Getting into the Spirit

October is my favorite month of the year, because not only is it the time when it really starts to feel as if Fall has arrived, but it's also the month with the greatest holiday ever... Halloween!

Americans are crazy for Halloween. We go absolutely nuts the entire month leading up to the 31st with decorating our houses, schools and stores, setting up haunted houses around town, stocking up on a life time supply of candy and preparing our costumes, hoping that ours will be the best, whether it's gory, scary, cute or clever.

Last Halloween I was living in Thailand, a country that hasn't really caught onto celebrating the holiday. We has a costume party at work, but aside from that we didn't teach our students about the history or traditons, and there were no crafts involved.

This year, working in an international school, I have the opportunity to share my culture with my students. Talking about Halloween and the way that Americans celebrate it is a good way to introduce new vocabulary while also talking about a subject that is fun for them and myself.

We started our month of Halloween crafts with Jack-o-lanterns. A Jack-o-lantern is a pumpkin that we cut open at the top, hollow out, carve a face into, and then keep a burning candle inside. We normally carve them a week or so before the 31st, and leave them outside our front doors for display. While many people still choose to carve simple but scary faces, some Americans put much more effort into their Jack-o-lanterns, creating carved works of art on the front.

Since my class of three year olds are too young to carve their own pumpkins, I thought we could make them our of paper instead. On large pieces of orange paper I drew pumpkins for the kids to color and cut. The activity was also a good way to have Aurora practice working with scissors, as I asked them to do all their own cutting.

Before we started the Jack-o-lanterns, I explained to them what Halloween is, and how we celebrate it. I  described how everyone dresses up as their favorite monster or character, and then walks from door to door, knocking and saying, "trick or treat!" I also explained how after you say the magic words, the resident of the house hands you a giant bowl of candy to pick from. I walked around the class with a bowl and each child told me, "trick or treat," as they reached in and grabbed handfuls of imaginary goodies.

We also practiced drawing Jack-o-lanterns on the board, to demonstrate that they have all types of faces and it didn't have to look a certain way. Afterwards we practiced writing the word and sounding out the letters. Aurora did a great job with the activity and I was impressed with how independent they are becoming with crafts.

Here's how it went....

Proud Owner

Monday morning my three year old student rushed into the classroom waving what appeared to be the gift of a lifetime. It was a pair of underwear, with the bum covered in pictures of the most recent popular super heroes in Japan.

The pair of undies were still held together by the original packaging, which he had chosen to leave in place. He was so happy to own them, he wasn't ready to actually wear them. First, he had to bring them to school and show all his friends. Which he did. All day long.

To say that the underwear were shoved in my face at least ten times while the student shouted, "Allie Sensei, Mi Te!" (Miss. Allie, look!), would be a huge understatement. Each time he waved them in front of me I reacted with the enthusiasm I imagined he was hoping for, but he kept coming back. Either he was making sure I hadn't forgotten his newest wardrobe addition, or he was hoping to make me jealous. 

Throughout the day he ran from classroom to classroom showing off his favorite new possession. He wanted to make sure everyone knew how special they were to him. I didn't stop him or ask him to put them away, because I figured at his age things like new undies really are special, and being able to show them to your friends and tell the story of how they came into your life is actually kind of a big deal.

While it was hilarious to say the least, it also left me leaving work with a huge smile on my face. It's days like those where I realize how simple and happy life can be. 

Sometimes all it takes is a new pair of actions figure underwear to truly make your day.

Coconut Trees in October

One of my favorite books when I was a little kid was "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," which is a silly story about the entire alphabet trying to fit in a coconut tree. The alphabet becomes too heavy for the tree and all the letters end up falling down and getting injured.

My partner and I are currently working on teaching Aurora the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes. I asked my boss to order the book, as I knew it would be a great teaching tool to have in the classroom, since it introduces children to both capital and lower case letters in a fun way.  We've read it about fifty plus times now, but the kids still chant along with the chorus, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," clapping their hands and stomping their feet.

To go along with the story, the Aurora class constructed their own coconut tree with the alphabet underneath it. Each child made their own pair of letters, and all helped in painting the tree.

The "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" mural will be used to play different games using the alphabet, as well as work as a constant visual of the English alphabet.

Itadakimas

In Japan it is customary to say, "Itadakimas," before eating a meal. It is a phrase that people use to say "thank you," for the meal they are about to enjoy. At The World, we have a poem that the children always say before eating lunch.

It goes as follows:

"The sun shines in the sky. Clouds bring us rain and water to drink. Many people help to bring us our food from the earth. Itadakimas, thank you for the food."

Although the children have memorized it and repeat it daily, it occurred to me that they may not even understand what they are saying. Is their English level high enough to visualize what the poem is describing? Since I was unsure, I decided to embark on a project for the entire class to work on. Over the span of a week and a half we made a large mural that depicted the poem they had learned. I hoped the finished project would help with their understanding of English and the vocabulary they have learned.

First we started with each child choosing a picture from the mural to color. They could choose from clouds, the sun, people, food or flowers. As they each chose their picture we reviewed the vocabulary in the poem.

The second step was having the children use oil pastels and water color paints to create the earth and the water. On large pieces of paper they worked with blues and greens and painted anything they wanted. When the paint dried we ripped the paper into little peices that would be used like mosaics on the mural. This way everyones' artwork was being used equally, and it was a communal project from the entire class.

The final step was putting the mural together. When it was finished, I labeled the objects that are referred to in the poem, and then I let each student choose which person they wanted to be in the picture.