Thanksgiving Recap

How was your Thanksgiving?  Mine was relaxed and full of family and thanks.  Here is a little recap of our 2 days leading up to Thanksgiving break.  Warning: many pictures to follow!

A little pasta necklace action to wear for our school-wide feast. 

My kiddos loved this strategy game from Miss DeCarbo!  A few of them had no strategy, but no tears over losing.  A win in my book!  You can find it here.

They enjoyed this turkey color-by-middle-sound during literacy centers.  You can find it here.  It was a freebie!

We made the Mayflower out of a milk carton and Pilgrim & Indian puppets on popsicle sticks to retell the story of the first Thanksgiving.  The Mayflower was made by giving them two 4" thick pieces of brown paper to cut a curve in the top to resemble a boat.  I brought them duct tape to attach it to the milk carton.  The milk carton had one side cut out so they could put their puppets inside.  They created a sail from 1/8 a sheet of white printer paper and attached it to a straw then taped it to the brown paper.  We taped the brown paper together in the front and back to give the ship a point.  The Pilgrim & Indian puppets are just clipart from a clip art book that I shrunk on the copier.  They colored these, cut them out and glued them to popsicle sticks.

This was a favorite activity!

The next set of photos was inspired by Julie Lee's post on Pilgrim life.  During centers, students had a few jobs that would have be representative of what life was like in Pilgrim times.  They used Lincoln Logs to building Pilgrim houses, stuffed mattresses using plastic bags and pillow cases, snapped green beans and husked corn/removed kernels.  They all seemed to agree that being a Pilgrim was hard work!

I know Thanksgiving is over, but I hope this gives you some ideas for next year!  How did you prepare for Thanksgiving?