The Thanksgiving Story

This is a felt play I present each year in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. We tell a simple version of the history of the Thanksgiving holiday minus of any violence. We discuss the continents leading up to this to so the children understand that the children made quite the voyage across the ocean! We start the story with grumpy old King James who lived on the continent of Europe and that he was very bossy and wanted all the people to do as he liked, believe in his God, and live as he did. The people did not like this and heard about the "New Land" across the ocean. They built two ships-the Mayflower and the Speedwell. They loaded the ships with supplies and things to trade with the natives of the new land. They heard they liked colorful fabric, shiny things such as mirrors, beads, and tools. They wanted to offer them gifts as they were coming to their land. As the ships set off the speedwell quickly sunk and all the speedwell passengers got on the Mayflower. There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower. It was a rough voyage and many people got sick and/or died. It took 3 months to get across the ocean to North America. The passengers were hungry and cold. Once a week they'd make a big pot of soup over the fire and that was comforting. Other than that they ate dried meat and hard bread. Something very special happened on the boat- a baby was born to the Hopkins family! This made everyone so happy! Finally they saw land and yelled "Land HO!!" The men got off the boat first. They saw no one and got straight to work. They built a cabin. It was small and crowed but it was shelter. It was a hard winter without a lot of food. Many more people died. Then spring came, and a Native American named Squanto knocked on their door. Squanto told them that he'd seen them struggling through the winter and he wanted to show them how to live on the land. He showed them how to harvest apples, pumpkins, and how to plant corn by putting dead fish on the corn seeds. The Pilgrims were so thankful to be thriving in this new land and so thankful to Squanto and his Native American friends for showing them how to live on the land and sharing their knowledge. They decided to have a big celebration to show how thankful they were and invited their Native American neighbors. The part lasted for 3 days! They played games, shared stories, and ate a lot of food! Turkey, corn, butter, bread, cranberries, potatoes, and more! That was the first Thanksgiving! Thank you to my friend Tracy who I interned under for sharing this with me! It's something I've done every year since 1999 This is her lovely school ! This book is also a reference I use

Turkey Feathers Felt Play

This is sung to Frere Jacques 'Turkey feathers, turkey feathers Brightly colored brightly colored Who has a red one, who has a red one? Add it now. When each child's color is called, they bring it up and put it on the turkey. I then put a smaller version of this on the shelf for two children to do this at a time during the work period.

Thankful Turkey

In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, we discuss what we're thankful for and this is many things! After the first few discussions, I ask them each individually what they are most thankful for and we write it on our Thankful Turkey to display in the classroom.

Thanksgiving Feast Place Mat

Each year in addition to our daily family style lunch (each family brings lunch for a week and we eat family style daily) we have a Thanksgiving Feast.  The lucky family who gets that week get's to bring at the Turkey Day Fixings!
To make it extra special the kids each make their own place mat. Below is the tray with all the supplies.  These include short and long strips of paper (for the place mat boarder) dried and pressed leaves, different colored large square, rectangle, and triangle shaped paper  I use all fall colored/themed paper and it's all geared to fit a standard 9x12 piece of construction paper.

 Here is one being assembled

 The children choose the construction paper base they want as well as all the different choices of shapes.

Here is a finished product!  They all turn out different and depending on the size of their hand, you can sometimes trace both hands.

I will laminate them all to use at our feast and then they can take them home to use for their own!

Fall Mystery Bag Items

The mystery bag is one of my favorite works in the classroom and it also seems to be one that can be forgotten about as the year goes on.  To keep it inviting, I try and switch out the items each month or so and relate it to the current unit study or holiday.  These are the items that were in it for November.  It was used often!