Halfway Done

xThis is now my fifth week in Ireland and I have only five weeks left; I'm already halfway done...Wow.

Over the weekend, my host parents and I went for a walk on the beach. It was really nice weather for most of Saturday so it was the perfect day to do it.

Host parents

 Before our walk, we met up with their son and his girlfriend and another couple from California that are here visiting for a few months. I am going over to their house along with my host dad for Thanksgiving. It's kind of hard being away from my family for the first time on Thanksgiving...but at least we can have some traditional Thanksgiving food!

Since it is the Thanksgiving week, I did my lesson on Thanksgiving today for the junior infants. We talked about who the Pilgrims and Native Americans were, discussed how the Pilgrims went to America on the Mayflower, how the Native Americans helped keep the the Pilgrims from starving by showing them how to farm the land, and how they had a feast with all of the crops they were able to grow together, a day that has become simply known as Thanksgiving Day. We talked about how Thanksgiving is not a time for exchanging presents, but to share with one another what we are most thankful for. We also talked about what the word "thankful" means. Next, I showed them pictures of the traditional foods we eat during Thanksgiving in America such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans, cornbread, cranberries, pumpkin pie, etc. For the follow up activity, the students colored in a hand print to make it look like a turkey by coloring the palm and thumb brown and the remaining four fingers various colors for the turkey's feathers. I also asked each student to tell me something that they were thankful for and I wrote it down on the opposite side of the hand turkey. I think the lesson was a huge success :)