On the Flipside: A Korean Adventure: Halloween at school

It has definitely been a different Halloween this year. I just wanted to share my experience at school. Yesterday, October 31^st, I dressed up in a version of my green mouse anipang costume and went to school. I had five classes back to back of grade 6. I brought a cat mask for my co-teacher to wear; however, besides her, I was the only person at my school dressed up in a costume. She also only wore the mask during class and took it off after. Throughout the day students were running up to me in the hallways or in my office and yelling with excitement. Many of my students play the game anipang and could recognize the green mouse character. My grade 6 co-teacher knew little about Halloween so she told me I could lead the whole lesson and dedicate it entirely to Halloween!

Halloween is not celebrated in Korea, but all my students were extremely curious and interested in this holiday. I loved telling the students that we were not studying English and that we were going to have a Halloween party. I started the lesson with a little video clip and power point to explain the basics of what happens on Halloween. I showed some pictures from when I was a kid going trick or treating, which they really liked. We danced to the Monster Mash, made scary masks, and then they went trick or treating at my desk. It was a fun lesson to teach and I definitely got the feeling that most of my students wished Korea did celebrate Halloween.

Ian also said he enjoyed Halloween at his school. He was giving Halloween lessons this week and said similarly that the students really enjoyed learning about the different Halloween traditions. It was nice some of our students gave us candy, and Ian even got some hand written notes!