English Festivals

Hi everyone!
This week was my school's 3rd English festival of the year! Which means... I was very busy!!! So what is an English festival??? Basically, instead of using the textbook in English class, we get to do something more interesting and cultural for one period. For grades 3-6, the other native English teacher (NET) and I plan and prepare exciting activities around one theme. The first English festival was Easter-themed. We taught the students how we celebrate Easter, we did an Easter egg hunt, and we played "pin the tail on the Easter bunny." Most of the students are Christian, but we were careful to say that only Christians celebrate Easter. I was uncertain about this religious holiday theme, but this was the theme chosen by the Korean English teachers. Anyway, it was a lot of fun! The pin the tail game was hilarious. For the second festival, we decided to teach about our manners/etiquette. We taught about "bless you" after sneezes, saying "excuse me," typical table settings, and different styles of food. It was the perfect excuse to show the sneezing baby panda video on youtube! And I had a video of my mom setting the table. Even without sound, the kids enjoyed it. The third festival topic has been my favorite so far...Halloween!!!!

They all wanted to pick an object from my "Color Bag" and say the color!

Making their color wheels!
Based on their reactions, I don't think they knew they could mix the primary colors
to make green, orange, and purple before this lesson!

There were so many different activities and games we had to choose from that are Halloween-related!! We decided to do a short powerpoint, play the mummy wrap race game (toilet paper mummies--except we used ace bandages tied together to be economical and environment friendly ^-^) and make Halloween masks. When the students left the room, they wore their mask and said, "trick or treat!" to get a lollipop. I love my 5th grade students, but it's always fun to teach the other grades too. This week I taught the 1st, 4th, and 6th graders. 

Mummy wrap race!! 

Now, the 3rd-6th graders get one period for the English festival. Grades 1-2 get 2 periods of English!!! They do not have any English instruction in their curriculum, so for 1 period, we teach basic English (i.e. greetings, colors, numbers, body parts) and for the 2nd period, we practice/review the basic English before introducing the cultural part of the lesson. Because of the huge language barrier and their age, we do something basic and plan activities that do not require any formal instructions. For example, we made a color wheel. Following my example and demonstration is enough to do the activity. We played number games where modeling is enough to understand the rules. This week, we showed Halloween pictures, taught a few vocabulary words, and made Halloween masks. 


The English textbook is, for the most part, really boring. Very rarely do I teach any of the suggested games. Very rarely do the students enjoy the textbook part of the lesson. I still do not know why it is called an English "Festival" when it is only 1 period of English that does not follow the textbook. However, I know the students really enjoy it. It is one period where they learn something interesting and new and mostly just play engaging games. It is a LOT more work for me (and the other NET), but I'm always so excited to teach each period. Teaching the same textbook exercise 6 times gets boring...watching kids wrap each other like mummies 14 times--never boring!!