfect our performance, then on Sunday, April 27 we will perform Stone Soup for Graeme's learning circle, their families, and our own families. This will be the last gathering of our Kidz Group for a while. As you all know, we are going to take a break for a while because everyone is so busy.

Please be sure to let Christie know if you CAN'T come on April 27. We'll gather at the Provenzanos' house from 10:00. After the performance, we will have a pot luck lunch with Graeme's learning circle families. We'd like each family to contribute some food to the lunch, and will be contacting you with details about what we'd like you to bring (salad or bread or dessert, etc.). Please wait for more information about that. Of course, we will have SOUP!! :-)

Let Christie know if you have any questions.

Kidz Group Update

Hi everyone! We've just finished our meeting today (March 22). Sophie and Natsuko are finishing up their Voicethreads (I'll post links soon) and Jojo, Maya, Graeme and Christie were working on a script for Stone Soup.

Graeme pointed out that there are 5 Saturdays this month, so we are not going to meet next Saturday. That means our next meeting will be APRIL 5. Come ready to make props for Stone Soup and to help with the script, ok?

In the meantime, there is HOMEWORK. I'd like you to listen to every finished Voicethread -- that means not only the Voicethreads made by our group's members but also those made by the kids in Wakayama.

For each Voicethread, I'd like you to make at least 2 comments. One of the comments should be a question. You make a comment just like you did when you recorded your own Voicethread -- sign in to Voicethread, then visit this blog post to choose the Voicethread you want to listen to. As you listen, if you find a part that you want to ask a question about or make a comment on, then click "comment". You can record your question/comment using your webcam or your computer's microphone. (Click HERE to go to a web page that explains more about how to comment on a Voicethread.)

Voicethreads! Check out these links...

Hi everyone --

We are making good progress on our Voicethread project. Several members have finished. Check out the clickable links below to see the finished Voicethreads. (Any unclickable names are not finished yet... check back frequently for updates!)

For the next step, please watch/listen to EVERYONE's Voicethreads. As you listen, think of questions you'd like to ask the maker of the Voicethread or comments you'd like to make about their Voicethread. Then please try the comment function on Voicethread to record your question or comment. If you have trouble, please contact me (Christie). I can help!

Fukuoka Group
Maya
Jojo
Richie
Sophie
Natsuko
Ren
Nozomi
Angus
Moni

Wakayama Group
Reina
Leola
Makoto
Enna

Kidz Group Projects

Hi everyone -

It has been forever since I've posted, I know - time for an update! There are 2 projects that we are working on at the moment:

Voicethread Project

We have been working steadily on our Voicethread projects, so there hasn't really been much to post about! Right now, this is where we are at in the Voicethread project:

1. Currently, many members are nearly done their PowerPoints and scripts. Several people have been working on their PowerPoints and scripts at the same time, while others prepared their scripts first and are now working on PowerPoints to support them. Still others prepared PowerPoints based on their outlines and are now filling in the gaps in their scripts. 
2. The next step will be to upload the PowerPoint slides to Voicethread. As we've talked about in class, the slide should have VERY LITTLE text -- the images your viewers see should support what you tell us about your particular topic. If there's too much text, viewers will be too busy reading the slide to listen to what you are telling them about it. 
3. The next step is to add your comments and explanations about each slide. It is probably better for us to do this at home -- you need a quiet room to record your comments so that there is not a lot of background noise. We can try it out in class so you know how to do it, and then you can finish up your comments at home.
4. When everything is uploaded and you are satisfied with your recordings, we'll be able to share the Voicethreads with other group members. Everyone will have a chance to watch and listen to each member's Voicethread, and will add their own comments and questions. We will also do a sample in class showing how to do this. 
5. Finally, the original Voicethread posters will listen to the comments and questions on their own Voicethread, and will add answers and further comments.

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Stone Soup Project

We talked in class with Graeme about planning a performance for his daughter's bilingual playgroup. We settled on the idea of performing the story called Stone Soup. If you are not familiar with this story, please watch this video:

We talked about how to adapt the story for the young children in Graeme's group. We decided that a story about French soldiers and peasants set a long time ago in history would be a little difficult for the young children to understand, so, after Kidz Group, Sophie, Maya and I were talking about it and we wondered if the characters in the story could be animals? The costumes would be easy to make and the story would not need to change so much. Instead of the soldiers, we could have 2 animals known for being clever (maybe foxes or weasels?) Then each of the other animals (the ones who don't want to share) could contribute to the soup food that they commonly eat; for example:

Rabbit - carrot

Mouse - cabbage (?)

Bear - meat (beef or chicken)

etc.

As we talked about in class, before the clever animals (let's say they are foxes) arrive, the other animals "hide" their sacks of carrots, etc. around the room so the small children can see where the sacks are. (We would make "carrots" and "cabbage" (etc.) out of paper, making sure to have one for each of the small children.) Then when the foxes come and start to make the stone soup, the rabbit (for example) would speak up and say, "Well, I might have a carrot or two to add to the pot..." and then the rabbit could ask the small children, "Do you know where I put my carrots?" Then (hopefully!) the little kids will jump up and bring the sack to the rabbit, who will encourage each of them to add a carrot to the soup pot. The other animals will do the same. The story will finish like it does in the original -- with everyone having a feast together and enjoying themselves. Finally, as Doug suggested, it would be really fun to have a big pot of REAL soup (prepared in advance!) for everyone (Moms and Dads, too) to share after the performance. 

Let's talk more about it in our next Kidz Group, ok? Please add your ideas (for example, if you hate the "animals" idea or whatever...)

Homework for next week - New Year's Resolutions!

It was fun seeing everyone today! Our homework is to write at least TWO new year's resolutions! Please make a comment on this blog post to let us know what your resolutions are. Check the first comment to see Christie's.

 Also, you can check HERE to see your last year's resolutions. Did you keep any of them?

 Next week Christie won't be here, but Graeme will be. You are going to work on making an outline for your VoiceThread project, so bring a computer for your internet research. As a reminder, here is what people have decided to research:

Natsuko: different kinds of ice skating jumps
Maya: what different religions believe happens to people after they die
Angus: different board game categories
Jojo: different types of reptiles/amphibians
Sophie: Different kinds of animated movies (OR different kinds of special effects used in movies [like how do they make it rain in movies] - she is still debating)
Richie: Different kinds of skateboards, their associated tricks and famous riders
Nozomi: Basketball as it was when first invented, as it was about 30 years ago, and as it is today.
Ren: Something connected to fishing - maybe different kinds of baits and lures
Moni: ???

We are also going to have 2 guest class members - remember Reina and Leola from Wakayama? - who are going to do VoiceThread projects!

Reina: Jobs for Canadian girls after high school and university [salaries and education]
Leola: The slaughtering of Dolphins and Whales in Taiji, Wakayama

January 11 - Happy New Year!

Hi everybody! Just in case you were wondering, Kidz Group is meeting today!! We're going to discuss our VoiceThread plans, so bring your ideas and we'll get to work :-)