More Fall Fun...Día de Acción de Gracias (Día del pavo)

    Thanksgiving was really fun this year. Most of my students had no idea why we celebrate Thanksgiving and who the Pilgrims were, so we started with two days of lessons on the Mayflower, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag, and then the Thanksgiving Feast. We used Scholastic's amazing Thanksgiving resources, including the Tour of the Mayflower, Daily Life, and the Thanksgiving Feast. With extra time we also watched the webcast virtual field trips of Plimouth Plantation. I highly recommend taking advantage of all the free resources Scholastic has to offer!
    I also made a Power Point Presentation (saved here as a PDF) in to reinforce what we had learned about the Pilgrim's journey on the Mayflower in Spanish. I used the lesson ideas from Scholastic as well as their interviews with a passenger in this Power Point. Please feel free to download it from me, and use it alongside Scholastic's resources.

This is the title page of the PowerPoint Presentation I made in Spanish to supplement the Scholastic resources on Thanksgiving. You can download it free from the link in the paragraph above. Enjoy!

    After we went through the PowerPoint, I had the students make their own postcards, imagining that they were Pilgrims sailing on the Mayflower. They were really cute and the students really got into the pretending. I gave each student one of the postcard templates and asked them to write a letter to a friend or family member they would have left behind in England or Holland. I wanted them to write about how they were feeling during their trip on the Mayflower. They included conditions of the trip, dreams about life in America, and reflections on leaving home to travel to the unknown. My students never cease to impress me with their thought and creativity.

Download the postcard templates via the link in the paragraph above. I had my students draw a picture of them as a pilgrim on the Mayflower on the opposite side of the postcard.

Once we learned about the history of Thanksgiving, it was time to celebrate! We made Rice Krispie Treat Turkeys and turkey head hats. I found the turkey hat idea, again, on Pinterest but originally from Oriental Trading Co. They were easy for the students to make as an art center, and these hats offered a nice break from the Pilgrim/Native Americans hats.

Ok, well that's enough Thanksgivng for May! I'll see you all soon....really, I swear!