It has been a super busy month since I last posted! Time is flying by and we are accomplishing so much but I just haven't found time to take pictures and document it all here on the blog. We celebrated Thanksgiving over the last couple of days and I did get some pictures so I can show you how we learned about the first Thanksgiving feast!

Here's a peak at our day.....
My awesome husband helped me make this Mayflower for my students to "ride" in! He works for a shipping company and was able to get large pieces of cardboard they usually throw out. We used that and some duck tape to create the structure.
You can see all the tape here! We also had a cardboard tube that we used to make the mast, and cut a sail out of poster board. It was really not to hard to make. It just took some time to get it all taped together. We wrapped brown craft paper (that is used to wrap packages for mailing) all the way around the outside of the boat once it was done and secured it with brown duck tape around the top.
My students were so excited when they walked in and saw the boat on Monday morning! I inherited costumes from previous teachers who had left them. Each child had a hat/bonnet and collar on their desk that they put on. I also put out beads for making a retelling bracelet that they would work on until everyone arrived.


I used Monica Schroeder's The Thanksgiving Story unit. It is amazing, we had so much fun reading the story and acting it out. It definitely made the story come to life for my students. I adapted it slightly as we only had one boat, but the entire unit was wonderful.

Boarding passes were waiting, along with a "quill"  to sign the ship log before they got on the boat!


The boarding passes have different things written on the back that students will act out, such as being sick, building a house, looking for corn. They all come from the story, so student listen and act out their part as I read aloud. I bought the kindle version of the book so I could project it as I read too.

I played a sound clip of ocean waves, and we all took sail!

Don't they look so excited to have found land!!

After our trip we used several activities from Stephanie Steward's All About Thanksgiving Unit! Another great resource. We created this graph "would you ride on the Mayflower" everyone said yes they would have, even with all the trials, they would want freedom!

We made this Mayflower Munchies snack to eat while we watched the tour of the Mayflower from Scholastic's Thanksgiving Resources.


We made suitcases and told what three things we would take with us on the Mayflower and why (this activity is from Stephanie's pack).

For our read aloud I read "Squanto and The Miracle Of Thanksgiving" and we discussed the role the Native American's played in the pilgrims success in the new world. We made these headbands to wear to our feast that the entire school would participate in on Tuesday.
They enjoyed hanging out in the boat the rest of the day, reading and doing math centers!
I gathered several great math centers for us to use! Roll - a - Pilgrim, Turkey Trot, Addition Bump, Place Value Pup, and Five in a Row are all TPT freebies! We loved them!! Thanks to all the wonderful teachers who shared there resources, I appreciate them so much!

During social studies we talked about the trip the pilgrims made, we reconstructed their route on the ocean with these fun interactive maps (from Stephanie's All About Thanksgiving Pack). We also watched the Brainpop video about Thanksgiving and took the quiz! These are always a huge hit.

We had a wonderful day Monday, and Tuesday we celebrated at a huge feast with the entire school!
This tree has over 200 leaves handing on it. Each student wrote something they were thankful for on a leaf and put them on the tree. Students of all grade levels were seated together and we were served a wonderful meal. I am so thankful for my school and the chance we had to give thanks together! 

Thanks for reading my blog. Over the next few weeks I have several posts planned to share what we are doing to celebrate Christmas, and some new free resources will be coming your way! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

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