November in Pictures

As much as I wanted to be a good blogger this month, the reality is, that November is super busy for me, and it just didn't happen.
This sweet girl turned 3 last week!! Y'all, 3 has been hard for me! It seems like she was just born!

At school, we have been busy with all things Thanksgiving. We pretty much celebrate the whole month of November! We start by reading and learning about the Pilgrims' voyage on the Mayflower.

After talking about the Mayflower voyage, the kids thought about what they would take on a trip if they could only take one thing. It was a hard decision! {This recording page is from Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving pack}

 We also read about what Pilgrim life was like when they got to America, and we compare our life today with life back then. {You can get these labels at Chalk Talk}.

As part of our learning about Pilgrim life, we make our own butter. The kids always love this, and it's super easy. Just pour some heavy whipping cream in a mason jar and let the kids take turns shaking it. In about 10 minutes, you've got butter!

We tasted our butter, then graphed whether we liked it or not. After each child gave their opinion, I let the kids tell me what they noticed about our data, and wrote what they said. Then, we made a bar graph to represent our picture graph. You can grab the graphs here as a freebie. :)

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim, and talked about Mini's character traits. This is such a sweet story, and I love these cute little Mini crafts {these are from the so sweet Cara Carroll}.

After learning about the Pilgrims journey to America, we learned about the Native Americans who helped them during their first year. For homework, my kids decided on a Native American name for themselves, then we made these cute Native Americans.

This week, we've learned all about turkeys. My kids have learned so much!

We read Turkey Surprise, and decided what we would tell people to eat for Thanksgiving if we were turkeys.

We also read Run, Turkey, Run and brainstormed places a turkey could run to not get eaten. They were so funny!

Another story we read was A Turkey for Thanksgiving. If you don't have this story, you need it! It's precious, and great for practicing retelling. {This activity is part of my Thanksgiving Sequencing pack}.

 Of course during this month, we've been talking a lot about what we're thankful for. We made these turkeys {that I think I got from The Mailbox oh so long ago} and added what we were most thankful for.

Last, we made these sweet turkey handprints as a gift to our families. These are such a precious reminder of their kindergarten Thanksgiving. You can grab a copy of it here.

Whew - that was a lot of pictures! I love this time of year, and I can't believe it's almost December!