Thanksgiving BY K ATHLEEN M. HOLLENBECK TORONTO LONDON AUCKLAND SYDNEY NEW YORK MEXICO CITY NEW DELHI HONG KONG

Transcription

1 & Thanksgiving BY K ATHLEEN M. HOLLENBECK NEW YORK TORONTO LONDON AUCKLAND SYDNEY MEXICO CITY NEW DELHI HONG KONG

2 To Alex, Kyle, and Kelsie for whom I give thanks daily. Sharing Partners is adapted from Sharing Feast by Henry Davidson, which appeared in Instructor magazine (October, 1991). Pack It Up is adapted from What to Bring? by Karen Dillenbeck, which appeared in Instructor magazine (November/December, 1991). Give It Away! is adapted from Thanksgiving Place Mats for Meals-on-Wheels by Carole Keister, which appeared in Instructor magazine (November/December, 1997). Scholastic grants teachers permission to photocopy the reproducible pages from this book for classroom use. No other part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or part, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Professional Books, 555 Broadway, New York, NY Edited by Joan Novelli Front cover and interior design by Kathy Massaro Cover and interior art by Paige Billin-Frye, except page 13 by Rusty Fletcher, and page 27 by James Graham Hale ISBN# Copyright 1999 Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved.

3 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 Pocket Chart Poetry Math Make Sharing Soup Measure the Mayflower BOOK BREAK: How Many Days to America? Wampum Works Trading Post Math Feather Math Book Break: 1, 2, 3 Thanksgiving! Estimation Station Popular Pies Days, Weeks, and Months Contents Social Studies Order in the Colony: The Mayflower Compact 19 Pack It Up Play Pilgrim Games Family Feathers Plimoth Plantation Scavenger Hunt BOOK BREAK: Molly s Pilgrim and Sarah Morton s Day Sharing Partners Grow a Giving Tree Helping at Home Green Corn Day Journal Make a Book of Thanks: Then and Now Alike and Different Thanksgiving Feast BOOK BREAK: Thanksgiving Science Add Two Parts Fish Harvest Leaf Prints Cranberry Sink and Float Dry and Nibble Harvest Necklaces Harvest Beginnings Art Clothespin Pilgrims Corn Cob Painting D Pilgrims Turkey Magnets Give It Away! Origami Turkey... 32

4 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

5 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

6 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) Pilgrim Postcards I nvite children to pretend they are Pilgrims writing notes to people they miss and love far away in their homeland. 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. picture books or visit these web sites: { Plimoth Plantation Museum ( { Pilgrim Hall Museum ( { John Alden House ( VaReane Gray Heese Springfield Elementary School Springfield, Nebraska 6

7 Language Arts Book Break The Wampanoag Indians by Bill Lund (Capstone Press, 1998) books on Wampanoag Indian life, such as The Wampanoag Indians. After students spend time exploring the Wampanoag lifestyle, have them pretend they are Wampanoag Indians long ago. Invite students to share what they ve learned by writing a poem, short story, or play from a Wampanoag s point of view, or by drawing a mural to show details in Native American life. Questions your students might answer by writing or drawing include: { What did you think of the Pilgrims when you first met them? { Was it easy to talk with the Pilgrims? { Did you attend the first Thanksgiving, and if so, did you have a good time? What did you eat? What games did you play? Tapenum s Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times by Kate Waters (Scholastic, 1996) is another good resource. Native American Scrapbooks Many people keep scrapbooks today to commemorate events past and present. What if Wampanoag Indians had kept their own scrapbooks in 1621? Help your students learn more about Wampanoag Indians. Then guide them as they create scrapbooks of Wampanoag Indian life in Questions your students might answer through pictures, words, and homemade artifacts include: { What did the Wampanoag eat? { What did the Wampanoag home look like? { What special feast days did they observe? Encourage students to personalize scrapbooks with comments such as I helped my mother collect quahog shells, or Animal skins kept me warm! 7

8 Language Arts Thanks at Thanksgiving Collaborative Book C opy the poem Thanks at Thanksgiving on chart paper and read it aloud with the class. Ask children to think about how they would complete the poem. Give each child a copy of the poem on page 13. Have children fill in the blank at the end, illustrate their poems, then take turns reading them aloud. (Children who are not ready to read aloud can ask you or a classmate to read the first four lines.) Compile the pages to make a classroom book of thanks. Display in the classroom or circulate to students families. Thanks at Thanksgiving I think of sunshine, clear and bright. I think of stars, twinkling at night. I think of friends, family, and more I have so much to be thankful for! I m especially thankful for. Mary Beth Spann Minucci Consultant Shoreham, New York Book Break 8 { T p For an authentic look, let children write their diary entries on pieces of brown paper, torn or cut from grocery bags. On the Mayflower by Kate Waters (Scholastic, 1996) On the Mayflower: Voyage of the Ship s Apprentice & a Passenger Girl. Then ask each student to write a diary entry of one or more Pilgrims on the Mayflower, telling about reasons for coming on board, life on board, and plans for the future. Students might include a drawing, as if a Pilgrim child sketched what he or she saw on board the ship. Youngest students may draw a picture rather than write a diary entry.

