Ian Thomas Meldrum

Are you ready for the scariest holiday of the year? The one with spooky ghosts and hauntedhouses? Yes, it’s that time of the year again: Halloween! Witches, skeletons,jack-o-lanterns. Children, costumes, and games. It’s a time of the year wherechildren can dress up and pretend to be something they’ve always wanted to be;maybe they’ve always wanted to be that special superhero, that beautifulprincess, or that scary witch that pops out to frighten others. Well, Halloweenis when they can do that, and they can go trick-or-treating and participate in different Halloween activities.

Preparationfor Halloween took an entire week. During this time, staff put up decorationsaround the school, built a haunted house, and completed arts & craftsactivities with their students. Some of the classroom activities included making Halloween silhouettes, paper plate ghosts, and coloring, as well aspracticing for trick-or-treating, reading scary stories (with light-upHalloween lights), and apple bobbing. On Halloween, students were able to participate in a giant pumpkin race and pumpkin bowling. 

Students were already happy about their costumes, but this year was extra special, because Huamei wanted to make the students even happier than they already were, so weset up a Halloween Fashion Show. Kids wearing elaborate costumes walked downthe runway and showed off their special costumes. Scary and cute, beautiful andhandsome, the children were all smiles as they had their pictures taken againand again. Those smiles did not last long, though, as kids were sent into thisyear’s haunted house, an experience which, for a kindergartner, was terrifying.In the end, however, the thrill of being frightened was so exciting that moststudents wanted to do it a second time.

Though eachchild has their own favorite part about Halloween, trick-or-treating is rightup there as number one for most kids, and it was no different this year.Trick-or-treating was a great way to not only get candy, but also for thestudents to practice both their English and their manners, as they wereconstantly saying, “please” and “thank you”. Huamei Halloween for 2016 was ahuge success, and the children had a lot of fun. Get ready, though, becausethere are many more holidays just around the corner.    

Ian’sintroduction:

Hey, my name is Ian. I'm 27 years old and I'm from the U.S. I've been teaching for five years now and I absolutely love working with children. Before teaching, I use to work as a counselor for U.S. students attending summercamps. I love reading, writing, playing sports, and of course, traveling. I'mreally excited for the new school year and look forward to working with everybody.