Primers Explore Japanese Instrument Twice as Big as They Are!
Story and Photos by Cindy Rogers, LS ESOL teacher

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On February 15 fourth-grader Saya Shishido's mother, Izumi Shishido, came to the Lower School toting a large, strange package.

It was a traditional Japanese musical instrument, the koto, and she had brought it to share with the primers.

She held up the six-foot long wooden stringed instrument for the children to see, and explained that it was a form of Japanese harp. Several primers observed that it was a little like a guitar or a dulcimer.

Mrs. Shishido played a beautiful song about the blooming of the Sakura cherry trees in Japan in the spring. Other Japanese Lower School students sang the song along with Saya and her mother. Then Mrs. Shishido and the Japanese students taught the primers to count to ten in Japanese. Primer Kaita Tsutsui pronounced each number for the students.

Finally each primer put on the special finger pick used to play the koto, and tried playing the instrument.

The primers are learning about many countries of the world in their planner "How Do We Say Hello?."

Mrs. Shishido's koto lesson was a wonderful introduction to their study of Japan.