Halloween

For Halloween (and seemingly any occasion), there was a class party. Not in school, but at a student's house -- I mean mansion -- last Thursday evening. I was invited, and another teacher advised me that it would be a good thing if I went.

Not wanting to arrive empty-handed (especially because I had no intentions of wearing a costume), I decided to make some cookies. Not just any cookies though. I ended up making the best cookie recipe I have ever tasted in my life. These are dangerous. Because they are a sandwich cookie, and I wanted there to be plenty to go around, I doubled the recipe. Because of this, and the fact that my oven refuses to work properly, it took me 4 hours to make 160 individual cookies. But it was worth every second...

At the party, the mothers sat around a table while the children ran around screaming. The gossip at the table alternated between Spanish and English (solely for my benefit). Happily, there wasn't much asking about how their child is doing. Overall, a good impression was made.

On Friday, the school allowed the students to wear "Head Costumes." This entailed a mask, wig, or hat. And that is the extent that the children were allowed to dress up (would any of you be surprised if I said I was the only grade 5 teacher not to wear a head costume?). Behold the awesome glory of the head costume:



The kids were buzzing all day, but I made them hold out until last period before they could receive any candy gratification. During the 10-ish minutes that I let them cut loose, I took it upon myself to teach them the Chicken Dance, with great results:



For actual Halloween: we ended up buying some candy, none of which looks particularly edible:



For the evening, we ended up watching the most quintessential of all 80's films: The Karate Kid. It's been about 15 years since I'd seen it, and just to refresh you all, there are 4 montages (one of which is the all-mighty Training Montage), horrible clothing, a killer soundtrack, and a strong message of 'don't mess with Mr. Miyagi.' It was fantastic. No kids came. Now we have a giant bowl of disgusting 'candy' that we'll likely dole out throughout the year. Is it wrong to give skull-shaped suckers out at Easter?