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Posted by gka at 17:06 | TrackBack (2662)
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Institute for Nature Study 自然教育園

Taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather, the Adventure in Tokyo participants visited the nature park, Shizen Kyoikuen, near Meguro Station. The group set out to find different species of plants, birds, and insects. The Bird group did find sparrows sunbathing in the lawn and heard several birds chirping in the branches of a tall pine tree. The Insect Group found two species of butterflies and sketched them in their notebooks. The Plant Group found many species of flowers and vegetation throughout the dense and lush park. Other children drew pictures of a waterfall, a stone bridge and ajisai flowers.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 17:04
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Science and Technology Museum

Session 2 Adventures in Tokyo kids visited the Museum of Future Science and Technology 未来科学技術情報館. The museum had many hands-on displays so that children can become familiar with phenomenon such as formation of tornados and generation of electric currents.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:58
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Roppongi Hills Restaurant Scavenger Hunt

Towards the end of June, Adventures in Tokyo went to Roppongi Hills. The kids interviewed employees at Asian restaurants in Japanese, and discovered what each restaurant's most popular dish was, how much it cost, and what sort of clientele frequented the restaurant. After Michael demonstrated how to interview waiters, managers, and chefs, Aaron and Kenneth enthusiastically visited restaurants and enjoyed the immensity of Roppongi Hills.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:56
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Roppongi Hills Mysteries

Braving temperatures well over 30 degrees in July, Adventures in Tokyo located several mysterious places and items in Roppongi Hills. After solving the Japanese riddles on their objective sheet and heeding the warning to stay inside and drink water, Magda and Aaron set about finding a giant spider statue, post office, health clinic, and a Homework's sandwich shop in the Roppongi Hills Mori Tower and adjacent Metro Hat building. They then had their picture taken at each location as proof of its discovery.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:55
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Mori Art Museum

Hanna, Ilana, Alpha, Magda, Morie, and Mika went to the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills. First, we saw a gigantic foot that was hanging from the ceiling. And we saw gigantic pictures that we could only see the bottom part of. And there were gold frames around the pictures.

There were also black and white pictures that were the right size for all of us. There were little diorama that had glass over it. We could see mountains, grassy areas beaches and huts. It was very fun in the Mori Art Museum.

Written by Morie (age 10)

Posted by gka at 16:52
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Mohri Garden

Session One participants of Adventures in Tokyo visited the Mohri pond in Roppongi Hills to observe the karugamo (ducklings) and "space medaka" (the only minnows in the world who were born in outer space during a space flight). Although the "space medaka" were fairly easy to locate in the pond, it took some time before we could spot the karugamo, who blended in with the rocks and trees around the pond. When the children found the ducklings, they carefully and intently drew pictures of their findings in their journals (nikki).
Project output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:47
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Jidokan (Children's Hall)

Global Kids Academy went to Tokyo Metropolitan Children Hall.
There were three groups:
Group1: Magda, Ilana, and Risa
Group2: Aaron, Kenneth and Greg
Group3: Morie, Hanna, Michael and Mika
Group 1 went to the handicraft corner. Group 2 went to the scientific craft corner. Group 3 went to the Wood Working room. Ilana made a Sword and a slime and Magda made a dog and a slime. The sword and the dog were made out of fabric. Aaron and Kenneth each made a boat and a slime. The boats were made out of wood. Morie and Michael each made a gun and a slime and Hanna made a Magic hand and a slime. The guns and the magic hand were made out of wood. Morie and Michael went to an old Japanese room and changed into costumes. We pretended to be Ojiisan and Obaasan.
Project output is here.

Written by Morie (age 10)

Posted by gka at 16:43
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Ghibli Museum Field Trip

Today, in order to learn more about Japanese anime, the Adventures in Tokyo group visited the Ghibli Museum near Mitaka station. The museum featured all of Miyazaki Hayao's movies (including My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky) and some of Pixar's production. The museum seemed more like a wonderful playground than a museum with its unique spiral staircases, low entrances and doors, antique looking elevators, and countless displays of Miyazaki and Pixar's animation. The huge bigger-than-life size neko-bus (cat bus) stuffed animal from the movie, My Neighbor Totoro, was a favorite attraction among all the children. The children couldn't get enough of bouncing, diving, climbing, and sliding up and down the huge stuffed animal. The children also climbed up to the roof of the museum to look at the huge replicas of the robots and stones from the movie, Castle in the Sky. Some other attractions of the museum included a theater, where the children watched three short Pixar movies, several picture galleries, a replica of Miyazaki Hayao's studio, and a fascinating machine that spun a row of sedentary miniature sculptures in a circular motion so fast that made the sculptures like they were moving.
Project output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:41
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Azabu Juban Challenge