9 Language Arts Cornucopia Word Wall Create a colorful, interactive word wall/bulletin board to highlight word families. Here s how: { From a flat piece of brown paper, cut out a horn-shaped basket to represent the base of a cornucopia. Make eight baskets, each approximately 8 by 11 inches. 1 2 { Staple the baskets on a background of yellow or white, at a height children can reach. { Use construction paper to cut a variety of fruits. Size the fruit so five pieces will fit easily onto each basket. (You will need 40 pieces of fruit for eight baskets.) These might include apples, oranges, bunches of grapes, bananas, peaches, and pears. (You can also cut pictures of fruit from magazines.) { Divide the fruit into eight piles, with a variety of fruit in each pile. Label each pile of fruit with words from one word family. For example, one pile of fruit may be from the -at family: cat, fat, hat, mat, and bat. Another may be from the -op family: hop, mop, pop, stop, shop. { Label each cornucopia basket with the letters for one word family and an example (such as -at, cat). { Place the fruit in a large margarine tub and place near the bulletin board. During free time, students can sort the fruit by word family, attaching each piece to the basket labeled with its word family name. { T p Preserve your hard work by laminating all fruit and cornucopia baskets. Attach five small squares of Velcro to the open end of each basket and one square of Velcro to the back of each fruit. Students can use the Velcro to attach the fruit to the baskets. Thank-You Place Mats Set your students on-course for some mysterious Thanksgiving fun! Provide students with place mat-size pieces of white paper. (Students may want to make a place mat for one special person or for each person coming to dinner.) Have students decorate the place mats and write a message of thanks to someone in their family. Students should not sign their names. Laminate place mats if possible before having children take them home. Encourage students to secretly place the mats on their Thanksgiving tables beside the appropriate place settings. Family members will be pleasantly surprised. Variation Rather than make place mats, your students might like to make place cards, again decorating them and writing secret messages of thanks on them. Unlined index cards folded in half work well for this. 9

10 Language Arts { T p For background information on Pilgrim children s clothing, see page 25. Book Break Samuel Eaton s Day and Sarah Morton s Day by Kate Waters (Scholastic, 1993/1989) Samuel Eaton s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy and Sarah Morton s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl. Discuss the children s lives as described in the stories. Then let each student make a flap book to compare his/her life to that of Samuel or Sarah, noting differences in aspects of life such as clothing, homes, or food. To make a flap book, help each child: { Place three pieces of white paper in a pile. Hold vertically. { Fold in half, bringing the top down to meet the bottom. Staple four times along fold. { Hold the book so staples are along the top, as shown. Lift all but the bottom sheet and cut to divide into two sets of flaps, still joined at the top with staples. { Ask each child to draw a picture of Samuel Eaton or Sarah Morton on the left cover flap and his/her own self on the right cover flap. Have children label the pictures: Samuel Eaton (or Sarah Morton ) and Me. { On the remaining pages, have children draw pictures to compare aspects of their lives with aspects of Samuel s or Sarah s. For example, on page 2, children might draw the clothes Samuel Eaton wears on the left flap and the clothes they wear on the right. On page 3, they might draw Samuel s breakfast foods alongside their own. 10

11 Language Arts Pocket Chart Poetry Use the poem below to strengthen skills in word recognition, rhyming, and critical thinking. Copy each line of the poem on a strip of tagboard. Place the lines in order in the pocket chart. Read the poem aloud several times. Then try these activities. { On small squares of tagboard, draw pictures (one per square) to illustrate these words: turkey, pie, corn, bread, squash, toys, sun, family, me. Distribute the pictures to volunteers. As students read the poem aloud with you, let volunteers come up to the pocket chart and insert each picture beside the word it illustrates. { Use tagboard trimmed to size to cover up the last word in each line. Write these words on tagboard and let children take turns placing the words where they go to complete the poem. { Let students substitute their own messages of thanks in place of the ones in the poem. For example, instead of I m thankful for the turkey, students might write I m thankful for my sister. { Emphasize the skill of rhyming by encouraging students to replace words so the poem still flows in meter and rhyme. { Mix up the tagboard strips and place them in the pocket chart so the poem is out of order. Invite volunteers to come up to the chart and unscramble the poem, line by line. Thankful I m thankful for the turkey. I m thankful for the pie. I m thankful for the corn and bread And squash I m going to try. I m thankful for the toys I have, The sun I feel and see, And always, for my family Who gather here with me. Kathleen M. Hollenbeck 11

