Jack Goes to College

Today I brought Jack to school with me to do a lesson about Halloween.  My students loved seeing a real American kid.  I started the lesson by interviewing Jack about Halloween.  Once I was done with the interview, I asked the students what he had said for each of his responses.

Next, I prepared a tub of water and put some apples in, and Jack showed the students how to bob for apples.  They loved it, and soon many of the students volunteered to try as well, even some of the girls.  When there was 1 apple left, Jack said, "Don't you think the teacher should do it?"  This comment got a howl of approval and so I was also forced to bob.  I got a loud round of applause when I came up with the last one!

I showed pictures of ghosts, goblins, witches and trick-or-treaters.  When you try to explain Halloween to an outsider, it sure makes you realize what a weird holiday it is.  I also showed a website called www.hauntedhouse.com which had scary music and screams, and allows you to see by state lists of haunted houses.  They were amazed to think that we pay money to go into a house where people try to scare us!

I also shared some of the candy from the US (thanks, Linda, this was really invaluable) and it worked as a reward for a competition I set up for who could unscramble Halloween-centered sentences the fastest.  Some kids loved the candy corns and butterscotches, and some kids thought they were horrible :).  I also made all of the students shout "trick-or-treat" before they received any candy!

Here's a picture of Jack, my tiny-teacher helper from Suzhou yesterday.  Another of his "Gollum"impressions:

After some benadryl, Sophie's spots look much better today and we will be sending her back to school tomorrow.  She slept until 8am this morning which is very rare for her.  It was a very noisy day for Sue at the apartment as they were drilling on the side of the building all day, but she was a trooper and stayed home with Sophie, unpacking us all from the trip, doing our extra laundry and being an all-around great Mom!  Tomorrow Jack will come back to school with me for my last Halloween lesson and a new lesson on American songs.