Celebrating Halloween at the Ecole Jeannine Manuel

On October 20, the entire school came together to celebrate Halloween. Normally, the French do not celebrate Halloween and go trick or treating but because the school embraces different cultures, Halloween was a big part of the school. It was interesting to see that almost everyone had dressed up for Halloween. I had only seen two children not dressed up. I thought it was interesting because in America, children who do not celebrate Halloween do not do so because of religious reasons, whereas French children do not because they do not like candy or just because they have no desire to. 

At the beginning of school, all the classrooms came together in the quad to sing songs that they learned in their respective classrooms. It was very adorable to see little kids singing and dancing in their extraordinary costumes. Songs were sung in english and french depending on which classroom they learned the song in. Afterwards, the kindergarteners went trick or treating in each classroom and would say a "spooky" phrase to get some treats. Because the entire day was focused on Halloween, the teachers were very relaxed and spent most of the time watching Halloween videos and coloring or reading a book. It was very relaxed because they had a two week break afterwards so many of the students were excited for break and since they were very young, they were a little rowdier. Thus, I thought it was smart of the teachers to let them have fun and to not give them tedious work to do. Although it was still mostly fun, the teachers still made it a learning experience by reading and teaching the children about Halloween and what people do and dress up for. They would read books in english and the teachers would ask leading questions about what would happen in the next scene. The children were very engaged in the stories and knew many of the answers. It was very impressive to see such young children learning multiple languages at once and learning about different cultures and holidays that the French may not normally celebrate. I was honestly pretty shocked to see how heavily the school celebrated Halloween but it was exciting to see everyone having a great time.

It was interesting because the teachers that I would shadow would inform me that they usually have more informative lessons and have actual lesson plans prepared. I was also expecting this because the Ecole Jeannine Manuel is a very well renown school in Paris and many parents want their children to attend. They assured me that after Halloween and the break, it would be much more of an educating experience. I thought it was wonderful and less anxious that my first week at the school was fun and exciting. Everyone was in a great mood and the teachers were excited to dress up and give out treats to students as well. However, I am also very excited to go back and see how the school normally is on a regular school day and to see different teaching methods and classroom behavior management skills that the teachers implement.