The weeks leading to Thanksgiving mark my favorite time of the year. I look forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with my students and then in my personal life, Christmas is everything. Yes, I decorate early. Twinkle lights make me happy, so don't come at me.
Now we're here and I am so ready!!
Tennessee has really been showing off this fall with the temperatures and gorgeous trees. It's had me in the autumn spirits for a while.
I like tying in holidays/seasons with our lessons because it's a really simple way to boost engagement. We were finishing up our unit on money and I noticed some common struggles among my class. I made this Thanksgiving money word problems resource to address those needs but add in a little element of fun.
The kids LOVED it. I will be honest, it was not easy for them. But the conversations it sparked caused a lot of lightbulbs to go off toward the end and they kept talking about how fun it was to plan their own dinner.
(Money Word Problems for 2nd Grade)
While they needed some support through the first and last page, they were able to show me that their strength lies in counting coins. This has helped me adapt my small groups to address their needs.
Overall, it was a hit and a rigorous task all in one.
Books! Oh man. I love fall themed books.
I have read the book In November for a few years now. It feels like a warm blanket and a cup of coffee and the illustrations just melt me. (Linked it if you want to check it out. You won't regret it. Promise.) This is one we just read together before leaving the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. No fancy activity or anything. Just enjoying a book. This year, I am adding a few new books! Thankful by Eileen Spinelli and Thanksgiving in the Woods by Phyllis Alsdurf. We will be in the middle of a narrative unit and I plan to use that to my advantage. Thanksgiving in the Woods is a beautiful story of a family who hosts a huge meal with neighbors of all backgrounds on their land in the woods. It highlights the importance of simply being together during the holiday season and appreciating our time with others. The illustrations are beautiful and the story is everything I would hope for in a Thanksgiving story. I am going to have the kids discuss what they think is most important about holidays (not limited to Thanksgiving). We will then write about a favorite holiday memory. Since we will be at the beginning of our narrative unit, I plan to save this writing for them to compare their final writing to when we finish the unit in December. Thankful is a very simple, poetic read about being thankful for the things that bring us joy. It shows that we all may be thankful for different things depending on our interests and lives, but gets to the point of the fact we all have something to be thankful for. We will read this before making our class thankful tree. Students will write what they are thankful for on leaves that we will add to a butcher paper tree that will stay on the wall until the end of 2021. We will also share our "Thankful Bags" at this time. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving I like to do a celebration with my class. These invitations will go home the week before. Unfortunately, parents can't join so I specify it is for the students of room # and will make this clear in messages to the parents as well. The invitations just make it feel special to the kids.
I buy table cloths and themed plates and napkins for the occasion. We push our desks into a "family table" (one long table) for the day and each student has a place setting. We will share our Thankful Bags (see the information for that below) and "pass the plate". Each student will have a paper plate with their name written on it. We then pass the plates around the table and everyone writes one nice thing to that person. We also write something nice about ourselves. With my 2nd graders, I just have them write an adjective and we display a list on the board. When I taught 3rd grade, they wrote actual notes to each other. I always participate in this, too. In the past, I've made a poster saying "I am thankful for..." and then I list each student by name and a unique positive quality about them. I'm thinking about writing cards to each student this year instead. I haven't decided yet.
We will make our Thankful tree and enjoy some chill time together discussing what we are thankful for.
(I attach this to a paper bag and send home with their invitation.) At the end of the day we watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and enjoy pie and a couple other snacks. I never put an emphasis on the "origin" of Thanksgiving because that's not really what we celebrate. We discuss it and I am always very truthful with my students about history. We don't brush over difficult topics and always talk about them in kid friendly terms. But this isn't our focus. Our focus for the holiday is appreciating each other and enjoying our time together. I'd love to hear how you celebrate with your class! Happy Holidays, everyone! Love, Erin, aka Miss Wells
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