Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day is full of family, friends, and fun. I am thankful for you allowing me to blog freely and I appreciate all of your kind words in this new journey.
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Disguised Turkeys
It's November which means my favorite family homework project of the year- the disguised turkey! We started out by reading the story Turkey Trouble, a cute little tale about a turkey who tries disguising himself as different animals on the farm so that he doesn't get eaten on Thanksgiving. The students were laughing hysterically at the illustrations.
I then introduced to the students their homework assignment of disguising a turkey. They could use any items they had at home to disguise the turkey and I tried my best to not give too many examples. I found that when I gave the example of Superman or soldiers, I would get 10 soldiers and 5 Supermen. In giving less directions I was trying to inspire more creativity. It worked!
Here are some examples from this year:
The students also wrote a narrative from the perspective of the turkey on why they are obviously not a turkey and are instead a ______. Both the writing portion and the turkey template can be found here on ProTeacher.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Warmed Heart
I am super thankful for an amazing crew of parents this year. I decided to put a sign up sheet outside my door last week with some food items for a Thanksgiving feast for our class to enjoy. I wasn't sure if I would get any takers, you really never know from year to year how things are going to go. I've never done a Thanksgiving party in my class before (I know, crazy, right?). Within the day I had almost every item covered: pumpkin pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, butter, etc. The one item we were missing was turkey. I mean really, who is going to go to all the trouble of cooking a turkey for 30 little ones, who will most likely pick at it anyway?
Well...a mom showed up yesterday, turkey in hand, ready to carve it and serve it to the little monkeys. She said she doesn't spend enough time in her son's class and she was hoping this would help out with that. Wow. I am still in awe that the parents came together and provided a full on feast for my class to enjoy. And enjoy it they did! The parents were also having so much fun that they stayed the rest of the afternoon to watch us present our disguised turkeys (more on that in a later post). One parent even left and came back with some coffee for me. A fantastic way to end the day and begin Thanksgiving break. I'm really not sure why I never attempted the feast idea before, but it will definitely be on my November list from now on. My heart is warmed by the kindness they showed.
This month our class spent some time reflecting on the things they were thankful for too. We each wrote down one thing we were thankful for on a turkey feather and added it to a turkey on the wall. It quickly became an eye-catcher for those coming in to the classroom. It's fun to read the adorable things the students are thankful for.
When I was student teaching eight years ago or so, my cooperating teacher drew the big turkey for me and laminated is so that I could do this project in the future. I have decked out this turkey with thankful feathers every year since. If you're interested in a pattern for the feathers, which I simply ran off on the copy machine on colored paper, leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send it your way.
Give thanks everyone!
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