Thanksgiving

We have now entered "the most wonderful time of the year". Christmas music permeates the car when I turn the ignition, I'm beginning to think about baking cookies and buying toys on-line and we started our yearly advent countdown to Christmas (we have enjoyed this same set of verses for 3 years now, days1-12, days12-25 ).  But before Dec. 1, we spent two weeks learning about the pilgrims and talking about Thanksgiving.
The book recommended from Five in a Row, A Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin was a fun introduction to New England and cranberry bogs. The book also includes a recipe, we love that! We also read through a short chapter book, Meet the Pilgrim Fathers, by Elizabeth Payne as well as a handful of short kids stories from the library about the pilgrims. My favorite of these: The Pilgrims Thanksgiving from A-Z, Laura Crawford and Judith Heirstein.
The craft ideas for holidays can be overwhelming. I tried to hone in on a few that tied in pretty tightly with our reading/circle time. We made turkey finger puppets with our handprint and used them every day for a counting rhyme, we made coffee cup Mayflower ships, tissue paper Indian corn and corn painted placemats. We also decorated a tree for each season and made a seasons collage using pictures from magazines.

We learned about starch, where it comes from, it's uses and how it can be detected using iodine. We made pudding using cornstarch and tapioca. We discussed Carbon Dioxide gas, how it forms in baked goods causing them to rise. While our bread baked we tested many different liquids with baking soda to see which ones caused a reaction. The four seasons were introduced and we talked a little about cranberry bogs. I would have loved a field trip to see one, but that wasn't happening this year. We read the book Cranberries: Fruit of the Bogs, by Diane Burns and Cheryl Walsh Bellville.  I also enjoyed this article about cranberries.  Tristan enjoyed eating cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving day.

 I hope the children remember a little of the history we learned about Thanksgiving. I feel that sometimes this holiday gets overwhelmed by Christmas. I mean, people begin shopping at 8:00 pm on Thanksgiving day! As much as I too love Christmas, I really wanted to give Thanksgiving it's due.

 

Our next week of "school" will take place in our new home! This week I'll break from library books and craft projects so I can pack everything and attend the final walk-through and closing, but the kids will spend 2 half-days with Grandma this week and she teaches them heaps through play and stories and her natural way of teaching throughout the day.