The truth about the first Thanksgiving use to be completely lost on me. As a kid, I was taught about Pilgrims and Indians and my entire bank of knowledge about the matter was through what I learned in elementary school in the 70s. I've always liked Thanksgiving, mostly because it's not a gift-giving holiday and it's remained a day to set aside the daily grind, spend time with family and reflect upon that for which we are grateful. Back then, my entire extended family got together at my Aunt Helen's. My mom contributed pies and cheesecake while other members contributed the rest of the meal. There were cousins to play with and the Twilight Zone marathon to watch while we waited seemingly endless hours for dinner to be ready.
In years past, I've shied away from teaching about Thanksgiving, other than what we do for a "thankful" performance, because I don't want to pass along the myths as truth. Here is a link from National Geographic Kids that explains the origins of Thanksgiving: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/first-thanksgiving/ After reading through this, I felt better knowing I'd gotten what I do teach mostly right, with a few exceptions pertaining to dates.
So, with that said, I'd like to share what my team and I do for the month of November, since it's typically a month of minimum days, followed by a short week, and chopped up periods of time anyway. It's the perfect way to carve out that time to rehearse a performance!
A few years ago, a colleague found this book for sale at our library book fair. She thought it would make a great play, as it's an ABC book with facts about Thanksgiving. We set out to add music and poems throughout the story and voila! We now have a tradition.
In order for the kids to understand what it is they are saying in the performance, we used our GLAD strategies to teach about where the settlers came from, why (briefly) they left Europe, and what it was like for children. They can relate to that.
On our map of the world, I drew a symbol for the Mayflower and showed them how it left Europe, crossed the Atlantic, and landed in Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth.
Then I taught them about the ship itself. To prepare for the lesson, I google-imaged a diagram of the Mayflower, copied/pasted it into Microsoft Publisher, made a transparency, then used my overhead projector to project the image onto the board where I had chart paper taped up. I lightly sketched the ship in pencil. Thank you to whomever made that image available! Please note: if you currently have an overhead projector, keep it, because this technique doesn't work as well with a document camera. Just sayin'.
When it was time for the lesson, I used markers and talked my way through drawing the ship as they listened. I had my scouts watching for anyone who should get a learning award. After 10 minutes of teaching, they turned and talked (this is referred to as a "10/2" strategy, meaning you teach for 10 minutes, then let them talk about it for 2 minutes). The scouts awarded the good listeners and we moved on.
The next day, I passed out labels for reinforcement of academic vocabulary. They had to turn and talk for a few minutes, figure out what their labels said, what they meant, etc. We then reviewed the poster (really, it's just me and my Jedi knight pointer) and the lucky ones with the labels in their hands got to come up and stick them on.
When that was over, I told them they were now going to get to learn how to draw this ship! So I passed out paper and instructed them to get their black crayon out. "I don't have a black!" ensued, so once we got everyone the correct color (do they eat their crayons?!), we proceeded. It's so funny how nearly everything turns into an exercise in problem solving.
I started with the body of the ship, across the bottom, then up to the beak and told them do the same. When I'm drawing, I'm constantly referring to the vocabulary from the poster, encouraging them to go ahead and try, to make mistakes, enjoy the act of drawing and not be concerned with the final product. Otherwise, they'll never take the risk. This is also why I always have them draw in crayon, to avoid perfectionism. I love how each one turned out different!
To fill in any gaps, I read The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern, as I believe it comes closest to what is on the National Geographic Kids web page. It takes a closer look at how being on the Mayflower was for the children, who only had one set of clothes, shoes and no toys. Learning about hardship is not lost on many of them, as they all too often experience it themselves.
I really like it when I can point out the fact they were real people, not cartoon characters, and the native people were torn about them coming. I am, however, guilty of not teaching about the dishonesty and bad treatment that came the following year, though, and am not sure if first grade is the time for that.
