Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so excited that there are only a few days left until Thanksgiving break!  Do you get the whole week off or only a few days?  We will be at school on Monday & Tuesday but do you want to know a secret?  I'm okay with that.  Because it is the perfect amount of time to do pilgrim & native american theme days!!  :)

I just made all of my copies & put our vocabulary books together today.  It's one of my favorite Thanksgiving activities because it makes the kids recall information about the 1st Thanksgiving but it also makes them really think about all of the new vocabulary!

Click on the title page for your free copy...word bank included.  Students fill in the vocabulary words then draw a picture to illustrate the fact on each page.  Go ahead and do this as a class.  :)

And what's a fun holiday celebration without a festive treat?!  :)  Oreos, Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, Candy Corn, Whoppers and frosting needed.  First, split the Oreo.

Spread frosting on the "clean" cookie half and stick it into the frosting side.

 Add a Reese's mini to the frosting for the body.

Add candy corn to the frosting for feathers.

Use frosting to stick a Whopper {any malted milk ball} to the Reese's cup for a head.

There you have...a candy turkey!!  :)  You can add a red hot for the snood {ie the red wobbly thing over the beak} but the kids typically spit those out so I've decided to skip that step!

Also, dear friends, please please do yourselves a favor and check out Scholastic for your Thanksgiving units.  Their website has phenomenal Thanksgiving resources.  Check out the parts of the Mayflower {while wearing your pilgrim bonnet if you so choose!}...

 ...learn how the passengers of the Mayflower felt and research all they had to do while traveling...

 ...chart the journey of the Mayflower across the map...

...and take some virtual field trips through the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation!  Your students will totally understand what it was like to make the trip.  If you will teach anything about the 1st Thanksgiving, you have to let Scholastic help you!

I've also updated my Thanksgiving venn diagram.  Thank you for the reminders!  ;)  Instead of putting the current year, I just put "Thanksgiving today" so you can keep a copy in your file to use year after year.  Click for your free download.

Happy feasting!