Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Most people may not think of Thanksgiving as a holiday to teach at church, but I think it's perfect!   I love using November to talk about giving thanks to the Lord and our blessings!  Here's a look at some of the lessons in this unit!

I LOVE this turkey anchor chart that we use to keep track of all of the things we are thankful for!  The kids can put together the turkey during our exploration stations time.  And then, we add the feather we are learning about during our Bible Story Time each week!



Look how well this little guy put together our turkey this week! ;)

Week 1, we learned about the thankful leper and thanking God for healing us!  We used white felt dots to make ourselves lepers and practiced thanking God for healing us!

While the kiddos were coloring, I got their Bible verse notes ready to staple onto their coloring page and send home for parents.  I simply write in the date we will finish our unit so parents can help practice the verse at home!  You can read more about how we memorize our verses at church in this blog post.

What a great first week!  Here's a peek at what the rest of our unit will look like!

We will be using envelopes to make a church during week 3!

In week 5, we will be making turkey handprints and writing what we are thankful for.  Here is the printable (read: easier) version of that activity!

I'll be updating this post with more pictures as we go through the unit.  You can find all of the materials and plans in this unit.

"Do not be anxious about anything.  But in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7


Thanksgiving is a simple holiday.  It is the only major holiday without a bunch of "Hulla-ba-loo."

You know what I mean....

There is no Santa, Easter Bunny, or Cupid to believe in.  No elf to move each night and pinterest new ways for him to appear.  And thankfully, no reason to wait in an unreasonable line for my toddler to get a picture with Mr. Turkey or whatever he would be...

There are no gifts to buy.  No need to send out wish lists.  No need to prepare goodie bags or treat bags.  No need to address cards or send valentines.  No need to fill eggs with candy.

There are no "Thanksgiving Parties" to host or go to.  No one tries to out do another by an over the top turkey day festival.

And there are no major decorations to add other than fall decorations that can stay up for months.  No turkey trees, no cobwebs to spread, and no rainbows to paint.

Thanksgiving is just that.  A time to give thanks.  And it's peaceful.

It's the one holiday of the major holidays that is still celebrated the way it was intended to be celebrated.  Families sitting down together at the table to give thanks to God and each other for all of our blessings.  No fluff.  No lights.  No gifts.  Just the gift of each other.

So on this simple holiday, before the hulla-ba-loo of Christmas begins, let me just pause to say how thankful I am.

For my God, who saved my undeserving soul, answers my prayers in ways only He could imagine, and who loves me unconditionally.

For my husband, who, in less than 11 months lost 100+ pounds the hard way.  And who continues to inspire me to persevere and give my all.

For my baby boy, who, in these short years has taught me more than I learned in the 28 years before he came along.  And whose miraculous existence convinces me that I have a God who, in fact, cares about the desires of my heart.

For my family, who make me laugh, push me to question and learn more, and who encourage me be...me.

For my in-laws, who have treated me like a daughter from day one.

For my friends, who know when I need to talk and know when to just be there in silence.

For my first grade team, who make the journey of teaching pure joy each day.

And for the many other people who I will cross paths with in the future, who are sure to each bring a share of lessons to teach me.

On this simplest of holidays, may your thanksgiving to God bring you peace only he can give!

"Do not be anxious about anything.  But in every situation, by prayer and supplication, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:6-7
Hellooooooooo, Thanksgiving break!  Yahooooo!!

Okay, so maybe I'm a *bit* excited for some time off with my family!

Today was our last school day until next week.  During this short week, we have been doing a 2-day cram session of Thanksgiving.  Yesterday was all about Thanksgiving traditions, pumpkin pie, and turkeys! {Read about that HERE.}

Today was all about the history of Thanksgiving and the beloved Pilgrims.


We started off our morning reading one of my favorite history readers on the First Thanksgiving.

This book gives tons of great details, but is perfect for young readers.

We charted our research on the Pilgrims.

Then, they wrote an informative paragraph about Pilgrims and made girl or boy pilgrims to go with their writing.



Since my example was a girl...here are a few of the finished boy pilgrims.  Some were bald, with fancy collars! ;)
 .
...and others had beards.  They were loving being creative with their pilgrims this year!

All of these Pilgrim activities and other Thanksgiving lessons are included in my Pilgrims packet or my full 6-week Life Lessons Unit.  In this unit, we focus on fables and economics and the life lessons they teach us.  The Pilgrims are a great tie in for this unit because of all of the lessons the Pilgrims learned through their experiences {"Hard work pays off," "Treat others the way you want to be treated," and "Follow your dreams."}  Unfortunately, our district has changed the timeline of the Common Core units for us, so we are not doing this full unit right now.  However, we did take these two days to learn about the Pilgrims and some of the lessons they learned.  And since this unit also has quite a few Christmas connections, I'll be pulling out bits and pieces of it in December to do on my own!

