Give Thanks

Today, in Dnipropetrovsk’s Window on America center, we observed the American holiday of the Thanksgiving with National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine (NMetAU).

The head of Window on America center Dnipropetrovsk, Svitlana Usenko, teachers of NMetAU, Aleksandra Myrgorodskaya and Tatiana Ishchenko, carried out English speaking club devoted to the Thanksgiving Day.

The meeting started with showing the slide presentation to remind the students the basic historic facts about this holiday.

The books devoted to this event were exposed on the table and drew the students’ attention: they looked swiftly through the articles and illustrations, ask about the opportunities to read. The last donations by the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine - electronic gadgets iPad and Kindle - were also introduced to the new club members.

After watching the first slide, Aleksandra Myrgorodskaya initiated the talk about what the students know about the Thanksgiving. One of the students, Natalia Trifonova, shared her knowledge on this topic. The other student compared the American Thanksgiving with Ukrainian Day of Forgiving. While watching the slide show, the teacher asked the students’ opinion of the represented material, asked questions about some facts, encouraged to comment on the presented slides, clarified difficult points.  Some students were astonished at the facts of existing Mayflower Society, of the out-of-state status of the District of Columbia, of the quaint names of American dishes, and of the Thanksgiving parade in New York.

Then the teachers remind the students that almost every American textbook for English language learners contains lessons and stories depicting the events of the Pilgrim voyage and their life in the New World. The club members watched a cartoon “Charley Brown” devoted to this topic. After the cartoon, some of the students shared their opinions with each other. One of the ideas uttered was to have a tasty roasted turkey at home and to have a treat of the turkey in the Window of America next year. The students also thanked the librarian and the teachers for the meeting and expressed their desire to continue observance of the other American holidays.

 

Then, the students made the turkey with the inscription “Give Thanks” from color paper. On the turkey feathers they wrote everything for what they are thankful to the God and fortune. They accepted this activity in a very serious way and it was notable, that they are carefully choosing the words, and thinking or recollecting before starting to write. Two girls said that they are teaching English to young students and this activity is interesting to be practiced with them. The students were also given the cards to congratulate their people at home with the Thanksgiving Day.

 
The number of participants – 17 people (a librarian, 2 teachers,14 students).
Have a look at more pictures, please