Giving Thanks, Turkey Art, Choice Time, Food, Native Americans and Pilgrims, and a Thanksgiving Dinner Surprise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

• At Large Group: 
• We have been studying Thanksgiving, food, and family this week.  We read books about Thanksgiving traditions and feeling thankful. 

We used our "Granny" puppet to tell this story. The kiddos always enjoy feeding Granny all the things in the story.

• We worked on color identification using feathers, a turkey cutout, and this song (tune of "Where is Thumbkin"):

•  We did several songs and fingerplays about turkeys. 

 Albuquerque Turkey

• At Small Group:·  
• We worked on our fine motor skills by creating several types of turkeys: pinecone, tape, coffee filter, and play dough. 

Many children chose to make Native Americans also.

 

• We used clothespins and numbered turkey cutouts to work on 1-to-1 correspondence & number identification. 

 

 

 

 

• We each drew a picture and wrote a page for our November classroom book: We are thankful.
• We created place mats with pictures of all our favorite Thanksgiving foods.

• At Choice Time:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

•  Discovery: We played with our Pilgrim and Native American tube people and tepee.

 

• Library: We added books about Thanksgiving and being thankful.
• Art Area: We used our imagination to create all kinds of turkey crafts. We also made a few keepsakes for our end of the year portfolios.
• Music Area: We listened to Native American music and songs about Thanksgiving.
• Cooking: We made apple & pumpkin pie in a cup. 

• At Planning & Recall:
• We did a Pilgrim & Native American picture sort and talked about the differences in clothing, houses, boats, hats, and shoes.

• We used Pilgrim & Native American number puzzles and matching games.

• We traced and cut out our hands to add feathers to our big classroom turkey on the refrigerator. We named him Tom. 

Rhyme Time!

• Several times a week we write out a rhyme on the dry erase board and read it together. This was their favorite because we got to act it out: 
• The brave little Pilgrim
  Went out in the wood
  Looking for a meal
  That would taste really good.
  First they picked cranberries
  Out in the bog.
  Then they saw a turkey
  Hiding in a log.
  Run fast little turkey.
  Run fast as you may.
  Or you will come to dinner
  On Thanksgiving Day!

Letter of the Day

• Each day we learn a different letter. Our letters for these two weeks were: G, H, I, J, K, & L. We identify the letter, the sound it makes, see who has the letter in their name, and brainstorm other words that start with the letter. The kiddos also enjoy trying to see what their names would sound like if they started with the letter.

 Thanksgiving Dinner

We had a delicious lunch of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, apples and cranberries, bread, stuffing, and milk. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for. Miss Katelynn gave them a big shock when she said she was thankful for the baby growing in her belly. The kiddos are really excited to watch her belly grow. :)

• We talked about what it means to be thankful this week. Here are a few ideas to inspire an attitude of  gratitude in your little ones:
• Say "Thank you." When "thank you’s" are a part of our vocabulary at home, a lifelong habit begins, even if it doesn't always stick at first. Writing thank you notes to people who help us are always appreciated.
• Create daily or weekly routines with the question: "What are you most thankful for today?" This can serve as a comforting routine at bedtime or at dinner. 
• Live it. Set an example and show appreciation by conveying you paid attention to real effort: "I can see you really tried to clean up your toys." or “You worked hard to draw that picture”.

 

Fairy Tales, Teamwork, Unexpected Days Off, and Choice Time Fun!

As our kiddos have been really into princesses, fairies, and superheroes, we decided to study fairy tales for a few weeks.

We started out with "The Three Little Pigs".

 The kiddos love using props help tell the story while we read. We love the printable masks on Sparklebox. We also printed little simple story books for each fairy tale we are studying. The kiddos took them home to read them to someone special. 

As we only had two days of school this week, the other fairy tale we studied was "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". 

We created a story map for our bulletin board in the library. The kiddos teamed up and drew different parts of the story. When they were finished drawing the pictures, Katelynn and I wrote down their words. 

At small group we used lacing cards for fine motor development and counting bears for patterning, counting, and classification. 

We read the story "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and talked about small, medium, and large. We carried this into our planning and recall where we used a small, medium, or large voice to talk.

The kiddos used tweezers to sort the pom poms in various ways (size and color).

Sorting into large, medium, and small bowls.

We also read:

After reading this story we used shoes to help us sort and classify.

We watched the Disney Silly Symphony version of this story. Before watching, our question of the day was "Do all stories have to have words?" This caused quite a big discussion. We told them they were about to watch a story without any words. They enjoyed trying to figure out the animals' feelings and gave their ideas of what they might be saying. It was a great experience. :)

We ended fairy tale week by using our story telling dice to create our own stories. Many of the kiddos used our blank books in the writing area to illustrate their own books and then asked us to help them write the words.

At choice time we had a wonderful "teamwork" moment. We added a new cardboard house to our dramatic play area. ALL the friends planned to play there at choice time so we had a class meeting about it before we played. We asked them what they thought would happen if everyone played in the house at the same time. They told us it would break. So we asked them to figure out how to play so it wouldn't break. The kiddos decided the "rules" all on their own: how many kids in the house at a time, how long they would play in the house, we should set a timer, we need a sign up sheet, we can play somewhere else until it is our turn. Their plan worked very well and the house is still intact. 

The sign up sheet.

This house was used for retelling a lot this week, too.

Our boys decided to get creative with the linking chains and "lock the girls out". With four boys and twelve girls I can't say I blame them. ;)

We put out new play dough and cutters.

The bears were a big hit and many kiddos continued on into choice time.

 

The library was very popular this week.

Our little builder this week. She was very focused.

We built a lot of different kinds of castles this week.

She chose to color in her "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" book.

Playing with the Native American and Pilgrim tube people.

Some "banking time" with Miss Katelynn.

Our new bird feeder - Thanks Mom!

The kiddos have enjoyed watching for birds.