12 A c tivity age P Pilgrim Postcards 12

13 Thanks at Thanksgiving I think of sunshine, clear and bright. I think of stars, twinkling at night. I think of friends, family, and more I have so much to be thankful for! I m especially thankful for. Name Date

14 Math Make Sharing Soup I nvite your students to contribute to a class pot of Sharing Soup! Let each student choose one item from a list of ingredients and bring it to school on a specific day. Students can bring vegetables such as onions, potatoes, carrots, and peas. You may want to bring a chicken or vegetable broth, as well as spices to flavor the soup. Have students add the ingredients one at a time, following a favorite recipe for the basics but varying the ingredients to use what you have. Add math skills by measuring and/or weighing ingredients first. { Wendy Weiner Parkview School Milwaukee, Wisconsin 14

15 Math Book Break How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting (Ticknor, 1988) Ask children if they ve ever had to wait for an event to arrive (a birthday, holiday, family trip). Then share How Many Days to America? to give them a sense of time as Pilgrim children on the Mayflower may have experienced it. Go further by looking at the journey in terms of days, weeks, and months. (See page 18.) Wampum Works Long ago, Native Americans used wampum as a symbol of power and authority. After the Pilgrims arrived, the Wampanoag used wampum as money. At that time, three white beads were worth one cent and three purple beads worth two cents. Let your students use wampum to appreciate this long-ago concept of exchange. You may wish to purchase plastic purple beads and white beads at a local craft store. If so, provide 30 beads per student. Otherwise, help students make their own wampum by dying penne (tubular pasta) with food coloring. Mix red and blue food coloring to make purple; leave half of the penne undyed for white wampum. When each student has 30 pieces of wampum, provide yarn or string (about 24 inches long) and let students string the beads to make a wampum necklace. Then set up a trading post in your classroom, using school supplies such as erasers, pencils, and glue sticks as merchandise. Place a sign beside each item, telling how much it costs, and let students buy and sell, using their wampum. Put up a sign listing the value of the wampum, as stated above. For example erasers might cost 3 white + 6 purple wampum. { T p To dye pasta, fill a muffin-tin cup threequarters full with water. Add several drops blue and several drops red food coloring. Dip pasta and let dry. 15

16 Math Trading Post Math Set up a trading post in your classroom! First, review the idea that back in the 1600s, Pilgrims traded supplies rather than use money to purchase things. In exchange for corn, fish, and furs, the Pilgrims traded the Wampanoag such items as cloth, shoes, and jewelry. Collect a bagful of inexpensive school supplies such as erasers, glue sticks, pencils, and stickers. Give each student a handful of these to use for this activity. Have students use the items they have to trade with other students. After they have the idea, students may look through magazines to find pictures of items similar to those the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag exchanged. Let students try trading again, this time using pictures to represent items. Feather Math R einforce addition and subtraction with a Thanksgiving twist. Here s how: 1. Using construction paper, cut two small turkeys and ten 3-inch feathers for each student. (Or, use craft feathers.) 2. Write a number sentence on the chalkboard, such as = 7. Then draw two turkeys on the chalkboard. Draw three feathers on the first bird and four feathers on the second. Explain that this drawing shows = Write another number sentence. Ask students to use their turkeys and feathers to show that number sentence. 4. Try this several times, until you are sure students have the idea. 5. Then ask students to use only six feathers. Let them divide the feathers between the birds in any way they choose. 6. Ask students to raise their hands and tell you what number sentence goes with the picture they ve created. Write the different ways of making six on the chalkboard. 7. Repeat steps five and six, using a different number of feathers each time. Jackie Clarke Cicero Elementary School Cicero, New York 16

