Words of wisdom from ELC students

Happy Thanksgiving from ELC!

Thanksgiving is a very popular holiday in the US that centers on food and family. Of course, we had to celebrate Thanksgiving with our ELC family by throwing a huge Thanksgiving lunch!  We served traditional Thanksgiving foods such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, gravy, cranberry sauce, apple cider, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. Some teachers and staff also brought in their own contributions to the meal like green bean casserole, cut fruit, and cupcakes.

After the meal some students stayed to play Thanksgiving Bingo.  Every student designed their own bingo board with the list of Thanksgiving related words such as turkey, family, pilgrim, gourds, autumn, harvest, leftovers, and more. Bingo winners won ELC gear such as water bottles and bags.

See more pictures from the Thanksgiving lunch on the ELC Facebook Page!

Cherished as an annual American tradition, ELC Los Angeles held a Halloween Party on Friday, October 29th. With help from the students, the school was decorated with spider webs, fake human bones, and spooky pictures. Starting as a typical school morning, the day took a twist and ended with delicious pizza and drinks, pumpkin carving, fun games, and a rowdy costume contest. Anticipating the day of events, many students brought their cameras and turned the costume contest into a paparazzi-filled “Hollywood” experience.

Pumpkin carving was the first activity of the day, and students brainstormed and raced to make their design the best. The students were serious about winning, yet lots of laughter could be heard down the hallways. In a dark classroom, 19 candle-lit pumpkins were judged by students, and the winning class enjoyed some food and ELC prizes!

Excited about the party weeks in advance, students took to the costume stores or their craft kits at home. The variety and creativity was amazing! Some students even brought props for their costumes. A few were so into the Halloween spirit, they took public transportation in full costume!

Continuing the day, the Mummy Wrap and donut-eating contest were both very competitive. The Mummy Wrap was a close game that almost resulted in a 3-way tie! Watching the donut-eating contest was very enjoyable. Students were not allowed to use their hands to eat a donut hanging from a string. Chocolate, plain, and powdered donuts were used which provided students with interesting donut smudge patterns on their faces. The most difficult game involved the passing of a baby pumpkin from teammate to teammate only using their necks! Pumpkins were falling everywhere, but that did not stop the students from enjoying the fun and trying to win prizes!

After the costume catwalk portion, the winners were decided via applause. Stefanie Ruefenacht of Switzerland won 1st place in the costume contest as Chucky’s wife, Sertan Sayin grabbed 2nd as an ancient Roman dignitary, while Marella Bolognesi took 3rd as Lady Gaga. Dressed as Wolverine from the popular X-Men series, teacher Matt Yancik was awarded the prize for the best teacher’s costume.

More Halloween Pictures

Halloween is a very popular American holiday and we celebrate it in style at ELC! Brittany, the student services coordinator, started decorating the school weeks in advance with orange and black steamers, fake spider webs, bats, and jack-o-lanterns.  She also transformed the front office into the “ELC Jailhouse.” The pumpkins we carved on Wednesday afternoon completed the Halloween décor.

The Halloween games started at 11:30am on Friday with the Skeleton Jack Trivia Game and the Monster Lab.  For the trivia game each classroom got a list of Halloween related multiple-choice questions. For every correct answer the class got a skeleton bone. The first class to assemble Skeleton Jack from the skeleton bones won.  Class representatives raced up and down the halls to guess answers and get the bones to win the game!

Simultaneously the Monster Lab moved from classroom to classroom.  The Lab presented the heart of werewolf, vampire teeth and more! Blindfolded students had to guess what the mysterious body parts in their hands actually were. Some student shrieked and squealed at the gooey surprises! The heart was a peeled tomato and the teeth were candy corn. A few more match-ups were candy corn as teeth, dried apples as ears, broccoli as brains, peeled grapes as eyeballs, and cooked linguine as intestines!

We took a break for pizza, candy, soda, and lots of pictures! Everyone was snapping photos of each other’s Halloween costumes. Students, teachers and staff all dressed up in costume for the day.  Three staff members cleverly dressed up as Jailbirds to match the “ELC Jailhouse” front office decorations. The group costumes did not stop there though. We had a costume parade so that teachers and staff could see all the student costumes and pick best costume winners for a few categories.  The Nightmare Before Christmas trio won the scariest costume and the Super Mario World group won funniest costume. The cutest costume went to the teletubby.  There was a tie for best costume between Marilyn Monroe, Jesus, and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. The students then choose the best teacher/staff costume. The clear winner was Janet dressed up as Lady Gaga in her notorious meat outfit for the MTV VMAs.

But the festivities did not end there! We played Mummy Wrap, had a donut-eating contest, and threw an impromptu dance competition. In the Mummy Wrap students raced to mummify their teammate by wrapping them in toilet paper from head to toe! Then students and teachers participated in a donut-eating contest. The twist was all the donuts were hanging on strings resulting in many donuts bumping into noses and chins! We were not ready to end it there, so we turned on the music and started a costumed dance competition.  On the side students were guessing how many M&Ms fit into a small glass jar. Most guesses landed on the low side. The winner guessed 720 M&Ms and got to take the jar full of 697 M&Ms home. It was a wonderful day of Halloween fun and many students continued the Halloween festivities into the weekend and went to Salem.

If you would like to see more pictures from the Halloween party, please visit our facebook page at ELC Facebook Page