So, November FLEW by! Since this was only a 2 day school week, it was JAM PACKED with Thanksgiving fun! I thought it would be fun to let the students write Thanksgiving songs to the tune of familiar songs, (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb, etc.) and then perform them in front of the class.
First, the students brainstormed as a group all of the things that they knew about Thanksgiving. I found that it was getting to be mostly all about food so I read the students a book about the first Thanksgiving. After the story, the students added new things that they learned from the story to their brainstorming web.
They use salt to keep the fish fresh. :) A little fact that our students learned about Pilgrims from our story!
Afterbrainstorming, the students were given a familar tune and a word bank of Thanksgiving words that the students had to use in their song. I walked around and helped the students get started, and they worked together as a group to write their songs!
Here are the student's songs! They were SO good, and I was really impressed!
Please ignore my annoying voice. Haha!
Another Thanksgiving activity we completed was a book called Pilgrim, Pilgrim. We read a poem called Pilgrim, Pilgrim and then the students made a book using the lines of that poem. They illustrated each page, and I absolutely love their illustrations! Check out these sweet Indian girls and the Pilgrims on the Mayflower! Awesome!
In our writing center this week, the students had to write three sentences explaining what they were thankful for and why. Not a very unique idea, I know, but I just wanted to post this student example.
"I am thankful for God because He made me happy. I am thankful for my mom because she let me go to school. I am thankful for Mrs. Newberry because she teaches us." When I first read it I thought it said Mrs. Newberry kicks us, and we got a nice laugh out of that in class! :)
Over the weekend I sent a paper turkey home with my students with a letter giving my parents instructions on what to do with it. They were to disguise the turkey--so that no one would try to catch him for Thanksgiving! :) Our Kindergarten and second grade classes also completed this activity and I thought it was too cute not to steal. ;) Here is a picture of some of our student turkeys! After they presented their turkeys to the class the students completed a writing assignment about their turkeys--what they are disguised as, where we would find them, and why they had fun disguising them!
I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving! :)
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