17 Math Book Break 1, 2, 3 Thanksgiving! by W. Nikola-Lisa (Albert Whitman, 1991) On Thanksgiving Day, Papa stuffs one fat turkey, Mama bakes two pumpkin pies... This counting book will inspire many math activities. Suggestions follow. { Let children write their own Thanksgiving counting stories, based on family traditions, class activities, or their imaginations! { Retell the story as a pocket chart activity. Write each sentence on a strip of paper, leaving a blank for each number. Write the numbers on separate strips of paper, trimmed to size. Reread the story, letting children take turns selecting the correct number and placing it in the sentence. { Create a rebus version of the story, making picture cards for each of the items (turkey, pumpkin pies, and so on). Set up the story as a pocket chart, and let children take turns retelling the story, inserting the pictures where they go. (You can number them on the back so that children can check the order on their own.) { Let children make up number sentences to go with the story. Compile students math problems on one page and make a copy for each child. Estimation Station This fun idea is actually two activities in one! Part 1: Place pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, cranberries, popcorn kernels, or a combination of all three in a large glass jar. Then ask your students to estimate how many seeds or berries they see and explain their estimation methods. Have them write their guesses on slips of paper and place them in a box or basket. After counting the items, ask the student who came closest to explain his or her reasoning again. Part 2: Scoop out some seeds or berries, and give each student a paper cup with ten or 20 inside. Invite students to use their seeds and berries to help them figure out number combinations that add up to a specified number. Be sure to give children time to share their number sentences so that they can see the many ways of coming up with the same sum. { T p If you use cranberries in this activity, reuse them for a science investigation and art activity. (See page 28.) 17

18 Math Popular Pies W hich Thanksgiving pies do people like most? Let your students find out for themselves and track the results on your classroom computer. Make a template of a graph on your computer, using a software program such as Microsoft Word or World Book 1999 (Homework Wizard feature). List numerals 1 10 down the left side of the graph. Across the bottom, list seven or eight popular pies (apple, cherry, mince, pumpkin, banana, lemon, and chocolate), one in each column. Print out the graph and send each student home with a copy. Have each student survey five or ten people to find out which pie they like best at Thanksgiving. Ask students to bring their completed graphs back to school and enter the data on the computer graph. After all students have added their data, print the finished graph. Discuss which pie proved to be the most popular, and invite students to draw a picture of that pie. Post these on a bulletin board with the graph. April Sutherland Our Lady of Victory Mt. Vernon, New York Days, Weeks, and Months Ask your students: How many of you have ever said When will we be there? when you ve taken a trip with your family? Invite students to think of the longest trip they have ever taken in a car, or on a boat, airplane, or other form of transportation. Ask what they did to pass the time, and how they felt after the first few hours had passed and they still had a long way to go. Help students realize how long the Mayflower voyage lasted and how Pilgrim children must have felt. Using an outdated calendar, or photocopied pages from a current calendar, let students count and mark the days from the Pilgrims departure from England (September 16, 1620) to their anchorage off the coast of Massachusetts (November 21, 1620). Help students convert the days into weeks that the travelers were crowded on the Mayflower. Or, let children mark off the journey one day at a time. Encourage them to look back and ahead, telling how many days have passed, how many are still to come. 18

19 Social Studies Order in the Colony: The Mayflower Compact Before the Pilgrims left the Mayflower to settle on land, they needed to decide how the colony would be run. What rules would people be expected to follow? How would new laws be decided? To determine this, the Pilgrim leaders wrote the Mayflower Compact. In this document, the leaders promised to make laws for the good of the colony and to obey laws made by the group. (You can find a copy of the Mayflower Compact in Pilgrims, see right.) Ask students to imagine what life might have been like for the Pilgrims if there had been no Mayflower Compact. Review the list of rules students are expected to follow in your classroom. What might happen in the classroom if there were no rules to follow or if no one followed the rules? With students help, convert the list into your own Classroom Compact. Write the rules on chart paper and invite each student to come forward and sign the document. Post it in a prominent place, reminding your students daily that they are a part of an important community, as were the Pilgrims. Mayflower Compact For a complete copy of the Mayflower Compact, see page 6 in Pilgrims by Susan Moger (Scholastic Professional Books, 1995) or go to the Plimoth Plantation Web site at Pack It Up A fter reading a book on the Pilgrim voyage, help students understand the hardships of these early immigrants. Tell them they must decide what seven possessions (including clothing) they would bring on a voyage, given the following conditions: { They will never return home. { The climate of their destination can be unpredictable. { They will live in one-room huts for several years. { They will be far from a doctor or hospital. { There will be no library, shopping center, movie theater, or school. Have them make a list and tell why they made the choices they made. Karen Dillenbeck Boca Raton, Florida 19

