Holiday Activities
• • • • Thanksgiving dinner Black Friday Thanksgiving spirit Thanksgiving parade
Thanksgiving dinner
• Roasted turkey is usually the main course on Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day").
Black Friday V.S. China’s Double Eleven
This month the China’s Double Eleven online promotion hit tremendous sales volume once again and attracted world’s attention. Here is a clip of the report by foreign media:
Comparison: Black Friday V.S. China’s Double Eleven
Imagine you are discussing with a foreign friend about these two promotion days. Introduce this new online sales day to your friend and draw a comparison with the Black Friday. You can talk about:
It’s your turn
Watch a live performance of the song Amazing Grace and think about the things you are thankful for. After this, prepare a short speech on the topic of Thanksgiving. You can talk about:
Food:
Turkey 火鸡 Mashed Potatoes 土豆泥 Stuffing 填料 Cranberry sauce 蔓越莓酱 Gravy 肉汁 Pumpkin pie 南瓜派
Cranberry sauce Wish bone 许愿骨
Stuffing
National Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon
•Your opinion on this festival •Things you are thankful for •How should we celebrate this festival
Thanksgiving parade
• In New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a major holiday event and attracts tens of thousands of visitors every year. The parade features specific themes and large balloons of cartoon characters, striding from Manhattan across the city. • Watch a video of Avril performing on 2011 parade.
Black Friday
Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. In recent years, most major retailers have opened extremely early and offered promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. News reports have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005.
Watch and discuss
Watch an episode from American shoanswer the questions after watching. 1. What was Rachel’s Thanksgiving plan? 2. Why can’t Joey go home for Thanksgiving?
Happy Thanksgiving!
The origin of Thanksgiving
• Thanksgiving Day is one of the most important festivals in the United States. It’s celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. The origin of this festival is traced back in 17th century when the colonists and Indians sat together and celebrated autumn harvest together.
•How it started •Promotion methods •How to participate •Did you take part in it…
Comparison: where to buy…
Comparison: scene at midnight…
Comparison: logistics
The National Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon(火鸡赦免) is a ceremony that takes place at the White House every year shortly before Thanksgiving. The President is presented with a live turkey and will grant the turkey a “presidential pardon”, thus sparing the bird from being killed. The pardoned turkeys are usually sent to zoos, parks or Disneyland. Watch Barack Obama’s speech on the 2013 National Turkey Pardon and repeat its main idea afterwards.
This is a reminder that this is a season to not only be thankful for incredible blessings that we have, but also to remember the the _________ neediest and generously serve those who are not as _________. fortunate This is a quintessentially American holiday, and during this time we give thanks to our friends and our family, for _______ citizens who show compassion to those in need, and for neighbors who help strangers they have never met. We give thanks for the blessings previous generations worked of freedom and opportunity that ________ so hard to _______ secure for, and we give thanks to the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform who serve ________ our nation around the world. For those of you who are watching, remind us of our you keep us safe. You make us proud, and you _______ own obligations to build on the work of our predecessors ___________ and leave something better for our own kids. So on behalf of the Obama family, I want to wish everybody a very happy thanksgiving. Tomorrow as we gather with our own friends and count ourselves lucky as there is more to be family, we will ______ thankful for than we can ever say and more to be hopeful for than we can ever imagine.
Thanksgiving Spirit
The spirit of thanksgiving is to give thanks for all the people around you. After the thanksgiving dinner, families usually sit down together and express their gratitude for life.