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!

Read more »

Vickie

I absolutely love this time of year! The kids are in a great routine, the weather is cooler, and tons of fun holiday festivities are happening! I especially love November in the classroom. There are just so many fun things to teach and creative ways to teach our standards with the help of the Pilgrims and Native Americans!
We started by reading one of my favorite books {I tried to find it on Amazon and I think it's not in print any longer, but it's worth getting a used copy!}.

It is such a sweet story of a little girl trying to figure out her mom's most thankful thing {I cry reading it every year!}. After we read the story, we charted what our most thankful things are, then made these turkeys to hold our writing. I've been making the turkeys since I was student teaching and I'm pretty sure the idea came from a Mailbox magazine.

Then, we started learning all about the Pilgrims and their voyage to a new land. We read this book, which has a TON of information!

Then, we did a little shared writing where we wrote what life on the Mayflower was like. We used our shared writing to do independent writing that we attached to our Mayflowers.

Then, we talked about what one thing we would take with us on the Mayflower, and made a little suitcase {the writing is from Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Unit}

We read further in the book to find out what daily life was like for the Pilgrims. My kids loved learning about Pilgrim children {they couldn't believe Pilgrim boys wore dresses until they were 6!}. We made a group graphic organizer, then the kids used it to help them with their independent writing about Pilgrims.

We also read The Littlest Pilgrim {another great story} and talked character traits. The kids came up with words that described Mini, but they had to give me evidence from the story to support their adjective. They did great! We also made a super easy Mini craft {thanks to Cara Carroll!}

To round out our week, we made butter! I first showed the kids the whipping cream and asked them to predict what would happen if we put it in a jar and shook it.

Then, we started shaking. I let my kids take turn shaking the jar while we counted to 20. They were amazed when it made butter!

Of course, we had to have a taste test! I just gave everyone a half of a piece of bread with butter spread on it. We tasted, then graphed whether we liked it or not. For this graph, I let the kids tell me what they noticed about the data instead of telling them what I wanted to find...it made for great math conversation!

For our centers, I'm using most out of this pack I made last year. I'm frantically working on an additional ELA pack, but it is slow going!

And just for fun, we've been reading in a teepee {and yes I know the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving did not live in them, but it's for sheer fun!}. The kids love it every year!! My granddad made the base from bamboo 11 years ago when I started teaching, then I let my first class decorate 2 sheets to wrap around it.

 I hope to be back this week to show you the math we've been doing with our Thanksgiving unit...the kids have loved it!

Read more »

Vickie