Thanksgiving Party

Last Tuesday, we had several children over for a Thanksgiving party. It was a fun day! I centered the activities around two different books... Albert's Thanksgiving and a book about Squanto (which I can't seem to find on Amazon). The first book is about a school getting ready for a big Thanksgiving feast and a bunch of chores that need to be done before the big event. I had the kids do all of the "chores" for the activites (set up the table, make turkeys, make pilgrim hats, collect leaves and decorate the table, and make pumpkin pizzas). Then while they were eating their pumpkin pizzas, I started the book about Squanto. We went outside to "do what Squanto did" ...plant corn with fish (goldfish) and hunt for animals (in a pile of hay).


Making Turkeys... The turkeys were made from tracing and cutting out shapes of the kids' hands and feet.
Making Pilgrim hats (the boys made the hats and the girls made the bonnets)

Making Pumpkin Pizzas...

Planting corn... Squanto taught the Pilgrims to put fish next to their corn so that the corn would grow well. The kids each got a few kernels of popcorn and a couple goldfish to plant.

Hunting... Squanto taught the Pilgrims to hunt. The kids "hunted" for animals (toys, stickers, and baggies of animal crackers) in the forest (a pile of hay).

Thanksgiving Tree... We closed our day with each of the kids taking a leaf off of our Thanksgiving tree, writing (and telling us about) what they were thankful for, then putting their leaves back on the Thanksgiving tree poster at the base of the tree. Then Jimmy said a prayer.

A Pilgrim...
A Pilgrim with a turkey...