May 29, 2011

 May Pangaea Activity in Kyoto, Japan

Pangaea activity was held yesterday at Kyoto Univ., in Kyoto, Japan.

The goal this year in Kyoto, where Pangaea HQ is located, is to design and implement the activity so the participating children can feel the stronger sense of bonding with the ones in other sites, and Kaba-chan, the Facilitator Leader is leading the planning and the implementation of the series of activities for this purpose.

discussion.jpg In yesterday's activity, children worked on the renewal of the "Kyodai (Kyoto Univ.) Village", to appeal the ancient city of Kyoto to the world on PangaeaNet. First, they looked at other international villages to find out Malaysian village has tropical fruits and other Japanese sea-side city of Mie has sea food ("Lobster Burger") drawn in their villages, to understand that it is effective to decorate the village with local specialties. Then they discussed about the ideas as to what to draw to represent Kyoto, listed them up with each child picking the items that one would like to draw, and decided who would draw what. Children came up with many ideas one after another, including Yuzen silk dyeing, lady in Kimono, Kiyomizu temple, vegetables grown in Kyoto, and "Yatsuhashi", or cinnamon-flavored sweets made in Kyoto.

kyodai_village.jpg

After that, they drew, colored and clipped the items to collect all to discuss and decide the layout. Kyon-chan, the 6th grader played the main role in completing the village by handily gluing many small pieces of items drawn by all children.

webcam.jpg Also, Kyodai village was connected by web camera with OK village in Tokyo, where the first activity was held for this school year. Children introduced each other and asked questions such as "How is Kyoto dialect like?", "Which songs do you like?" and "Which games are popular?". For children in Kyoto, it was also the opportunity of the reunion with Guts and Yoshio, the volunteers who graduated college in Kyoto this March and started working in Tokyo.

All participating children gave feedback that they had a good fun yesterday.

After the activity, staff meeting was held among college-student-based Kyoto volunteers. They said children became much more interested in sending messages to their counterparts in other sites after their webcam experience, that they would like to know PangaeaNet functions more so they will be able to teach children when asked, and that they would like to continue children's group activities such as drawing village. Their motivation wash high for the further improvement of the activity in Kyoto.

They had a good time at OK Village in Tokyo, the site that was connected with Kyoto with web camera, as well. The activity in Tokyo this school year has finally started after the two-month pause in March and April due to the impact of the earthquake.
tokyo.jpg

Posted by: ayako | 1. Activity Report