We also read our Pilgrims poem during our shared reading time.  We highlighted the "sparkle words," or vocabulary words.  Then we used 2 of those sparkle words to label our illustrations of our pilgrims.  Then, they circled sight words they know and added it to their poetry binders.


This poem, along with 40+ other poems are in my K-2 Year Long Poetry Packet.

And you can find these pilgrim activities and more in my Pilgrim packet!
We pretty much did turkeys all day today in Room 210.

Well...turkeys and hens, I guess.

We started off our morning rereading The Little Red Hen.
{We had already read it twice last week and done a few of the economics activities included in my Red Hen Packet.  Read another blog post on all of the economics lessons I used in my classroom!}

During this reading, we focused on the goods the hen used and the services she provided.  We used the interactive PowerPoints from this packet to sort goods and services.  Then, my firsties worked in their table groups to sort the goods and services from the story.


Then, we were ready use our own goods and provide our own services to make our own pumpkin pies!  Oh, heavens, the sheer excitement that brought on!

We used our pumpkin pie recipe slide from the Little Red Hen packet and highlighted the labeled the goods and services on our flip chart.  We also highlighted the capital and natural resources {which we learned about last week} on our ingredients.

Then, to quote the Little Red Hen, I asked, "Who will help me with the sugar?" We had already talked about the life lesson of this fable {Hard work pays off.} And we had already established that only the eager helpers get to share in the rewards.  So, imagine my surprise when I had 23 eager helpers for baking our pie! :)

This year I decided to make mini-pumpkin pies so each kiddo could have a whole pie.  The recipe is the same, but you half the cooking time at 350 degrees. {20-25 minutes at 350, not 40-50}.  AND, instead of having to make a double recipe, I was able to make 24 pies with some left over filling from just one recipe.  I did have to buy 4 pie crusts though.

Each firstie got to cut out their own pie crust.
 And press it into the muffin pan.
 ...some of my sweeties were so careful to make their pie crust "pretty!"  Loved the ownership of their little pies.  They were so proud!
And what do you do with left over pie crust?? Eat it, of course!!  {no worries, it's eggless!}  One of my fondest memories of Thanksgiving baking with my mom was eagerly waiting for the left over pie dough.  So, I shared that memory with my firsties this year.  Not so many of them seemed too appreciate it, but it was fun watching their faces!  And I had plenty of left overs for me! :)

Then, we measured and stirred the ingredients. And I should add that I called back table groups at a time for help with each step.  The others were working on our other Thanksgiving project at their desks!

Then, each group got to come back while I poured in their pie filling.  Here they are ready for the oven!
 And AFTER...yum!
I numbered the tins 1-24 with a sharpie so that each kid could have the actual pie they made.  They used their class number so it would be easy to remember.
 I mean....

How darling are these individual pies??  No need for a fork, and we were able to cut them in "half" and talk about how one whole is the same as two halves {reinforcing our fraction ideas we had worked on last week.}

They were so proud...many of them didn't want to finish them at school so they could take it home to share with family!  Presh!!

Our other major project today was thankful turkeys!

We read the book...
We brainstormed things they were thankful for and why. {I am thankful for ____ because ____.}

They wrote 4 things they were thankful for and why, with each thing on a different feather...

...and as a grown up, I'm thankful my daddy mowed our grass too!! :)
And this... "Jesus. Because he gives us what we need."  Amen, brother.  A-Men.

Then, they made these adorable turkey hats to display their thankful feathers.  This is what they worked on while I called back helpers for our pumpkin pies.


And, finally, at the end of the day, these turkeys got to enjoy their pumpkin pie!  Gobble gobble!!

You can find the thankful turkeys activity, plus the Little Red Hen activity pack and other fables, Thanksgiving activities and Christmas activities, in my 3rd Common Core Unit, Fables, Economics, and Their Life Lessons.

I absolutely love days like today {even though I'd welcome a full week off for Thanksgiving!} because we are able to do special projects that allow me to relax a bit more and just enjoy the kids and their sweet little personalities.  Sometimes, when I'm in the middle of a "normal week" of intervention, paperwork, assessments, small group instruction, conferencing, and more intervention, I lose sight of each of the 25 sweet and unique personalities in my classroom.  Today was a special reminder of just how wonderful they each are!
Right now, I'm wishing I taught in one of those districts that takes a full week off for Thanksgiving... *sigh*  Anyone else teaching two days this week like I am??

We will be all about Thanksgiving during this 2-day week with activities from my Life Lessons Unit {which covers Thanksgiving to CHRISTMAS}....And I'll be blogging all about it this week {just in time for you to tuck away some ideas for next year!}


We we be learning about Pilgrims and writing about what we are thankful for in literacy.

And in math, we will be integrating some economics into baking and measurement and fractions.  And it's all from my Little Red Hen Mini-Unit {which is also included in the Life Lessons big unit.}


Bring on Thanksgiving Break and TURKEY!!


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