It was certainly ideal weather ducks on Thursday November 17 as WangZhuang middle school hosted a JESIE Open Day demo session, but turkeys were the bird of choice on this Thanksgiving themed afternoon. Students from grade seven, classes 5 and 6, had the pleasure of exploring the North American festival with Teacher Lara and Wuxi Head Teacher Tom.

Although the weather outside was miserable, the classrooms were alive with excitement as the students got the opportunity to showcase their English skills for all to see. Indeed, we saw future stars in the making as Teacher Lara – microphone in hand - interviewed the class at random exploring their likes and dislikes.

We learned that at this time of year it is important to give thanks for the good things in our lives and many of the students gave thanks for the food we eat. Of course no Thanksgiving would be complete without great food and after tantalising our taste buds by teaching the traditional Turkey and trimmings; Lara had the students set the table in preparation for feast! Two teams raced against each other to set their Thanksgiving table the fastest, but this being a JESIE open day it was of course no ordinary race. Each team had a pair of chopsticks and, using only one-hand, had to collect pictures of food from their classmates in order to fill their labelled dinner plate.

Target practice was the aim of the game in Head Teacher Tom’s class, where students threw a ball at the correct holiday activity scoring points for precision and for the correct sentence pronunciation.

Even though everyone had lots of fun, it was a great chance for the students to reflect on things they were personally thankful for. Teacher Lara had her students create little cards to remind them of these things, each of them personal and meaningful. Yet one thing in common that everyone gave thanks for was the great time they had on a wet Wuxi Thursday.

Many thanks to Lara and Tom.