Thanksgiving and Sports Day

Thanksgiving or Ganen Jie has been celebrated every year here. Principal Zhang is a firm believer in giving thanks and wants the students to also understand this. In fact, everyday in each grade before school ends, one student has to stand up and share with the class something that he/she is thankful for (everything from teachers, doctors, rain, to sometimes even ants and windows) and the rest of the students repeat. So this year's Thanksgiving Day meaning was very familiar for all the students. After gathering on the field and listening to various thanksgiving performances, the school bought a whole basket of fresh sugar cane and gave it to every student to their extreme excitement. Then it was time for gift giving. During the week leading up to this holiday, the students used classroom materials (paper, cardboard tubes, paper clips) and made hand-made gifts and wrote letters. I was very moved when suddenly some my students came one by one and handed me they’re hand-made gifts. I received over 50 gifts and opened them one by one that night. I was really impressed by the amount of effort and creativity they put into their simple gifts. They were able to scrap things they were able to find in the classroom and make really cool looking gifts out of them. I was also really moved by some of the things they wrote and will always remember how much more priceless these small, hand-made gifts are than any iPod can ever be.

Instead of turkey and pumpkin pie, we had pumpkin porridge and corn for lunch, and made dumplings for dinner. All the older kids helped with the dumpling making process. Although it was chaotic, loud, and the dumplings weren’t the best looking, it was fun seeing the students really into it and even I learned how to make dumplings.

Sports Day opened up with an opening march and ceremony the morning of Thanksgiving and then all the competition took place the day after. Sports Day is like a mini-Olympics or track and field event that every school in China has at least once a year. Yesterday and today all the students dressed up in donated athletic gear, and the running track was chalked and split into 4 lanes. Events included various sprints, long jump, sit-ups, ball relay races, mini-shock put toss, jumping jacks and at the end, tug-a-war. During this whole day event, every student participated at least once in something. The most entertaining parts were watching the first, second graders compete. Their little bodies and uncoordinated movements made for many adorable videos. All in all, a relaxing and fun day. I wish we had a Sports Day when I was a kid.