20 Social Studies Play Pilgrim Games Teach your students games Pilgrim children played. Along with those listed below, Pilgrim children played such familiar games as hopscotch, tug-of-war, marbles, and hide-the-thimble. Kynge By Your Leave One person is it. He or she sits blindfolded while the other players hide. The one who is it goes to look for them. The player who can get back to the starting point without being seen wins. Puss in the Corner One child (Puss) stands in the center of the room. The other players stand in the four corners of the room or along the walls. The object is for everyone to change places without letting Puss get a spot. If Puss succeeds, then the child whose spot was taken becomes Puss. Adapted from Pilgrims by Susan Moger (Scholastic Professional Books, 1995) Family Feathers E ncourage family involvement in your Thanksgiving unit and brighten your classroom at the same time! Using posterboard, cut out a feather (approximately 2 feet high by 6 inches wide) for each student in your class. Send home the feather with a note, asking family members to work together to decorate the feather. Families may decorate with beads, feathers, glitter, crayons, markers, or any art supplies they wish. Their feather can represent a family interest or it may simply be an artistic collage. Let families know when you would like their feathers back. Then display the feathers on a bulletin board, perhaps as the plumage of a giant, smiling turkey. Cynthia McDonnell Father John V. Doyle School Coventry, Rhode Island 20

21 Social Studies Plimoth Plantation Scavenger Hunt Send your students on a scavenger hunt at the Plimoth Plantation web site (www. plimoth.org). At the Home Page, click on Plymouth Colony. From the list that appears on the screen, click on the following headings to help students find information to answer the questions that appear below. { Interesting Facts About the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and Plymouth { Pilgrim Trivia { The Wampanoag 1. Who named Plymouth? (the Prince of Wales, who became King Charles I) 2. Who was Oceanus? (the child born on the Mayflower; son of Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins) 3. What happened on November 11, 1620? (the Pilgrims first set foot on American soil) 4. How many passengers traveled on the Mayflower? (102) 5. What eating utensil didn t the Pilgrims use? (a fork) 6. What took 66 days to complete? (the Mayflower crossing) 7. How long did the first Thanksgiving feast last? (three days) 8. What does the name Wampanoag mean? (eastern people or people of the dawn) 9. What were Native American boys trained to do? (to hunt and to survive under all conditions) 10. What were Native American girls trained to do? (to work diligently in the fields and around the family wetu) Book Break Molly s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen (Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard, 1983) Sarah Morton s Day by Kate Waters (Scholastic, 1989) Invite students to describe how they ve felt in new or difficult situations, such as moving to a new town, making new friends, feeling left out, being away from home, and being sick. Ask children to keep these feelings in mind as you share Molly s Pilgrim and Sarah Morton s Day. After reading, invite children to make comparisons between the children in both stories. How were their experiences similar? How were they different? What comparisons can children make between themselves and the characters in the stories? 21

22 Social Studies Sharing Partners P lan a special Thanksgiving feast for your class. Send home a letter asking families to send in healthful snacks (raisins, nuts, crackers) on a given school day. About a week before the feast, have students draw names to select sharing partners. Remind students to keep the identity of their partners a secret until the big day. Throughout the week, invite students to talk with the class about their hobbies, likes and dislikes, and so on. On the last day before the feast, give each student a large sheet of white construction paper. Ask students to draw portraits of their sharing partners, illustrating some of the things they learned about them. Cover the drawings with contact paper. Let students present them to their partners as place mats to use for the feast. Henry Davidson Austin, Texas Grow a Giving Tree Have each student trace and cut out several hands (for a total of about 50). Place the hands in an empty tissue box, basket, or coffee can. Next, make a bulletin board or wall display, using craft paper to form a tree with bare branches. Label the display Our Giving Tree. Place the box of paper hands near the display. Invite students to keep their eyes open throughout the week, watching for good deeds their classmates do, such as picking up dropped items, sharing crayons or scissors, or encouraging a classmate who is sad. When students see classmates giving of themselves, have them write their names and good deeds on paper hands and display on the tree for all to appreciate. 22

23 Helping at Home Long ago, Native American children aided their family s survival by helping with the essential tasks of growing and finding food. From an early age, Native American children planted seeds, weeded fields, and harvested crops. They fished and gathered berries and nuts. this information with your students. Then ask them to think about ways they help out in their own homes. Make a simple chart to help students compare/contrast the ways they help with the ways Native American children helped long ago. (See sample chart, right.) Talk with students about the importance of the tasks they do at home and how they can help their homes run smoothly. Help them realize that Native American children had a different goal in mind: Their family s survival depended on cultivating and gathering enough to feed the family during the growing season and throughout winter months when food was scarce. Ask students to think about what having this responsibility might feel like to them. Green Corn Day Journal I How I Helped This Week set the table made my bed fed my fish put toys away put my clothes away ntroduce Green Corn Day, the holiday when Native Americans give thanks for the gifts of the land. Invite students to write down things they are thankful for that might be considered gifts of the land. Students might choose to write about a beautiful stream they admire or a food that eventually makes its way to their homes from the farm where it grows. When students have finished their journal entries, invite them to illustrate their pages. Bind students work to make a Green Corn Day journal. Let it circulate among students families, then add it to your class library. Kara Ratigan Father John V. Doyle School Coventry, Rhode Island Helping at Home Social Studies How Native American Children Helped Long Ago planted seeds picked corn and squash caught fish for food found nuts and berries wove mats to build homes { T p For background information on the Thanksgiving feast, share portions of Lucille Recht Penner s Eating the Plates: A Pilgrim Book of Food and Manners (Macmillan, 1991). Points of interest in the book include recipes for Pilgrim foods, insight into Pilgrim meal habits, and a close look at the lifestyles of Pilgrim children. 23