Today, the children were divided up into three separate teams to go exploring the city of Azabu Juban. Each team was assigned separate tasks and was asked to make a presentation of what they had done in front of the group. For example, Aaron and Jimmy (rising first graders) had to figure out how many toy stores exist in Azabu Juban, then to sketch of their favorite toy and finally buy 100 pieces of origami paper. Leona and Ricky had to interview storeowners (in Japanese) to find out the oldest store in Azabu Juban. The group recorded each store's year of establishment (eg. 1951) and then compared the data to figure out which store existed before all the other stores. [The oldest store in Azabu Juban was a barber shop located next to Zenpuku Temple. It opened in 1818.] The last group (Aya, Kaitlyn, Eve, Abby, Michael and Risa) was asked to go to a Chinese/Asian antique shop and interview the storeowner about their products and buy three packages of Mamegen rice crackers. After all three teams reconvened at the Global Kids Academy, the children video recorded their presentations. Afterwards, everybody sampled the Mamegen rice crackers during snack time.
The output is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:37
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Arisugawa Park

At the park, the children divided themselves into two teams according to what activities they were interested in pursuing. The two choices of activities were Dog Interviewing or Map Making. The Dog Interviewing team was instructed to interview people who were walking with their dogs in the park. The Map Making team was assigned to construct a hand-drawn map of Arisugawa Park in their sketchbooks. The children enthusiastically pursued their respective activities. The Dog Interview team found three dog owners and collected data about each dog in their notebooks. The Map Making team walked around the park, observing the layout of the park and recording their findings. After the teams reconvened at GKA, the children recorded their observations and data. The Dog Interviewing team created a newsletter, "Doggie Days". The Map Making Team created a final draft of the map of Arisugawa Park on construction paper along with some background information about the history of the park.
Arisugawa Park Map is here.

Written by Tomoyo

Posted by gka at 16:25
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Interviewing Iku, the Producer of BubuChacha

July 14, 2004
The Adventures in Tokyo children had a special guest, Mr. Iku, the producer of the Japanese animation series, BubuChacha. He brought many pictures and notes that he and his co-workers used in order to create the BubuChacha series. He explained how he and his co-workers brainstormed ideas for the characters, stories, sound effects and layout for the 52 half-an-hour episodes of the series. He showed the children some sample drawings of the characters from BubuChacha and described some of the "development process" of animation, which involves continuous revising of the original work. The GKA children were surprised and in awe when they found out that all of BubuChacha's drawings were hand-drawn, rather than designed and created by computer.

Written by Greg

Posted by gka at 16:23
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Summer 2003 English and Japanese Immersion

Throughout the summer, we had English and Japanese Immersion classes where children from different linguistic background interacted while having fun. From making origami to role playing in a Harry Potter setting, the children had fun speaking English and Japanese.

Posted by gka at 15:51
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Aquarium and Park

Even in Tokyo, we can appreciate nature by visiting aquariums and parks. Eriko and Aaron went to the aquarium in Tokyo Tower and found sea and river creatures from all the continents. Melina and Kaitlyn went to Arisugawa Park and interviewed pet owners about their pets in Japanese. We also visited Dog Ten, a pet grooming shop, and learned about training and grooming of pets.

Posted by gka at 15:40
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Working People in Tokyo

We focused on the working people who make up the busy city of Tokyo. We visited the Azabu Fire Station where the firemen spent a whole hour with us answering questions that the children had prepared. We also visited shops in Azabu Juban like the Naniwaya Taiyaki shop and Mamegen bean senbei shop. Aya, Sarah, Kaitlyn and Melina asked all the questions in Japanese and recorded their findings in a video documentary.

