Wonderful school festival / cultural festival

[Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: A roundup of popular exhibits, games, and stage performances

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
Keyboard playerSAKI
I’ve been playing the Electone since I was six, mainly performing Disney music, anime songs, and music from dramas and films. I post performance videos on YouTube and social media, and I also give concerts. Building on my Electone experience, I took up synthesizer and piano during my student years and performed at school-sponsored events. As a writer, I’ve covered not only music-related topics but a wide range of genres, so I hope to draw on my experience to deliver articles that make readers think, “I want to try that!” or “I want to listen to that!”

Have you already decided what to do for your junior high school cultural festival?

There are plenty of ideas for exhibits and stage performances, as well as attractions and games that visitors can enjoy.

However, you might be having trouble deciding—perhaps you’re unsure which activities will really liven things up, or you want to create something truly memorable.

In this article, we’ll introduce a wide range of recommended activities for junior high school cultural festivals.

We’ve picked out classic and popular options, so use these suggestions as a reference to help you create a fun and exciting festival!

[Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: Summary of Popular Exhibits, Games, and Stage Performances (1–10)

Calligraphy performance

Hyogo Prefectural Ikawadani Kita High School Calligraphy Club – Calligraphy Performance (2022 Takusho Festival)

Calligraphy performance

How about a calligraphy performance where you showcase shodo while clapping and dancing to music? Calligraphy performances have even been made into movies, and they’re featured at Koshien, too.

Let’s work together in a small group to write characters or paint pictures with large brushes on a big sheet of paper.

Viewers will be excited, wondering, “What kind of piece will it turn into?” For costumes, you could all match in hakama, which would look great, though school uniforms are perfectly fine as well.

The best part is that once it’s finished, it becomes a wonderful calligraphy artwork that will stay in your memories forever.

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Quiz show

Eiko High School Cultural Festival Quiz Research Club 2015

Quiz show

Who’s the most knowledgeable in school?! How about a heated head-to-head quiz show? It’s a stage event where two teams compete in a fast-buzzer format.

Questions are projected on a screen and read aloud by a host—think of it like the TV show “All Japan High School Quiz Championship.” You could pull questions from the internet, but why not enlist your teachers to help create them? It’s both educational and exciting—perfect two birds with one stone for a school festival attraction!

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Chalkboard Art

Up close with youth: An astonishing world drawn in chalk! High school students’ “Blackboard Art Koshien”! ‘every. Special Feature’ [Chalk drawings by students. “Koshien Blackboard Art”]

Chalkboard Art

One classroom display idea I highly recommend is chalkboard art.

Every spring, elaborate chalkboard illustrations featuring welcome and farewell messages for entrance and graduation ceremonies draw attention, and many people have probably seen them on social media.

So, as part of your class display, try creating a large illustration on the chalkboard.

The drawing process is important, but the conceptual part—what to draw and how to depict it—is just as crucial.

Have the students who are good at drawing take the lead, and work together to complete it.

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[Middle School] Cultural Festival Attractions: Summary of Popular Exhibits, Games, and Stage Performances (11–20)

Ridiculously cool video

Baka-Cool Everyday 2014 - Cultural Festival Project -

Ridiculously cool video

It’s a piece that combines short clips of people stylishly performing everyday, casual actions.

The structure repeats moments that seem almost miraculous—like tossing trash into a bin without looking, or tidying things up with footwork like ball juggling.

If you craft it so there’s a sense of story—say, layering these miracles onto the activities of a particular day in the life of a student—the result could feel even more polished.

It would also be good to include points that invite playful commentary, like “You don’t have to make even this move stylish,” the kind of thing that makes you chuckle.

Ending with a sequence of miraculous moments works, but after the main part, showing the path to those moments—the behind-the-scenes—could also convey the effort involved and make it feel more relatable.

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dance

School Festival [Sakanaction - Shin Takarajima] Shin Takarajima after a year — Tokai University Kofu High School

dance

As a school festival attraction, dance is a classic and essential choice! Depending on the stage size, it might be difficult for the entire class to dance at once, but you could split into groups and have each group perform one song.

If you have a large enough space, definitely try a routine that everyone can dance together.

The “Blue Dance” made famous by the Pocari Sweat commercial and Sakanaction’s “Shin Takara-jima” are great options since they can accommodate lots of participants.

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Modeling Workshop

Sculpture Workshop “Doodle × Doodle Kashiwa-no-ha” Future Children’s Cultural Festival (Future Children’s School) Hokuto Narikiyo

Modeling Workshop

Zokei-asobi refers to creating things using items around you, especially as an activity to nurture young children’s creativity and expressive abilities.

It can include arranging stones or fallen leaves into shapes or patterns, stacking blocks to build something, drawing freely, or decorating the space—there are many kinds of zokei-asobi depending on ideas and ingenuity.

So, let’s host a hands-on art workshop where visitors can enjoy these forms of making together.

It’ll be exciting to see how the collaborative piece turns out in the end.

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Mosaic art

[For wedding performances and gifts!] How to make mosaic art

Mosaic art

Mosaic art is also recommended as an impressive exhibit.

Mosaic art is a piece created by assembling multiple photos into a single image.

First, try preparing around 100 memorable photos.

Next, you’ll arrange them, but it can be quite labor-intensive.

In that case, using dedicated software is one option.

Once you import the photos, it will create the mosaic art almost automatically.

In addition, various methods are introduced on the internet, so be sure to use them as references.

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