A week and a half of Thanksgiving

We had a total of 7 days to cover Thanksgiving once we were done with Veterans Day. That's not a whole lot of time to cover everything and make sure our little kinders really understand, but we did the best we could!

We started by learning to retell the Thanksgiving story with some picture clues.

Once the kids were good at retelling they made bead bracelets to assist with their storytelling. Each bead stands for an element in the Thanksgiving story.

We made these cute books with pictures to help us tell the story of Thanksgiving:

I forgot to take a picture of the front of the book, but it was a handprint turkey.

We learned all about Pilgrims and how their lives were different from ours.

We learned about Native Americans and their customs, Made headbands and money pouches (complete with seashells to represent early money)

 We made Squanto's snack (oreos crushed to represent dirt, goldfish and candy corn to represent corn and fish) You plant and then eat! Then we sequenced the order of events to make and eat the snack and wrote out the steps in order.

We created a pie graph showing how many of us like to eat turkey and how many don't. The kids colored a coin with either "yes" or "no" and then we put them in a circle and drew lines between the two groups. The kids had fun coloring in the graph then we added it to a big turkey on our bulletin board. After we did a class survey and the kids made their own pie charts.

Made Turkey Glyphs:

Read Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving reader, then sang it, and sequenced it! After the kids made their own easy reader - but I forgot a pic!

Sorted how the first thanksgiving was different than a current day thanksgiving

Made a list of things we are thankful for:

Read and Sequenced "I know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Pie":

Perfect practice with ordinal numbers!

Finger painted Indian Corn:

did lots of journal writing and math prompts:

Math Centers:

Literacy Centers:

Books We Read This Week (and a half!):

These Activities are from:

Melissa Freshwater's Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers

Deanna Jump's Thanksgiving Pack

First Grade Blue Skies Let's Make a Pilgrim! 

Free Downloads from: Lil Country Kindergarten, Eberhearts Explorers, Growing Kinders

A few of my favorite (Fall) Things....

This summer, I discovered TPT and was introduced to a whole new world. In the beginning I was very overwhelmed by all the different units and didn't really know which sellers were good. If you are new to TPT like I was and are wondering what is worth the money, here are some of my favorites. I have not been disappointed by anything I"ve gotten from Deanna Jump, Julie Lee, Melissa Freshwater, Kim Adsit, or Growing Kinders. After using many of the units available with my class this fall here are some I really recommend:

(click on the picture to be taken to the TPT store)

Back To School:
By Deanna Jump (for math journals)
By Deanna Jump (whole group)
By Deanna Jump & Julie Lee (centers)

Colors:
By Deanna Jump (whole group)
By Julie Lee (centers)


Apples:
By Julie Lee (for centers)
By Deanna Jump (for whole group)

Monsters:

By Julie Lee (for centers)
and By Deanna Jump (for whole group)

Columbus Day:
By Kim Adsit (mostly whole group)

Spiders:
By Julie Lee (for centers)
By Deanna Jump (for whole group)


Pumpkins:
By Julie Lee (for centers)

Halloween: 
By Deanna Jump (Whole Group)
By Julie Lee (centers)
By Deanna Jump (whole group)

Fall:
By Deanna Jump (for math journals)
By Deanna Jump & Julie Lee (for centers)

50s Day:
By Growing Kinders (for centers)
By Deanna Jump (whole group) FREE


Veterans:
By Deanna Jump (For Whole Group)
By Melissa Freshwater (for centers)


Thanksgiving: 
By Melissa Freshwater (For Centers)
By Deanna Jump (For Whole Group)

Check them out!