Happy Thanksgiving!

This week at with my kindergarten students, we did several Thanksgiving activities and crafts.  Friday we also had a thanksgiving dinner.  The dinner was Korea style of course -- it included no turkey, pumpkin pie, or mashed potatoes -- but rather fried chicken, domino's pizza, korean pancake, dok-bolgi, rice cakes, kimbop, regular frosted cake, fruits, and more.

Today we had the students share with one another something that they were thankful for.  They all did a great job, though they naturally have trouble pronouncing "thankful" as they like to say "thank you".

With my 4 year olds, I had them make turkeys out of their hand prints and gave them the chance to color it anyway they wanted.  The 6 year olds I had them make turkey's out of lunch bags.

Chuseok - Korea's Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Korea's Thanksgiving, also known as Chuseok.  The holiday follows the lunar calendar, so the date (according to the sun calendar) is variable each year.  Most Koreans travel throughout the peninsula to visit family, so many businesses are closed and cities are not as "busy" as they normally are.  I certainly knew it was Thanksgiving in this country when I went to HomePlus (the British version of Walmart) and you could barely move.

Here's an article I wrote about the customs and origin of Chuseok:

Celebrating Korea's Thanksgiving