So they do not celebrate halloween in Ukraine, but they do know about it. We got to have a halloween party today in our English class with all the kids. We requested some things for our coordinators to get for the party while we were gone on vacation. We went to the school yesterday after church to set up for the party. We were surprised to see that our coordinators decorated our classroom for us with lots of halloween decorations. They had hung up jack-o-lanterns and bats on the walls and made a spider wed on the celling. I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but it was pretty cool!
I was very excited for today. We had some fun activities planned. I knew it was gonna be crazy with the kids, but I was ready to have a party. All the teachers dressed up for it. I was a ladybug.
When the kids arrived some of them were dressed up too! They were so super cute. Misha dressed up as a pirate, Mary and Sophia were cats, Yarina was a princess, Tiya was a bat princess, and Vova was a bunny. We have a box of dresses ups at the school so we let the other kids pick out costumes. One craft we had for them to do was make masks. I had cut out the masks the day before so we let them color and put feathers on them. They turned out very good.
A lot of the boys had swords with them too, either from home or from the dress up box. There was a sword fight in class. Little boys are just too cute!
After masks, we had the kids bob for apples. That was one of the cutest things I have ever seen!! They were all so determined to get those apples. Misha was one of my favorites though. He was going for that apple and would not give up. He got his costume very wet, but he was having the best time.
Illushia was laughing the whole time while he was bobbing for his apple so he kept on spitting in the water. It was hilarious.
After bobbing for apples, we had the kids make Trick-or-Treat bags. They decorated them with crayons and bug stickers. When they were done decorating we played musical tomb stones. We played halloween music in the background and they walked across the stones. When the music stopped we would call out a number and then give a piece of candy to the student who was on that number. They were very excited about that. We did that until the kids were fighting and complaining about not getting candy. Then we had the kids pin the mouth on the jack-o-lantern. We had a real pumpkin that I stuck a face on. We blindfolded the kids and gave them each a mouth. Then I spun them 3 times and they had to stick the mouth on the pumpkin. They thought this was really fun. The jack-o-lantern turned out quite nicely, don't you think?
We then brought in the older class and had the kids go trick-or treating to each of the teachers. When they would come to us and say "Trick-or-Treat" we would make them do some kind of trick before they could take a piece of candy. I had them jump up and down, spin around, and do a forward roll. This was so much fun. I was so exhausted after this party was over, but I still cannot get over how cute these kids were through this whole time. It was a very happy halloween in Ukraine!
I was very excited for today. We had some fun activities planned. I knew it was gonna be crazy with the kids, but I was ready to have a party. All the teachers dressed up for it. I was a ladybug.
We then brought in the older class and had the kids go trick-or treating to each of the teachers. When they would come to us and say "Trick-or-Treat" we would make them do some kind of trick before they could take a piece of candy. I had them jump up and down, spin around, and do a forward roll. This was so much fun. I was so exhausted after this party was over, but I still cannot get over how cute these kids were through this whole time. It was a very happy halloween in Ukraine!