24 Social Studies Make a Book of Thanks: Then and Now As a class, create two books with messages of Thanksgiving: one from Pilgrim times and one from the present day. { Reproduce the pattern below (enlarge first) so each student has two copies. { Ask students to color one activity page to represent the face, hair, hat, sleeves, and hands of a Pilgrim boy or girl. (They must leave the rectangle between the arms blank.) { Ask students to imagine they are Pilgrim children in the year They have survived a difficult year in a new land and are about to share a feast with Native American friends. Before the meal, each child must tell something for which he or she is thankful. { In the rectangle, have each student write from the point of view of a Pilgrim child, telling what he or she is thankful for in the autumn of { Fold the arms in front to cover the Thanksgiving message and form a book. { Ask students to color the second activity page to represent their own faces, hair, hats, sleeves, and hands. (Again, they must leave the rectangle between the arms blank.) { Inside the rectangle, have each student tell one thing he or she is thankful for today. It might be a friend or family member, a home or possession, the ability to run, and so on. { Fold the arms as before to form a second book. 24

25 Social Studies Alike and Different Use Venn diagrams to help children compare life at the time of the Pilgrims with life now. Begin by making a Venn diagram together. List information about clothes Pilgrim children wore. (See Tip, right.) Have children describe clothes they wear now and add this information to the chart. Set up a Venn diagram on chart paper or the board, then guide children in recording the information in the circles. Make additional Venn diagrams to make new comparisons for example, compare the Wampanoag lifestyle with the Pilgrim lifestyle in the 1600s. Have children work in small groups to gather information about topics such as clothes, homes, food, and so on. Compile their findings on one Venn diagram, as shown. Wampanoag Clothes made of animal skin Lived in wigwam Learned stories and lessons from adults Children practiced using bows and arrows Ate corn and fish Houses were covered with bark Children taught to respect elders Children played ball and ran races Pilgrim Clothes made of cloth or wool Lived in house with roof Learned to read and write from adults Children played marbles { T p the following background information to help children compare the way they dress to the way Pilgrim children dressed. { Pilgrim clothes were made of wool and linen. They were often bright colors red, orange, purple, and blue rather than only the dark and somber colors we often associate with Pilgrims. { A Pilgrim boy wore a long shirt, pants that ended at the knee, stockings held up with garters, a short jacket with long sleeves, and shoes. { A Pilgrim girl wore a long shirt, one or more petticoats, stockings with garters, an apron, a waistcoat and skirt or a long gown, leather shoes, and a white linen cap on her head. { In cold weather, Pilgrims wore hats and cloaks or capes. 25

26 Social Studies { T p Set the scene for your celebration by sharing the following background information about the first Thanksgiving, which brought together approximately 50 colonists and 100 natives, and lasted three days. The Pilgrims ate turkey, goose, duck, fish, cheese, and pudding made of corn. The Wampanoags brought deer meat, turkey, rabbit, woodchuck, fish, lobster, clams, mussels, potatoes, corn, beans, and squash. Thanksgiving Feast S imulate the first Thanksgiving with a feast for your students and their families. (See Tip for background information.) Send out invitations. You might ask invitees to bring a dessert to share, or to send in specific food items (cut-up vegetables, butter, beverages) ahead of time. Guide students in preparing for the feast. Let students { help make cornbread and turkey soup in advance. { weave placemats with construction paper strips. (See also Thank-You Place Mats, page 9.) { make corn-cob print paper tableclothes. (See page 30.) { draw a mural of the First Thanksgiving. { make Native American vests and headbands of paper, as well as Pilgrim hats and collars for students and guests to wear. { rehearse poems to recite. (see pages 11, 13.) { set the tables and clean up afterward, to reinforce responsibility. Maureen Healey Father John V. Doyle School Coventry, Rhode Island Book Break Thanksgiving by Laura Alden (Children s Press, 1993) 26 this story to inspire new traditions in your students lives. The book tells the story of a family that establishes traditions to weave kindness and thankfulness into the holiday. One tradition involves placing five kernels of corn beside each place setting to remind family members to be thankful. After reading the story, lay out Indian corn kernels (take off the cob or buy multicolored popcorn kernels) and plastic sandwich bags on a table. Let each student take five kernels of corn for each member of his or her family and place them in a plastic bag to take home. Encourage students to place the corn kernels beside every plate on Thanksgiving day. Before sharing their meal, your students and their families might find five reasons each to be thankful one for each kernel of corn.