Posted by gka at 15:35
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

Tokyo Old and New

The children got to compare and contrast the old city of Edo and modern Tokyo. At the top of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, the children watched a film that showed the aerial view of modern Tokyo. In the next room, they found out what our neighborhood looked like in the Edo period - the entire floor was a map from Edo.
The children also visited historic Zenpukuji and learned the history behind the founding of this old temple and how Townsend Harris came to establish the first American Legation in Japan in 1859. Aya and Sarah wrote over 10 pages in Japanese about this visit. Later, Aya, Sarah, Kaitlyn and Melina produced a video documentary called ASKM news.

Posted by gka at 14:05
Category:Photo Gallery /Summer Journals

LEAP, JUMP and Tutorials

Whether it is Japanese Immersion or English Immersion, we can create optimal learning situations for children. As the names suggest, Learn English and Play (LEAP) and Japanese-Understanding and Mastering in Play context (JUMP) are fun and stress-free situations where kids find themselves speaking in the target language without inhibition. In tutorials, we can pinpoint areas where children need to focus in order to reach the next level in their Japanese or English studies. We also offer homework tutorial and help children understand the math, science and language arts covered at school.

Posted by gka at 14:03
Category:Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Arts & Crafts

Wednesday Art time

Posted by gka at 14:00
Category:Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Swedish Embassy Children's Day

The Swedish Embassy has kindly invited us to their Children's Day celebration. We played some Swedish games and enjoy Swedish toys and literature.

Posted by gka at 13:58
Category:Anything Can Happen Day /Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Project Sumo Art and Project North Korea Abduction Issue

We had a very special event in March where we combined two projects. Mr. Ki Nimori, a veteran art teacher and artist, perhaps best know for his sumo sculpture, visited GKA and showed the Anything Can Happen crew how to make sumo sculptures out of terracotta clay. Later, the team made a presentation to the other GKA children about how to make the sculptures. The children were delighted to learn not only sculpture techniques but also stories about sumo from Mr. Nimori. The second project was a special presentation by Shino, a fourth grader who attends a Japanese school. She had researched the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents by interviewing a newspaper reporter. She summarized her findings of this very difficult topic and gave an easy-to-understand quiz show so that the younger children may be exposed to the issues. Shino created certificates and thank you notes for all attendees. As the group pictures show, all the children from age 3 to 12 had fun this evening!

Posted by gka at 13:56
Category:Anything Can Happen Day /Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Project Art Appreciation - Artscape 2004

The children of Global Kids Academy went to see Artscape 2004 at Children's Castle. It is wonderful when children see and appreciate artwork created by other children. The GKA kids had the task of picking their favorite pieces and explain why they chose those pieces in their target language.

Posted by gka at 13:53
Category:Anything Can Happen Day /Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Project Construction - Tokyo Prince Park Tower

Date：Nov. 28, 2003
Place：Tokyo Prince Park Tower
The Anything Can Happen crew had a very special opportunity to visit the Tokyo Prince Park Tower, still under construction. Led by the architects of Tange Associates and the construction crew of Kajima Kensetsu, the Anything Can Happen Day crew got to go all the way to the top in the cage-like elevator in full construction gear. We then visited hotel guest rooms being built. Next, we went to the gigantic ball room in the basement which was the size of a football field. Later, we returned to the architects' office and studied the models for a better idea of the finished product. We cannot wait to go back and see the building when it is completed. The children were inspired to make their own model building, made of recycled products, and sent the model with a thank you poster to the people of Tange Associates.

Posted by gka at 13:49
Category:Anything Can Happen Day /Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Project Paperless Office - visit to IBM Consulting Services

We were very privileged to be invited by Leona's mother and father to visit the offices of IBM Consulting Services in Maru Biru (Marunouchi Building). We learned about how communication takes place in this state-of-the-art paperless office. The children were fascinated to hear how meeting discussions can be instantly summarized and distributed on-line. One feature of the office the children liked was the "fish bowl", a circular area where executives can call a meeting, swivel in their chairs and start the discussion.

Posted by gka at 13:45
Category:Anything Can Happen Day /Photo Gallery /Year2003/2004

Halloween Play 2003

On October 31, 2003, the Anything Can Happen crew made up of Leona, Kaitlyn, Aya and Michael produced and performed a fantastic Halloween play in four parts. Using themes from Japanese and wester folk tales, the children gave a very unique performance, using props and sets created by themselves. In the climax scene, the children bounced to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.