When a student asked me whether Chinese celebrate Thanksgiving, it triggered an interesting celebration of this traditional American holiday in class. I was not quite sure what would come of the adventure until I saw how students experienced the culture differences and the charm of language art through their mini-projects.

Many thanks to our art teacher — Mrs. Desgranges, the third and the fourth grade students could have the opportunity to experience the technique of wood burning characters. This added a special flavor for students to celebrate Thanksgiving. Students also had the choice to do the characters with the paint. Can you tell the difference of the two art techniques from the following photo?

The second graders expressed their holiday joy by designing their Thanksgiving cards with the colors, drawings, and the characters for “Mayflower” and “Happy Thanksgiving!”

The first graders and the kindergarteners played with the magic of colors and drawings for their characters. After I put the students’ work together, to my surprise, I could barely notice the subtle differences of the complexity concerning the work from two grades.

With the variety of student work, you will see how naturally students get the gist of the holiday and did it just right expressing it in Chinese. I am sure after you watch the following video, everyone will know30 how to say “Happy Thanksgiving!” in Chinese. Of course, it is 祝你感恩节快乐！(gǎn ēn jié kuài lè).