Giving Thanks

Today we took a break from our "usual" school topics and learned about Thanksgiving. I started off our school time by reading a couple Psalms that dealt with giving God thanks and praise for all his blessings - Psalm 107:1 and Psalm 100:4. Then we did a variety of Thanksgiving-themed activities.

We read "A Children's Thanksgiving Story", which told the story of the first Thanksgiving in a very simplified way. I found the story on this website:
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/thanksgiving/short-stories/the-first-thanksgiving.html


"P is for Pilgrim" by Carol Crane
This had Thanksgiving related topics and stories for each letter of the alphabet. Some of it was a bit "wordy" for my kids so I just gave summaries of the stories, but it was still a very good book to learn about Thanksgiving in my opinion.

Madison made a turkey-shaped Thanksgiving book
(http://www.abcteach.com/free/members/21977.pdf)

My family...
a picture of Noah, Madison, Daddy, and Mommy

We will eat...
her pictures include a turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas, corn, stuffing, and pumpkin pie.

My favorite food is...
tacos

I am thankful for...
(our) house

A turkey dot-to-dot
(http://www.bigactivities.com/ctd/thanksgiving/turkeys/turkey.html)
and a turkey maze
(http://www.first-school.ws/t/preschool-mazes/turkey.html)

Thanksgiving Addition pages.
(http://www.tlsbooks.com/kindergartenworksheets.htm)

We read "Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks" by Margaret Sutherland. This book was about various things that a child was thankful for. After reading the book, we made a Giving Thanks Tree. I found a tree branch outside and put in a glass jar. I filled the jar with rocks so that it would stand upright. I had cut some leaves out of red, orange, and yellow construction paper, and the kids had to come up with things they were thankful for. We wrote those things on the leaves, punched holes in them, tied pieces of yarn to them, then hung them on the tree. The things they were thankful for ranged from apples, to birthdays, to rollerskating, to food, to Daddy. I tried not to let it bother me too much that Daddy made the thankful list, but Mommy didn't. :-)
(idea from http://familycrafts.about.com/od/thanksgiving/a/GivingThanksTree.htm)

Happy Thanksgiving!