OUTCOMES

The feedback cards (managed by the 5th year students as "Hallowe'en poll") show how even the children who did not play 'Bobbing for Apples' liked it and wished to participate.
Six-year-old children enjoyed a lot "Playing Hallowe'en" and this shows also how they well considered the activities done.
Hallowe'en Party has been the main topic in their discourses for almost 2 weeks and even now they ask for more parties and news about English traditions.
Meg and Mog are the characters they prefer when asking for books to read or when there is "storytelling corner".
The learning has taken place because all the students were involved in motivating situations. In the Hallowe'en party they experimented each aspect of the differenr activities and acquired data through senses.
They used visual media to discover and understand the shapes, colours, movements, lights; they had to move rapidly to participate in the games and join the mates in the many team activities.
Audial canals were stimulated while hearing the stories, enjoying the rhymesand chants, understanding the meaning of the words linked to Hallowe'en Party; they tasted the flavour of the donoughts, candies and of the apples while siding with one team or the other during Bobbing for Apples...
Through all sensoric ways they exploited the non-linguistic features in order to understand better messages and meanings.
A very impressive moment has been the lighting of the big Jack o'Lanterns brought by two children. In the dark, listening to the mates telling the tradition of Hallowe'en, the story of Jack, they entered really the atmosphere; they felt, more than listened or simply watched, the meaning of this festival, and they enjoyed it all very much.
It wasn't compulsory to speak English all the time, because there were also children who do not learn English, i.e. the six years olds, but most of the boys and girls used the target language in the games, showing to have internalised the majority of the linguistic items previously taught.
All my aims: linguistic enrichment, cultural awareness, motivation increasing, were achieved fully because all the children:
-used language creatively;
-focused on messages and meanings;
-used every opportunity to practice, speak, communicate;
-built their own confidence;
-participated serenely in the social interactions put into practice;
-the older monitored the language used;
they reached a consistent level of motivation and positive attitude to English language and the English speaking communities.
Also my collegues found the activity well integrated in the curriculum of the classes.
In conclusion, I can predict this process will grow strong when the Giocoland magazine pages will reach all the schools of our school area and then the students of all the five schools will share such experience.

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