The day after Thanksgiving, November 25, was cold, but teachers Kelly, Morgan and Brian, along with intern Jessie all piled into a car a little after noon anyway, to head out to Pukou Foreign Language School and share Thanksgiving lessons. When we arrived at the school we were greeted by Josh and his school contact, who informed us that electricity at the school had been a little spotty over the past few days. Undeterred, Morgan and I prepared to perform our lessons with or without electricity. Through a marvelous twist of fate, both Morgan and I did end up with fully functional classrooms, and were able to proceed with lessons as planned.

I was teaching a group of sixth graders for this lesson. They were a quiet bunch, but a series of fun games pretty soon had them giggling. We started the class by learning “I am thankful for…because…” which allowed the kids to express the true spirit of Thanksgiving. We practiced by playing a fun Wheel of Fortune game, centered around things the kids are thankful for. Following this, we made hand turkeys in which the kids wrote down what they are thankful for.

The second part of class was taken up by learning about foods traditionally eaten on Thanksgiving. These included turkey, pumpkin, biscuits and cranberry. To practice, we played a target game in which kids had to tell me four things that we eat on Thanksgiving before they could toss Mr. Minion (my trusty classroom helper) at the target.

Teacher Morgan’s class was equally thrilling. Morgan taught a boisterous fourth grade class, also about Thanksgiving. He chose to begin class by asking the students about their favorite Chinese festivals, and got some lively answers. Morgan too taught turkey and cranberries, along with mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. His activities included a fun hide and seek game, as well as “please pass the cranberries,” a hot potato like game in which the students passed around plates of “food.” The class played another game, a modification of Chinese whispers. Students had to find the correct pictures based on sentences like “grandma loves cranberries” or “father loves turkey.” Morgan rounded out his class with the traditional hand turkeys.

This Thanksgiving Open Day was a blast. It was so much fun sharing this United States tradition with these Chinese students. A big thank you to Josh and his school for hosting us!