Thursday, November 15, 2012

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!

9 comments:

  1. Awesome activities!!! Thanks for sharing!
    Mrs. Thigpen's Kindergarten

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  2. The cookie/candy turkeys look delicious!!! Thanks for the tip about looking at the Scholastic website for Thanksgiving resources. I'm going to check it out.
    Connie Anderson
    www.welcometofirstgraderoom5.blogspot.com

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  3. Thank you so much! I am trying to print out the My Thanksgiving Vocabulary book and I am having trouble with the font. When it prints, the letters are squished together and overlapping. I was seeing if you had any suggestions on what to do. Thanks

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  4. Hi! First double check that your Adobe is up to date. It does weird things - like printing squares - when it hasn't been updated. (there may be an update available even if you haven't been prompted to download it yet) Then also try printing it differently. Instead of choosing File -> Print from the top, hover your mouse over the page and a little printer icon will appear at the bottom. Click that to print instead and see if it works.

    Let me know either way and I'll try to email it to you if that doesn't help! :)

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  5. That worked, thanks! I don't usually use Adobe, but updated and opened in it and it printed fine.

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  6. I can't find where to download the vocab book. :( Help?

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    Replies
    1. Just click on the image of the cover that says "My Thanksgiving Vocabulary" right below the photographs. It'll take you to Google Docs & the free download. ;)

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  7. Thank you so much for the vocab book! I am going to use it for a Thanksgiving unit study with my 1st grader and pk-er.

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Thanks for the comments! {like virtual hugs}

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