So for now, since they are only 6 years old, they get to memorize lines, recite poems, and sing about how Thanksgiving in this country came about. We used songs from a Wolf Press play about Thanksgiving ("66 Days and 66 Nights" and "Our Trip to the New World"), several poems that we googled, some silly and some sentimental, and a Raffi song called "Thanks a Lot."
It's a bit stressful, but I keep telling myself over and over again, "It'll be fiiiiine!" Every time they sit on stage, practicing, but are talking and messing around, "It'll be fine," is my inner voice. Because, gratefully, it's always FINE! How can it not be?
In years past, I've shied away from teaching about Thanksgiving, other than what we do for a "thankful" performance, because I don't want to pass along the myths as truth. Here is a link from National Geographic Kids that explains the origins of Thanksgiving: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/first-thanksgiving/ After reading through this, I felt better knowing I'd gotten what I do teach mostly right, with a few exceptions pertaining to dates.
So, with that said, I'd like to share what my team and I do for the month of November, since it's typically a month of minimum days, followed by a short week, and chopped up periods of time anyway. It's the perfect way to carve out that time to rehearse a performance!
 |
| photo from amazon.com |
In order for the kids to understand what it is they are saying in the performance, we used our GLAD strategies to teach about where the settlers came from, why (briefly) they left Europe, and what it was like for children. They can relate to that.
On our map of the world, I drew a symbol for the Mayflower and showed them how it left Europe, crossed the Atlantic, and landed in Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth.
.JPG) |
| I made this map at the beginning of the year to teach about oceans. I will continue to add to it all year. |
When it was time for the lesson, I used markers and talked my way through drawing the ship as they listened. I had my scouts watching for anyone who should get a learning award. After 10 minutes of teaching, they turned and talked (this is referred to as a "10/2" strategy, meaning you teach for 10 minutes, then let them talk about it for 2 minutes). The scouts awarded the good listeners and we moved on.
 |
| I'm now seeing my errors. Are you? |
The next day, I passed out labels for reinforcement of academic vocabulary. They had to turn and talk for a few minutes, figure out what their labels said, what they meant, etc. We then reviewed the poster (really, it's just me and my Jedi knight pointer) and the lucky ones with the labels in their hands got to come up and stick them on.
When that was over, I told them they were now going to get to learn how to draw this ship! So I passed out paper and instructed them to get their black crayon out. "I don't have a black!" ensued, so once we got everyone the correct color (do they eat their crayons?!), we proceeded. It's so funny how nearly everything turns into an exercise in problem solving.
I started with the body of the ship, across the bottom, then up to the beak and told them do the same. When I'm drawing, I'm constantly referring to the vocabulary from the poster, encouraging them to go ahead and try, to make mistakes, enjoy the act of drawing and not be concerned with the final product. Otherwise, they'll never take the risk. This is also why I always have them draw in crayon, to avoid perfectionism. I love how each one turned out different!
To fill in any gaps, I read The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern, as I believe it comes closest to what is on the National Geographic Kids web page. It takes a closer look at how being on the Mayflower was for the children, who only had one set of clothes, shoes and no toys. Learning about hardship is not lost on many of them, as they all too often experience it themselves.
 |
| photo by amazon.com |
I really like it when I can point out the fact they were real people, not cartoon characters, and the native people were torn about them coming. I am, however, guilty of not teaching about the dishonesty and bad treatment that came the following year, though, and am not sure if first grade is the time for that.
So for now, since they are only 6 years old, they get to memorize lines, recite poems, and sing about how Thanksgiving in this country came about. We used songs from a Wolf Press play about Thanksgiving ("66 Days and 66 Nights" and "Our Trip to the New World"), several poems that we googled, some silly and some sentimental, and a Raffi song called "Thanks a Lot."
It's a bit stressful, but I keep telling myself over and over again, "It'll be fiiiiine!" Every time they sit on stage, practicing, but are talking and messing around, "It'll be fine," is my inner voice. Because, gratefully, it's always FINE! How can it not be?
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