Our Thanksgiving Story

After our Thanksgiving puppet show, the children had a lot to say about Thanksgiving!

Here are their words…

“A long time ago, maybe forty years ago, the Pilgrims came to town! They were so mad. They wanted to leave the other land. So they were homeless. But then they came so close to us! Massachusetts!”

“The Pilgrims went to the boat then they went from the boat to visit the Native Americans.”

“They left England to go to their favorite new home America. They came from England. It was raining. It was a cloudy day!”

“The Native Americans looked different from the Pilgrims. They had different shoes, clothes and hats.”

“They showed them how to plant corn seeds and they thanked them for doing that. They were trying to help them.”

“They all played gently together. They were so happy they were friends. They were all doing their best.”

“The Pilgrims gardened and helped to get nice Thanksgiving food.”

“Native Americans said to the Pilgrims, “Let's plant some food!” because they needed more food for lots of dinner.”

“They called that dinner Thanksgiving.”

“They ate some food and they had so much fun! They came to America because they wanted to see the children and grown ups with arrows.”

“We celebrate Thanksgiving with all the good food in the world.”

“Like baked beans, corn and broccoli!”

“Then they had berries and turkey and bread.”

“Turkeys are like one big chicken!”

“You have turkey and have to be really thankful for somebody. We are thankful to be happy and for everybody we are friends with!”

Thanksgiving Song

(to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star)
Lyrics:

Let's be thankful for this day,

For our friends and our play.

Let's be thankful, let's be glad,

For our food and the things we have.

Let's give thanks for you and me,

And our home and family.

The Turkey Song:

Have you ever seen a turkey, a turkey, a turkey,

Who struts around the farmyard with feathers so bright?

With red ones and orange ones and yellow ones and brown ones,

Did you ever see a turkey with feathers so bright?

More "All About Me" in The Friends Room

We have been working hard in The Friends Room to earn beads for our Safe and Friendly Jar! We have been brainstorming ways to earn beads in our jar.

Here are some of our ideas…

1.  Making sure we have a quiet, peaceful snack by only talking to friends sitting with us at our table

2.  Walking quietly down the stairs

3.  Walking quietly up the stairs

4.  Helping friends clean up toys and spills

Our jar is filling up quickly and we are excited to celebrate all our hard work with a party!

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room is:

-Implementing all our jobs (line leader, caboose, door holder, pet helper, calendar helper, snack helper, meteorologist and counter) 

-Making pie charts to represent our favorite colors

-Discussing how we get to school

-Talking about the members of our immediate and extended families

-Comparing New York City to other places such as, the beach, a small town or the mountains

-Comparing our heights 

-Talking about our features (hair color, eye color and skin tone)

-Thinking about what we want to be when we grow up

-Having a show and tell

-Discussing Thanksgiving and what we’re thankful for

  

During activity time The Friends Room is:

-Sorting magnets  

-Making collages using our favorite color

-Drawing a picture of our favorite thing to do

-Decorating our bodies

-Writing our own stories with our friends

-Making a menu for and dining in our Friends Room Restaurant

-Using liquid watercolor to decorate our restaurant’s tablecloth

-Making fall watercolor paintings

-Working on both table top and floor puzzles

-Pattern block geometric designs

-Free painting

-Making houses with photos of who lives in our home 

The Friends Room is Singing:

The Hokey Pokey

The Sleepy Train Song

I’m In The Mood For Singing

Bingo

Bingo with our own names  

The Turkey Song

Lyrics:

A turkey is a funny bird, it’s head goes wobble wobble. A turkey says just one funny word: gobble, gobble, gobble!

The Color Caterpillar Song (to the tune of Mama’s Gonna Buy You a Mocking Bird)

Lyrics:

Circle purple, circle blue, circle green and yellow too. Circle orange, circle red, circle smiling above my head.

Come and count the colors with me. How many colors do you see?

1, 2, 3, down to green, 4, 5, 6 colors can be seen.

Circle purple, circle blue, circle green and yellow too. Circle orange, circle red, circle smiling above my head.

The Friends Room is reading:

Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

Lunch by Denise Fleming

The Little Rabbit Who Liked To Say Moo by Johnathan Allen

Don’t Wake Up The Bear by Marjorie Dennis Murray

On Mother’s Lap by Ann Herbert Scott

Maisy Drives The Bus by Lucy Collins

School Bus by Donald Grews  

The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone

Chicken Soup With Rice by Maurice Sendack

Thanksgiving Is For Giving Thanks by  

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes 


When comparing New York City to the beach, the country side and the mountains here's what we had to say about... 

New York City

-“We live in New York City.”

-“I see a little bit of trees in New York City.”

-“We live in an apartment. We were in a house in Cape Cod. The house was bigger because there was more space there.”

-“There are skyscrapers in New York City.”

-“A lot of people live in New York City.”

-“A lot of buildings are in New York City. I live in New York City. This is New York City. I know there’s a Met Museum.”

The Beach

-“The beach has sand. New York doesn’t.”

-“New York City has different smells.”

-“New York doesn’t have an ocean.”

-“I went to a mall by the beach. It was different. You swim and make a sand man there!”

-“I walked on the beach with daddy. There is no beach in New York City.”

-“Maybe they take Jeeps or boats in the water there.”

The Country

-“It looks like a cliff.  Maybe a train goes through the grass.”

-“Less people live in a town than New York City.”

-“Mountains are different.”

-“There are no buildings in the country.”

-“North Carolina has grass. I walk to a lot of different places in New York City. I drive in North Carolina.”

All About Me!

We have introduced our Friends Room Safe and Friendly Jar. Now that we have created and signed our classroom contract, we are adding beads to our jar when we notice friendly, safe and kind behavior. When we fill up our jar, we will be celebrating with a party!

The following songs, books and activities have been spread out amongst the AM and PM sessions.

During meeting time The Friends Room is:

Continuing our “All About Me” unit

Discussing emotions and how we express them

Exploring differences and similarities in height, skin tone, eye color, hair color and texture

During activity time The Friends Room is:

-Playing in our sand table

-Celebrating Diwali and decorating clay diyas

-Making Oobleck

-Tracing our bodies and preparing to decorate them

-Celebrating Halloween with The Rainbow Room

-Observing our faces in a mirror and drawing self-portraits

-Painting with marbles

-Using leaf stamps

-Color mixing

-Writing cards to our families for Parent Night

-Collaging vases with tissue paper for Parent Night

-Observing our features and making self-portrait collages

-Playing emotion bingo

-Talking about and drawing pictures of what make us feel happy, sad or angry

-Graphing our eye color

-Completing body part puzzles

The Friends Room has been rehearsing our favorite songs for parent night:

-Tingaleo

-Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light

-We Are The Dinosaurs

-The Itsy Bitsy and Great Big Spider

-Come on and Sing

The Friends Room is Singing:

My Body Is So Musical

Lyrics:

My body, my body, my body is so musical.

Your body, your body, your body can make music too!

My hands they like to clap, clap, clap.

My feet they like to tap, tap, tap.

My mouth likes saying la, la la.

My hips they do the cha cha cha.

My body, my body, my body is so musical.
Your body, your body, your body can make music too!

The Friends Room is reading:

Bad Dog, Marley! by John Grogan

The 3 Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone

I like Myself!  by Karen Beaumont

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae

Ska-tat! by Kimberley Knutson

Mad At Mommy! by Komoko Sakai

Fletcher and The Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson

On Halloween Night by Harriet Ziiefert 

3 Little Pigs by Paul Galdone

The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams