On July 5th, iCLA students made a stellar appearance at Yamanashi Gakuin Kindergarten’s Tanabata Party to meet the kindergarten children and perform star-themed tunes to celebrate the occasion. The visit was organized by Professor Jun Imaki in collaboration with the kindergarten, and joined by 21 iCLA students. In May, Prof. Imaki also coordinated the event for Yamanashi Gakuin Kindergarten students to visit iCLA and learn about countries around the world from iCLA students.
For the event, the kindergartners specially prepared Tanabata Festival stalls and greeted iCLA students, who acted as festival-goers visiting their shops. iCLA students also prepared starry themed musical performances for the children. Performances included a beautiful rendition of “When You Wish Upon a Star” on the violin; “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on the guitar, piano, violin, and sung by iCLA students in Japanese and kindergarten students in English; and a lively dance and singing performance of “Starship,” during which kindergartners and teachers stood up and danced together joyfully.
Finally, the kindergarten children taught iCLA students how to dance Bon Odori, the traditional Japanese summer festival dance. To convey their appreciation for the visit, kindergartners folded origami to gift to iCLA students.
It was a wonderful event for the children and iCLA students to share the Tanabata Festival experience together at the kindergarten. This was also an educational opportunity for the children to interact with people of diverse backgrounds and for iCLA students to contribute to the local community through international exchange while learning about kindergarten life in Japan.
Links
Yamanashi Gakuin Kindergarten’s blog post on the event
