Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday in French, is an annual celebration in the style of a carnival that takes place each February. New Orleans, Louisiana is the best-known city for Mardi Gras festivities, with parades all around the city and in the famous French Quarter.
While New Orleans is a five-hour drive away from us in Houston, our ESL students joined in on the fun and spirit of Mardi Gras in the second-floor lounge with our first social activity of the new year: the Mardi Gras Coffeehouse!
Each student was invited to spin the wheel for a chance to earn raffle tickets. Then, after each student spun the wheel, the mystery raffle prizes were revealed! One lucky student went home with a Rice-themed glass cup.
Students tried a variety of New Orleans-inspired food, such as king cake flavored coffee and kettle cooked potato chips. This was also a great chance for students to sit down and practice their English skills with other classmates outside the classroom.
The meal ended with a sweet note - king cake, and each student enjoyed a slice of the colorful dessert. The traditional figurine of baby Jesus, which is said to bring good luck, was hidden under one slice of cake. Maybe one lucky student was able to find the figurine under their cake!
Afterwards, students participated in a game of Mardi Gras-themed trivia. There was a great prize as a reward for the student who answered the most questions correctly. Once every student’s response was graded, as it turned out, there were two students who answered every question correctly!
Both of these students were winners, but unfortunately, there was only one prize left. The two winners competed in a game of rock paper scissors as a tiebreaker to determine who would receive the prize - a Rice University bucket hat. In the end, one student took the prize home, but everyone walked away with smiles on their faces.
Thank you once more for reading this blog post. Our Mardi Gras Coffeehouse was the first social activity of the year, so we’ll have much more to come for our ESL students very soon!
By Hadrian Barbosa