Rockin Out in 4th Grade: Thanksgiving x 10!!!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Thanksgiving x 10!!!

2021 Edit: As I look back on my posts, I realize that some of the things I blogged about over the years, do not reflect accurate information. For example: Thanksgiving. I realize I could easily delete the parts that include false information, but I'm not going to do that at this time. I now know better. Please fact check everything with regards to Thanksgiving. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy some of the other activities we did with Thanksgiving.

To borrow words from Cara Carroll, Thanksgiving pretty much threw up in my classroom!

For the past three years, my Thanksgiving celebrations have become bigger and bigger. I think I outdid myself this year!

Where do I even begin??????

My firsties and I read Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times. We also read parts of Clambake: A Wampanoag Tradition. We discussed the wetu, (the Wampanoag home) and we talked about the Native Americans. We discussed and listed the parts of the wetu and what they were made of. The class was then divided up into 3 groups. Each group was given a piece of white butcher paper, shades of brown paper, and glue. They made their own wetu! Check it out!

Group 1: My group that figured out how to arrange the brown paper first.

Group 2: The group that collaborated the best!

Group 3: My perfectionist group:

After the wetus (I forget the plural name for it,) were completed, I put them in the hall. Students then worked on their Native Americans. We discussed how the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims - how they became friends. We then brainstormed a list of how we can be friends with someone new to our classroom. After their writing craft was done, I hung up the Natives with their wetu. Here are some pictures:

Next up were our cornucopias. Those were a BLAST to make! It tied in with us talking about fruits and vegetables / healthy eating. On the cornucopias, we wrote something we were thankful for.

Next up, it was Pilgrim time! My co-teacher read Samuel Eaton's Day and I read Sarah Morton's Day. The kids wrote about what it was like to be a Pilgrim Boy / Pilgrim Girl. I had a Mayflower I had created so I put it in the hall with the Pilgrims sailing on it! :-)

I meant to put "water" under the Mayflower but that didn't get done! (Also, no room for the sails!)

Thank you if you've made it this far. I'm closing in on the end!

Finally, we had our Thanksgiving Feast!

First we discussed table settings and the kids made table setting place mats:

Then we made little Mayflower name tags for where they were going to sit. (You'll see those pics in a minute!)

The kids wore costumes! Half of the students were Pilgrims, half were Native Americans! (They chose at random what they were going to be!) They created their costumes during art center.