Our Amazing Thankfulness Month

Do you know about Thanksgiving? What do you usually do on  Thanksgiving Day?

How do you celebrate? What do you prefer to do to show your thankfulness to the persons who you love?

Let’s see what happened during the past few weeks in XiWai International Kindergarten…

Pk2—

This month we celebrated thanksgiving and decided that it would be a good idea to teach the students about being thankful for what they have. Our English theme topic is “My Family” which links perfectly with the “be thankful” supplementary theme for November.

Our students are still very young so being “thankful” might be a very new subject for them to think and talk about. One of the first things any child hear is the soft whispers of his/ her mother’s voice and then the dad’s, soon after that the rest of the family members. We don’t get to choose our families but we love them unconditionally nonetheless. Sometimes we forget how much our family members do for us, but we have to remember to say thank you, I appreciate you and I love you every now and then.

Some of us have big families and others not so big, we are all different and unique. I thought it would be great for the students to make a family tree. Through doing this activity they got to practice the vocabulary words and sentences linked to the English theme, they also got to look at old photos and share happy memories at home.  The students really enjoyed making their family trees, especially looking at each other’s trees after they’ve finished them.

On Thanksgiving Day we also made some Native American “thankful turkey” hats. The students got to learn a little bit of where this festival comes from but more importantly they took turns saying what they were thankful for. I think all of us would be so much happier if we stopped to think and realized that we have so much to be thankful for.

K1—

Thanksgiving-Month in K1C definitely consisted of both informative and exciting lessons and activities! In our quest to show our gratitude, we were accompanied by so many fantastic parents, classmates, Xiwai Staff-members and various other members of society as we celebrated the people who accompany, serve, protect, teach and love us.

To enhance our actual experience of the Thanksgiving tradition,we arranged for the children to participate in different daily activities alongside various Xiwai employees that we count on but don’t always thank enough. The children could get a direct experience of what exactly each one does and gain a better understanding of why we are thankful. Furthermore, our grade visited the Songjiang Fire-Station, not only for the children to meet their heroes, but to sincerely thank them for their vital role in our society.

On Thanksgiving day, we dedicated our morning to expressing our gratitude to all the hardworking staff members in the Xiwai kitchen and canteen. We made them a fantastic ‘Thank You’ card and presented it to them with a beautiful Thanksgiving song. We ended our duties by helping them to carry and distribute our department’s smoked turkeys back to each classroom and wished them a wonderful day!

K2—

During the month of November Xiwai’s K2 classes looked at ‘Thankfulness’ , focusing ‘what should we be thankful for?

The international classes K2E and K2F looked at 2 main areas, what we should be thankful for in nature, and which people we should be thankful for.

In nature, there are plants and animals to be thankful for. We learnt how trees and plants keep the air clean, and give us food and materials. We went on a nature walk and collected materials to make our own nature picture using natural materials

We learnt how pets give us love, and how they keep us safe. The children talked about photos of their pets at home.

We also learnt how some dogs work, how guide dogs help blind people, and how police dogs help catch criminals and find missing people. The children tried to find things just using their sense of smell, and help guide their friends while they were blindfolded.

We also looked at which people we should be thankful for, in the community, in the home and in the school, such as our teachers and all the others that we don’t usually thank or acknowledge.

The children held a birthday party for the parents that had a birthday in November, as well as learning when all their parents’ birthdays were. The children also helped their parents at home, helping to cook, clean, and even giving massages!

The children also made thank you cards for other workers in the school, such as the cooks, the security guards, the nurse, and the cleaners.

After studying this topic, the children now appreciate how many things and people there are making their lives better, and how we can acknowledge that.

You see? During the recent weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, our department spent an extensive amount of time to prepare a fun-filled curriculum and ensure that the children of Xiwai Kindergarten receives the best experience of this much loved start to the festive season.