Thanksgiving Learning

 

We took the week off from official MFW K school, but we still spent a little time learning about Thanksgiving.  It disappoints me that Thanksgiving is often an overlooked holiday, and I want to make sure that my children have a basic understanding of its origins.  I also want them to recognize how many blessings we have, both material & spiritual.

The boys started by snuggling together in bed with Mommy one morning and watching the Mayflower Voyage (Charlie Brown) on YouTube.  It’s split into two parts; here’s part one, and you can link to part two HERE:

Later in the day, we read The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving and talked about what we’d seen on the video and read in the book.

After reading the book, Alex was quiet for a bit.  Then he spoke some very interesting words…”Mommy, when WE aren’t allowed to pray anymore, will WE get on a boat and sail to a new land?” 

After lunch, we put Jensyn down for her nap.  The boys and I worked on the Thanksgiving Preschool Pack together at the table.

Each boy could choose whichever pages he wanted to do.  I didn’t have any preset plans – it was just whatever looked most appealing to them!  It was very interesting to me to see which activities they chose.

We’ll let Max (3 yrs,  3 months) go first today, since Alex is first in our MFW K posts:

Max started with shadow matching, which is really getting too easy for him.  It won’t be long before Jensyn takes over this activity!

Then he moved on to puzzle cards. 
He struggled with the cornucopia, but the rest were easy.

Count & Color
Max *LOVES* to count.  He counts things all day long.  He was counting the floor tiles at the grocery store recently!  He wanted to “color” with a dot marker on this day.  I told him the number to count, and he did the rest.

 

Do-A-Dot turkey & corncucopia

Circle the one that’s the same size – he had to concentrate, but he could do it!

 

Prewriting…if he’s in the mood, he follows the lines perfectly.  He did a GREAT job today!
He did one with a green pen, and he did the other with a dot marker.

Sorting people and food, gluing into the correct boxes.  I drew a smiley face in the people box & an apple in the food box.  I cut out the pieces for Max, explained how to sort them, and he did the rest perfectly.

 

circle what’s different – another success

Moving on to Alex (4 yrs, 10 months)

The first activity Alex wanted to try was the count & match cards. 

 

After that, he grabbed the (way-too-easy) 1 – 10 dot-to-dot page.

 

On to Finish The Pattern.  He got the hang of patterns about a month ago,
and he LOVES to complete patterns now!

   

Counting with Ordinal Numbers

If I say, “Circle the FOURTH pumpkin” or “Circle the NINTH Native American”, he knows just what to do. C an’t trick him with those crazy ordinal numbers ;)

 

Alphabet Maze – he is LOVING these!

cutting practice – he perfectly cut every line, which surprised me, as he usually gets aggrevated with cutting during our typical school time.

So…that was school this week.  I’d planned to do a turkey craft, writing one thing we’re thankful for on each turkey feather, but it never got beyond planning it.  I just wasn’t on the ball this week!

We had a terrific Thanksgiving, and we enjoyed two extra evenings with extended family as well.  I hope each of you (Americans, anyway…) had a wonderful Thanksgiving!