Hey y'all,
Can you believe its already November? Before we know it Thanksgiving will be upon us! What types of things do you do in your homeschool as holidays approach? Do you do Thanksgiving themed art, or im thankful for..projects? Well below is a list of things that we do in our homeschool as we celebrate The upcoming Thankgiving holdiday and the many blessings we have.
We took some giant easel paper and drew a turkey, we spent time coloring it in with markers. Than we cut out 30 colorful "feathers" out of construction paper. Every day my children write what they are thankful for on a feather and glue it to our turkey. Its amazing to see the big and little things they write on their feathers. Things I never even knew they truly appreciated. Its such a fun and rewarding project.
2. In elementary school my children of course learned about the first Thanksgiving. They talked about the 3 sisters and the Native Americans befriending the Pilgrams. However, yesterday I had my girls research in detail more about the first Thanksgiving. and then write a comparison betweenThanksgiving in 1621 vs Thanksgiving present day 2021.
They actually learned a lot and enjoyed the assignment.
They mentioned how William Bradford requested a day of fasting and prayer due to the rain, they leaned that although Thanksgiving is a secular holdiday even 400 years ago it had many Christian links, in the sense that people were thanking God for the rain he supplied them.
3. As part of Math and science I plan on having the girls make boats. be it popcicle sticks, twigs, twine, paper, etc. They will be our "Mayflowers" we will then put them in the tub and test out their ability to float.
I think the girls will love this one, using their hands, having fun and being creative. All while problem solving and coming up with reasoning to back their methods. Its like learning without them even realizing it lol.
4. An oldie but goodie is always the finger painting of our hand turkeys. Place your childs hand in brown paint and lay it upon a sheet of paper. Their hand creates the Turkeys body. Then have them use their finger tip, dip it in to various colors of pain (one color at a time) to make the beautiful feathers of your turkey. You can always ask your child what they are thankful for and once the paint dries write it in each finger of the turkeys body.
5. We are learning about diffrent poetry methods, be it couplet or arostic. My daughter wrote an Arostic poem spelling out Turkey, the other did Pilgrims. There are so many options and creative ways to write poetry that has to do with the many blessings this time of year.
6.Creative writing assignments with writing promps like...If i were at the first Thanksgiving how would you describe it? What does Thankgiving mean to you? Would you have prefered to be a pilgrim or Native American at the first Thanksgiving?
7. Have your children find a recipe for a food that you can help make for Thanksgiving dinner. They can make a pie, mashed potatoes, green bean cassorole, anything they wish. Now have them make it! Right down to all of the ingrediants, measuring, etc. Its all up to them to do. (of course help them with operating the stove, using knives to cut, etc. Any other dangerous things where adult supervision is required)
8. Have your children pull out their markers and some white paper and have them make cards for family, friends or even theur neighbors telling them the many reasons they are thankful for them.
9.Teach your children how to hand weave baskets. Take white paper and then cut up brown construction paper in rows the long way. have them weave it back and forth in and out to make a basket pattern. This would be similar to what the Native Americans did with corn husks, straw, etc.
10. Rad stories about Thanksgiving from the local Library, there are so many to choose from. My girls love spending time at the library. We dont even check books out sometime, we just enjoy reading right there in the childrens room. Its a great way to get out of the house, learn and play all at once.
I hope some of these ideas inspired you and your family find some fun things to do in your classroom. Remember be grateful, praise God for the many blessings he has given us, and Have fun!
Comments