4.11.10

a lesson in American culture

Some of my teachers asked me to prepare a presentation about Halloween in the U.S. for our students. I used a dictation activity, meaning I read a passage and the students read along while filling in the missing words. Here's the activity:

Halloween in the United States
    Halloween is a very popular holiday in the U.S. Everyone dresses up in a costume, even parents!  It is celebrated by both the young and the old. At the colleges (universities), sometimes the Halloween festivities last for up to five days!
    In the month of October, many people decorate their houses and gardens like graveyards or cemeteries. They might hang a scarecrow from a tree or put up fake spider webs. I used to go every year with my family to the pumpkin patch. Each person picks their own pumpkin, and sometimes they are so enormous that you need a wheel barrel in order to move them! It is also a common family activity to carve the pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, and place the jack-o-lanterns on the porch. After carving the pumpkins, we toast the seeds as a tasty Halloween treat.
    Another activity that Americans practice is “bobbing” for apples. The person must pick up apples with their teeth out of a barrel full of water. It is difficult to not get wet during this game. In the month of October, people usually visit haunted houses, where people dressed in scary costumes jump out and scare you as you walk through the house. Sometimes, whole theme parks turn into one big haunted house. You can’t escape being scared, even in the bathroom!
    Of course, all the children TRICK-OR-TREAT, meaning that they knock on doors in their neighborhoods and get candy when they say, “trick-or-treat!” Children come home with pounds and pounds of candy. The candy lasts for months! Be careful of kids who will throw toilet paper all over your house. Driving around the day after Halloween, you will see many houses covered in T.P.! Halloween is a day that defines the Fall season and especially the month of October in the United States. It is not just one day of celebration, but involves months of anticipation and costume planning. Happy Halloween!!!
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      For my students, the hardest word in this exercise is the word "hang." Not a single student recognized it, due to the pronunciation of the "h", the long "a", and the "g" ending - all very difficult sounds for Spanish speakers.
      For the students to truly understand the dictation exercise, I had to give them several Halloween vocabulary words for reference (see below). I used the activity with classes of various levels, so some students recognize most of these words, whereas some students recognize none.
       The kids know about Halloween as celebrated in the U.S. from the movies. But, Spain and other countries have adopted Halloween as a holiday as well, though they do not make nearly as big of a deal about it as we do. My students taught me about a Spanish game that is similar to bobbing for apples, but instead of water, they fill a bucket with flour, and instead of apples, they use pieces of candy, buried deep in the flour. Sounds pretty disgusting to me.
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zombie                                  toilet paper/T.P               Jack-o-Lantern
scarecrow                              hang                               candy
pumpkin                                knock                             pounds
pumpkin patch                      Trick or Treat                 decorate
haunted house                       theme park                     costume
cemetery/graveyard              carve                              dress up
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Lastly, I gave them a traditional American Halloween recipe:


Mom’s Toasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe
Ingredients:
  • One medium-sized pumpkin
  • Salt
  • Maple Syrup (or whatever spices you wish - honey, chocolate sauce, onion salt, garlic salt, etc.)
  • Butter (or olive oil)
Directions:
  • Preheat the oven to 204 Celsius
  • Scoop the insides out of the pumpkin. Separate the seeds from the core. Rinse the seeds.
  • Spread a thin layer of butter over a large pan (to keep the seeds from sticking). Spread the seeds out onto the pan, all in one layer.
  • Drizzle maple syrup and sprinkle salt on the pumpkin seeds.
  • Bake until the seeds begin to turn brown (10-20 minutes)
  • Let the seeds cool, and ENJOY with the shells on!
   

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