Holiday Jitters

I've always thought teaching on the day before a holiday break would be stressful because of kids just being so excited that they don't care about anything (which is basically a recollection of my elementary days).  BUT - my teacher is so awesome.  We did a ton of "fun" activities today, but they were all very purposeful and I could tell the kids were still learning a lot!

 

My teacher had a script for them to act out The Mayflower scene with the Pilgrims consisting of the Separatists and the Strangers.  As you can see by the constumes above, we had a Separatist couple, the governor, two teenage girls, the ship captain, etc.  We also had our "Chief Squanto" who was waiting for them at the Americas (with his bow and arrow) to teach them how to plant corn.

My teacher even had them experience the meager rations of a pilgrim on The Mayflower - one melba toast cracker, a small piece of beef jerky, a cube of cheese, and 5 kernels of corn.  

Teacher:"This is your food for the WHOLE day.  Would you eat it all right now or spread it out throughout the day?"

Student: "I'd spread it out so I'm not hungry later!"

Teacher: "Where would you keep it?"

Now the kids start to look puzzled and you hear all sorts of answers: under my hat, under my pillow (my teacher says, "oh you think pilgrims had their own pillows?"), in a storage closet (my teacher says, "you think your friend isn't going to see you put it in there and come steal it because he's just as hungry as you are?").  She totally got them thinking and I loved how concrete she made that idea for them - that this was not an easy journey.  

After some turkey math money games and "turkey travels across the United States" game, we finally made these:

 

Last year at Thanksgiving we made these, thanks to Heather for bringing all the supplies.  When my teacher told me we were making them I was shocked because I remembered how messy it was (and tricky too, for a bunch of us adults).  

But with a 5 minute model demonstration, these kids had it down and made some awesome turkeys!
seriously, like way better than mine (above)

And there you have it - just play on your kids' excitement and you'll have a blast!  Today was probably the most fun day I've been there!

We'll be in a cabin in the mountains (with no internet) until Sunday afternoon when we return home, so
have a
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

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