How to Explain Pumpkin Pie

Answer: You can't. Home-made pumpkin pie is just that good. And when you combine a classroom of confused Spanish students who have never heard of such a dessert, and a girl who can't cook (and wouldn't have the ability to make that much pie in the first place), you're left with photos from the internet. Maybe someday they'll understand.

Thanksgiving was a very interesting holiday to celebrate here in Spain. When it comes to Halloween and Christmas, Spaniards know what it's all about. But my fourth graders, for instance, had never even heard of the word "Thanksgiving." We had to practice saying it. So I was quite honored to be the first American to explain it to them. Granted, they probably got a very one-sided view of what this holiday means: Is it right to say, "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, eating all day long, watching football and ending the day with the movie, Elf"? Oh, and being thankful, of course.

The entire week before I was wracking my brain for creative activities to do on Thanksgiving, but then I realized that I had to start from the very beginning: like what American kindergarteners do in the classroom for Thanksgiving (no offense to my older students, but they have no experience with this holiday, whatsoever). I told my teacher about the classic turkey and indian craft everyone has done in the US, and she was ecstatic. The class ended up loving it, too.

I still felt I should do something a little more with the 6th graders, so I wrote up a sheet of questions that asked what specific things you are thankful for. Some questions fun, some more serious. Then, to encourage them to practice speaking, we played a game where each student had to stand up and describe one of the things they were thankful for without saying the word, while the other students guessed the answer. There are two classes of 6th graders, who LOVE competitions, so we timed each class to see how fast they could get through everyone. The class that won wouldn't stop celebrating for a full 20 minutes...

A little blurry, but you get the point...

As for me, the day before Thanksgiving, a group of Americans who are also doing the program as Language Assistants, oganized a Friendsgiving where we all brought Thanksgiving food and got to have our Thanksgiving meal in Spain. So I got my home-made pumpkin pie!

On actual Thanksgiving, I was in London. I know, poor me. While we initially tried to scope out a place that was serving a Thanksgiving dinner, we ended up eating Italian...but very, very good Italian. I did have applie pie for dessert though, so that's something!

More to come on my London adventures in the next blog posts :)

#teaching #holiday