This month, the theme for our JESIE Open Day events was Easter, which for the most part meant Easter bunnies, eggs, chocolate, and springtime motifs.  Our intrepid reporters for this month's Open Days are Joshua Chapman, James Thompson, Valerijus Gagas, Jafar Abbas, Joshua Hall and Sienna Klauer.

As Josh reported, on April 5th, Amber and Kelly, two JESIE teachers, visited Fuzimiao Primary School where they taught two very excited fourth grade classes about the holiday of Easter. In one classroom, Kelly set about teaching some basic Easter vocabulary with an imaginative bunny-hopping flash card race. After this the students enjoyed a classic egg race, where students had to race from one side of the class to the other while balancing Easter eggs on spoons. They then had an Easter egg hunt, and finally the class was wrapped up with each student making their own Easter egg to take home. Next door, Amber was setting about teaching a similar base of vocab words using the game of "What is Missing?" Students then played a game of "Spot the Easter Egg" as they learned how to say "Happy Easter." To conclude the lesson, students were introduced to some Canadian Easter traditions and then were instructed in how to make an Easter card that could be given to a teacher or taken home to parents.  In all too short a time, the classes were over and the two guest teachers left the school. Overall the lessons were well received and hopefully these students now have a better understanding of the holiday of Easter as it has become in popular western culture.

From the horse's mouth, James wrote about his experiences in Taixing on the 7th April, where he gave a fun lecture on British culture.  Taixing Experimental Middle School, located in the city of Taixing in northern Jiangsu, wanted to give their students a lesson in British culture and a chance to use their English skills for the first time on a native English speaker. This was to prepare the students for a summer trip to the U.K., where they will tour the country and possibly stay with British families. The class also encompassed a list of quintessentially British things from the British flag, sight-seeing spots, and British national traits ranging from the monarchy, the bad food and unfortunately even worse weather. After testing their new knowledge with a rousing game of British Culture Jeopardy, the visit ended with a Q and A period for students ask about life in the U.K., and for James to give information about British daily life, education, and family life, especially for students.

This comes to us from Val's You Fu Xi Jie Primary School. On April 14th, 2017, two teachers from JESIE, Josh and Brian, visited You Fu Xi Jie Primary School to teach Grade 4 and 5 students about one of the most joyous holidays in the Christian world C Easter. Grade 4 students were excited to meet Brian who taught a fully interactive and entertaining class which included everyone's favourite games: Easter Egg Relay Race and Pin the Tail on the Easter Bunny. Next door Josh was teaching Grade 5. The highlight of his lesson was an Easter egg hunt. Both sets of students visibly enjoyed the classes, learning through games in a way that felt fun and engaging. Both teachers were able to create a nice and relaxing learning environment in which everything served one purpose: learn English with JESIE!

On the 21st April, Nanjing No.1 experimental middle school held an open day. The teachers Kathleen and Cheryl were invited to give a class about Easter to grade 8 (Junior2) students, in order to help the students understand more about Western culture. Both Kathleen and Cheryl introduced the things people love about Easter, such as: chocolate eggs, Easter bunnies, Easter chicks and Easter dinner. The students even got a taste of Easter themselves with chocolate and sweets being given out for them to try. The students were then introduced to a more in depth look at Easter, such as why people celebrate Easter, the story behind it and even why Good Friday is called Good Friday. Then finally the students got the chance to do either an Easter word search or an Easter crossword to review what they'd learned.

It was a lovely day in Taizhou when Jafar and Dio arrived at the school on April 21 for a special Open Day. Upon starting the class, the students were very well behaved and very attentive, and it was easy to see that they were eagerly awaiting a lesson about Easter vocabulary. Throughout the lesson the students remained very attentive as they learned Easter words, and played games to practice their use. The highlight of the class was Easter Jeopardy, which went very well. After the lesson, there was a short meeting with the Chinese English teachers to discuss various topics related to teaching English. The discussion covered things such as using English literature, handling class structure, and keeping lessons interesting without losing educational value. The day was very successful, and Jafar had a wonderful time meeting the students and the staff at the school.

On April 28th, a lovely sunny day, Yincheng Primary School was visited by two great teachers, Val and Kelly. They came to teach Grade 6 students about Easter. Val's fascinating lesson taught the kids some new vocabulary relating to when and how we celebrate Easter, and activities we do on Easter. He also had a very exciting game that pitted boys against girls to see who could race to spell Easter-related words the fastest. The children were very attentive and you could tell that they loved the lesson. Kelly's lesson was equally amazing! The students took part in a very exciting egg spoon race -- you could see the concentration as they tried not to drop their eggs as they raced from one end of the room to the other while balancing their eggs on a spoon. The class also had the opportunity to create their own Easter cards, with a group of budding Easter card artists creating little works of art. The day was very successful, and it was fantastic to be able to take part and watch two awesome teachers in action.

On the same day, John and Brian continued the Easter theme for 3rd and 6th Grade students at Qixia District Experimental Primary School. Brian repeated his lovely lesson from You Fu Xi Jie Primary School with pin-the-tail on Bun Bun, and John taught students key Easter vocabulary such as "Easter Bunny" and "chocolate Easter eggs".  He also taught the Grade 6 students a little about the things people do at Easter time. Students had a lot of fun playing "Easter Dial-Up" and hunting for Easter eggs in John's class. Brian's energetic group of 3rd graders eagerly learned the words "egg", "basket", "bunny", and "spoon" and put them to use during several games. The third-graders loved the egg spoon race, with everyone watching as the players carefully balanced the egg on the spoon and walked across the class. Everyone wanted a turn playing 'pin the tail on the bunny', and their accuracy was impressive. The kids learned in, on, and under with the egg and basket, and were rewarded at the end of the class with some Easter chocolate.