27 Science Add Two Parts Fish N ative Americans who lived near the ocean often added fish to the soil as fertilizer. Help your students conduct an experiment to learn why they did this. You will need two clean 2-liter soda bottles, potting soil, one can of tuna fish, plastic straws (or other inorganic matter), and apple cores (or other organic materials). Here s what to do: { Cut each soda bottle off at the center. { Place several scoops of potting soil in one bottle so it is half full. { Add organic matter, such as a chunk of tuna and a slice of apple, to the soil. { Add inorganic matter, such as a plastic straw. { Flip over the second bottle. Force it over the bottom bottle to form a lid. Tape the two together with clear packing tape. { Watch the soil for several months. Over time, the organic materials will change, return to the soil, and enrich it. The inorganic materials will remain unchanged. Ann Flagg Edu-Prize School Gilbert, Arizona Leaf Edges Lobed Smooth Harvest Leaf Prints Let your students make colorful leaf books to remember fall leaves long after they ve faded away. Have students bring in an assortment of leaves. (Plan this activity before leaves on the ground have dried up.) Let students examine the leaves and sort them by attributes. For example, look at the leaf edges and classify the leaves the way scientists often do: as smooth, wavy, toothed, or lobed. Next, place leaves one at a time on a square of cardboard, and tape a piece of lightweight paper over them. Have students rub gently over the leaves with a crayon, moving it back and forth until the shape and veins of the leaf appear on the paper. Let each student make four to six leaf rubbings and staple them together to make a leaf-rubbing book. Wavy Toothed 27

28 Science { T p Young children may believe that heavy objects sink and light objects float. While density is a difficult concept to grasp, you can explain that something that sinks is heavy enough to push the water out of the way. (It is more dense than water.) Cranberries float because they are not more dense than water. If you have a pumpkin on hand, let children predict whether it will sink or float. Like cranberries, pumpkins have air pockets inside that prevent them from being dense enough to sink. Cranberry Sink and Float C ranberries are a traditional Thanksgiving food. Let children learn more about these tiny fruits with a simple experiment. Give everyone a fresh cranberry. Ask children to describe their cranberries. You might list words on chart paper as children suggest them. Next, have children predict whether their cranberries will sink or float and explain their reasoning. Let students test their predictions by placing their cranberries in the water. Follow up by cutting cranberries in half to reveal air pockets inside. Guide children to understand that the air pockets prevent the cranberries from sinking. (For more information, see Tip, left.) Let children use the cranberry halves like stamps to make prints on paper. You might have them fold white paper to make cards, then use the cranberry stamps to decorate the front. Use the cards as invitations to a class Thanksgiving celebration. (See Thanksgiving Feast, page 26.) They can do the same thing on smaller pieces of paper to make place cards. Lynne Kepler Clarion Limestone Elementary School Strattanville, Pennsylvania Dry and Nibble Harvest Necklaces Long ago, Pilgrims dried some foods to keep them from going bad. Let your students experiment with drying foods as they make these tasty necklace treats. Here s how: { Give each student a small paper cup filled with pumpkin seeds, raisins, and corn (from a bag of frozen corn). Let students taste each of the foods. Then give them each about 2-3 feet of thread and large needles. (Talk about safety issues and make sure there is plenty of space between each student.) Have them string the foods to make a necklace, creating patterns if they like. { Cover cookie sheets with foil and spread students necklaces on them. (Most will look alike; use the dull side of a needle to etch students names on the foil inside their necklaces.) { Bake the necklaces in a 250 F. oven until they have dried, about one hour. 28

