Every November up until 6th grade marked the beginning of Thanksgiving celebrations and history in our classes. When hearing the stories we were provided with pictures of cartoon characters, the pilgrims had large black hats and the native Americans were always wearing tan clothing and had huge colorful feathers decorating their hair. We were taught that the first Thanksgiving was for the pilgrims to thank the Native Americans for their aid in successfully growing crops after a harsh winter. The feast lasted for several days as a celebration to show thanks for everything that they had.
The activities we did in class for Thanksgiving mostly included crafts. These crafts were tracing our hands and decorating them as turkeys, coloring in feathers and the hats the pilgrims wore. We also made paper cornucopias and put pictures of our favorite foods in it. The day before we had Thanksgiving Break we would have a potluck in class, the teacher would bring turkey and the whole class would bring side dishes to eat. As we were eating we would go around and share what we were thankful for.
Kayla,
We also made the hand turkeys (apparently a very popular craft!). I enjoyed your blog post because I forgot how much you talk about food (favorite Thanksgiving item, what your mom makes) during this holiday! I was thinking as I was writing my entry, whether or not they really had turkey at the First Thanksgiving?
Seriously, hand turkeys are the bomb…not really but they are simple to do. To be honest I like that your school stressed being thankful mine just said who wants food and called it good. Fun fact the cornucopia stretches all the back to Greek times, and the name didn’t make it into the English language until 1508.
I think this is awesome! Seriously I think everyone made those hand turkeys. It’s something that is a norm in the elementary schools it seems like. All in all I mainly remember the story about the Pilgrims through the picture books that we would read and I must say your spot on with the clothing and hats that they would wear. Good post.