The latest installment of the JESIE Wuxi Open Day took place on Thursday, October 27, when our teachers visited Xincheng Primary school. Halloween was the topic, and our teachers shared all the colour and excitement of the holiday to engage the students and make the classes exciting.

The first class was taught by Tom Crook, who focused as always on active learning involving every student. To break the ice, Tom had his students arrange themselves in order of height and then birthdate, as always making the students compete to engage them fully in the task. Before the birthdate task, Tom reminded his class of the names of the months with a new take on the Macarena dance, with hilarious results. Next Tom taught Halloween vocabulary, such as mummy, ghost and so on, consolidating the students’ understanding through a series of games designed to make the students understand, remember and produce the vocabulary actively. Finally, the class competed in a race to dress up in Halloween costume, drawn from the teacher’s wardrobe.

The next class was taught by Damien and was just as colourful and active as the first. To warm up and lower the student’s inhibitions about speaking English publicly, Tom had them toss a ball around, introducing themselves and saying what they liked as they received it. Next came Halloween vocabulary, capturing the students’ attention with all the ghosts and ghouls of the holiday. The students embedded the words in their long term memory with a quickfire, all action series of games. First students were spun on the spot before matching vocabulary words and pictures. Then students competed to throw balls at the pictures as the teacher called out the words. The students then learned 6 action verbs and used them accurately in the context of a sentence, with all students able to say “I can fly like a witch!” or “I can float like a ghost” by the end.

All in all, it was a great chance for children to experience this most exciting of Western holidays, while learning new things, improving and practicing common sentence structures. In the end, all the students left with a “smile like a pumpkin lantern”.