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!

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Vickie

Whew! We had our Thanksgiving lunch today and I am wiped out! It's so much fun though and I hope to blog about it this weekend!
I had hopes of sharing some additional ideas for Thanksgiving last week, but my sweet girl turned 2 and I was a little preoccupied. She's 2 y'all - officially a big girl and not a baby :(.

At school, we've continued hitting our standards hard, but with a Thanksgiving flair! In math, we used corn to practice our one-to-one correspondence while adding 1 more and also to practice making 10 {love this activity from Kelley Dolling!!}.

We also worked on making 10 by doing a shake and spill activity with feathers. I copied feathers on yellow and red paper, glued them together, cut them, and put 10 in a cup. Then, we shook them, spilled them, and sorted them by color. The kids colored the turkey feathers to represent the feathers we spilled, then we made the equation to match.

We also made this little turkey from my November pack to practice ordering numbers {and can I just say praise Jesus...everyone did it right the first time!!}.

This week, we've been learning all about turkeys. This book is a great informational book that the kids loved!

After reading, we made a turkey tree map {and made some cutie turkeys to hold them} and also labeled the parts of a turkey.

We also talked about what we tell people to eat if we were turkeys and made these little guys {sorry the writing is a little hard to see!}.

As a surprise, Mr. Golden {my friend Deeanna's husband} brought the feathers, beard, and feet/spurs from a turkey their son killed years ago. The kids loved getting to see it up close and personal!

Another skill we've continued to work on is sequencing. We read I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie and A Turkey for Thanksgiving and sequenced both. The kids love these stories! {You can get them in my sequencing bundle or in the Thanksgiving sequence pack}.

Something else we do every year is have the kids work with their family to decide an Indian name. We use this name as part of our Thanksgiving lunch, but we also use it to make these little guys {I think my friend Deeanna made this one of her very first years of teaching - over 20 years ago}.

We've got 2 more days this week and then we get the whole week of Thanksgiving off {we haven't had a break since Labor Day!!}. I can't wait to bundle up in my PJs and watch some Hallmark movies!

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Vickie