& Thanksgiving BY K ATHLEEN M. HOLLENBECK NEW YORK TORONTO LONDON AUCKLAND SYDNEY MEXICO CITY NEW DELHI HONG KONG
About This Book... 4 Language Arts Pilgrim Postcards... 6 BOOK BREAK: The Wampanoag Indians... 7 Native American Scrapbooks... 7 Thanks at Thanksgiving Collaborative Book... 8 BOOK BREAK: On the Mayflower... 8 Cornucopia Word Wall... 9 Thank-You Place Mats... 9 BOOK BREAK: Samuel Eaton s Day and Sarah Morton s Day... 10 Pocket Chart Poetry... 11 Math Make Sharing Soup... 14 Measure the Mayflower... 14 BOOK BREAK: How Many Days to America?... 15 Wampum Works... 15 Trading Post Math... 16 Feather Math... 16 Book Break: 1, 2, 3 Thanksgiving!... 17 Estimation Station... 17 Popular Pies... 18 Days, Weeks, and Months... 18 Contents Social Studies Order in the Colony: The Mayflower Compact 19 Pack It Up... 19 Play Pilgrim Games... 20 Family Feathers... 20 Plimoth Plantation Scavenger Hunt... 21 BOOK BREAK: Molly s Pilgrim and Sarah Morton s Day... 21 Sharing Partners... 22 Grow a Giving Tree... 22 Helping at Home... 23 Green Corn Day Journal... 23 Make a Book of Thanks: Then and Now... 24 Alike and Different... 25 Thanksgiving Feast... 26 BOOK BREAK: Thanksgiving... 26 Science Add Two Parts Fish... 27 Harvest Leaf Prints... 27 Cranberry Sink and Float... 28 Dry and Nibble Harvest Necklaces... 28 Harvest Beginnings... 29 Art Clothespin Pilgrims... 30 Corn Cob Painting... 30 3-D Pilgrims... 31 Turkey Magnets... 31 Give It Away!... 31 Origami Turkey... 32
About This Book Thanksgiving The year has turned its circle, The seasons come and go. The harvest is all gathered in And chilly north winds blow. Orchards have shared their treasures, The fields, their yellow grain. So open wide the doorway Thanksgiving comes again! Author Unknown IE n early November, we are well into autumn and begin thinking of Thanksgiving. Now long past the first days of school and just after pumpkins and candy, late autumn calls us to look inward and appreciate the people and circumstances around us. It invites us to open the history books and step back in time to the start of our nation. This book is designed to help you take your students on this journey, with more than 50 activities geared for this rich time of year. We invite you to use them to celebrate and explore the topics of Thanksgiving, harvest, Native Americans, and Pilgrims. These activities span the curriculum and the country, with many tried-and-true contributions from teachers across the United States. 4
TE he activities in this book are arranged by curriculum areas. As you would expect in early elementary curriculum, most of the ideas naturally integrate a number of disciplines. Browse through and find the activities that seem most interesting and relevant for you and your students interests, goals, and time frames. Choose a fun activity to brighten up a rainy November morning, or an activity that ties in with your lesson plans for the week. Need an instant art activity? Make turkey magnets, edible cornucopias, or an origami turkey. Ready for science? Compare popcorn to Indian corn and plant it to learn about seed growth. Set up a trading post for a math activity your students can count on, and recreate the crowded conditions the Mayflower passengers endured. Each activity has been carefully chosen to build students knowledge, strengthen core skills, and enrich your classroom curriculum. In addition to plenty of cross-curricular activities, you ll also find: { an interactive bulletin board { learning center suggestions { reproducible templates { mini-books to make { pocket-chart poetry lessons { literature links { Internet resources { home-school connections { arts and crafts extensions To provide as many fresh and fun ideas as possible, we ve kept the activities simple and short. Many are ready for use right away; others require advance planning. Most of the materials needed to complete these activities are already in your classroom. Those that require more than the basic supplies usually call for accessible ones such as potting soil or food coloring. Reading a wonderful story about any topic your class is studying can encourage students to become interested in learning more about it. Book Breaks throughout invite you to use favorite children s literature in this way. You ll also find the following titles helpful. Across the Wide Dark Sea: The Mayflower Journey by Jean Van Leeuwen (Dial Books for Young Readers, 1995) Circle of Thanks by Susie Gregg Fowler (Scholastic, 1998) Colonial Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in the New World by Laurie Carlson (Chicago Review Press, 1997) It s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow, 1982) Merrily Comes Our Harvest In by Lee Bennett Hopkins (Harcourt Brace, 1978) Thanksgiving at the Tappleton s by Eileen Spinelli (Addison-Wesley, 1982) Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House, 1983) The Wampanoag Indians by Bill Lund (Capstone Press, 1998) 5
Language Arts { T p Pilgrim children were often named for the virtues their parents held dear, as well as the experiences they encountered on their voyage to or life in America. Write the following names on the chalkboard. Invite students to guess what each name represents and why parents would choose the name for a child. Oceanus (reminds you of the sea; baby born on Mayflower voyage was given this name) Remember (to think about the past) Wrestling (a kind of fighting) Desire (to want something very much) Love (to care a lot) Resolved (to never give up) Humility (not to be too proud) Constanta (to never change) Teacher Teacher Pilgrim Postcards I Share Share nvite children to pretend they are Pilgrims writing notes to people they miss and love far away in their homeland. Share with students that they might be writing to loved ones in Holland and England after their Mayflower voyage, first winter in Plimoth, or Thanksgiving feast. Give each student a copy of the postcard pattern. (See page 12.) Have children cut out the postcards and glue the back sides together. They can draw pictures about Pilgrim life on the front and write messages on the back, telling something special that happened to them or describing something of interest. Students can design colorful stamps and address their postcards to fictitious friends back home. (This is a good opportunity to explore common Pilgrim names. See Tip, left.) Before they write home, encourage your students to gather background information about Pilgrims. Share picture books or visit these web sites: { Plimoth Plantation Museum (www.plimoth.org) { Pilgrim Hall Museum (www.pilgrimhall.org) { John Alden House (www.alden.org) VaReane Gray Heese Springfield Elementary School Springfield, Nebraska 6