29 Science { Place necklaces on paper towels to cool. Let students discuss how the heat from the oven changed the foods. Invite them to taste the dried foods. How did drying change their taste? Adapted from ScienceArt by Deborah Schecter (Scholastic Professional Books, 1997). Harvest Beginnings W ithout seeds there would be no harvest! Discuss the idea that much of the food we eat comes from plants that begin as seeds. Show students a can of corn, and ask them to tell where corn seeds come from. Hold up an ear of Indian corn. Help children identify the kernels and the cob as parts of the corn plant. Then let them pick kernels from the cob. Explain that these are seeds. Next, display a commercial packet of corn seeds and kernels of popcorn. Explain that all three are the kernels, or seeds, of a corn plant. Let students closely examine the three kinds of seeds, then follow these steps to plant them. { Give each child three recloseable sandwich bags and paper towels, and two of each seed. { Instruct students to fold the paper towels until they are small enough to fit in the bags. { Have them wet the paper towels completely and slide one into each bag. { Have students drop two of each type of seed into a bag and seal it. { Using clear tape, attach the sandwich bags to a sunny window in the classroom. (Use permanent marker to write students names on their bags first.) { Add water as needed to keep the paper towels and seeds moist. Watch what happens! Ann Flagg Edu-Prize School Gilbert, Arizona { T p Many children will be familiar with the name Squanto. Help children learn more about how Squanto helped the Pilgrims find food to survive in their new home. For example, Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant corn and to use herring to fertilize the ground. He also showed the Pilgrims how to gather nuts and berries, and how to fish. 29

30 Art Clothespin Pilgrims P ilgrims come in all shapes and sizes and they don t all live in Plimoth! Now that you have your students attention tell them that the definition of pilgrim is a person who travels a long distance in search of freedom or led by religious devotion. Then share Molly s Pilgrim by Barbara Cohen (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1983) with your class. This book describes how a young girl teaches her classmates to understand and accept modern-day pilgrims. Let students know that a lot of people, including possibly their ancestors, have come to America as pilgrims. Invite students to share their own cultural heritage with the class. Then tell students that they will be creating a clothespin doll that represents some part of their cultural heritage. Give children straight, wooden clothespins without hinges. Ask them to take the clothespin home and work with family members to design a clothespin doll that represents all or some of their ethnic roots. Ask students to bring the dolls back to school. Then have them hang their dolls on a clothesline with the name of the origin of each pilgrim taped on so that the class can see where their classmates families are from! Jackie Clarke Cicero Elementary School Cicero, New York Corn Cob Painting 30 Strip a corn cob of its kernels, and you ll have a powerful painting tool! That s what your students will find when they do corn-cob painting. { Strip the corn kernels from an ear of corn. { Let the corn cob dry completely. { Cover a table in your classroom (or cafeteria, if you re decorating for a school lunch) with butcher paper or craft paper. Tape the paper in place. { Have students don smocks or oversized T-shirts and give them each a cob. Let students dip the corn cob in paint, roller style, and roll it along the paper tablecloth in any direction. { Let several students use different colors and paint in the same area to create a multi-colored, decorative effect.

31 Art 3-D Pilgrims Make Pilgrims that stand up and can serve as centerpieces or shelf decorations at Thanksgiving. Provide each student with a toilet paper tube, glue, and a 3-by-5-inch piece of gold felt. Have students glue the felt so it fits 1 around the toilet paper tube, leaving 1 2 inches bare at the top of the tube. This will form the Pilgrim s clothing. Have students use markers to color a face and hair on the bare part of the tube. Then provide scraps of felt. Let students cut out and glue on belts, arms, and any embellishments they like. Students might choose to donate these centerpieces to a local soup kitchen or nursing home to be part of the decorations for their Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey Magnets Make turkey magnets to send home. Have each student paint his/her hand with paint of any color and press it on a square of construction paper. When the paint dries, let students use markers, glitter, feathers, and glue to add features that turn their handprints into turkeys. Cut out the hands and press an adhesive magnet square on the back of each. Send them home to grace families refrigerators. Give It Away! E ncourage your students to put their artistic talents to use for someone they don t even know. Give each student a large sheet of construction paper. Ask children to use crayons or markers to draw Thanksgiving-related scenes with messages of good will. Laminate the pictures to make place mats (or recruit a local business to laminate them for you) and donate them to your local soup kitchen or to a Meals-on-Wheels program for distribution with Thanksgiving dinners. You might also want to deliver the place mats to a local nursing home or health center for residents to use at their Thanksgiving meal. Carole Keister Fairchance, Pennsylvania 31

32 Art Origami Turkey H ere s a fun, nontraditional way to make Thanksgiving Day turkeys. { Choose a sturdy colored paper for the body, and cut it into a square. { Fold the paper in half along the diagonal, and then unfold. { As if you were making a paper airplane, fold the two corners into the center and then turn the paper over. { Fold the corners into the middle again. { Fold the top point to the bottom point. { Fold the smaller point down to make the head. { Turn the paper over and fold up the bottom triangle to make the tail. { Turn it over. Draw a face and add a paper wattle and paper or craft feathers. Linda Yoffe Stamford, Connecticut 32