When I first learned about Thanksgiving in elementary school, I remember it being a peaceful time where Native Americans and pilgrims had a feast. The pilgrims came across on the Mayflower during the harvest season and met with Native Americans celebrating a new friendship with a huge feast. Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to grow corn and raise live stock in America. When I was in elementary school I remember making crafts and dressing up as Native Americans and pilgrims. One particular event I remember doing in class was coloring cornucopias with all sorts of food in them.We had a huge feast in class and celebrated being thankful for all of the things we had. The main idea of this event was to enjoy time with your family and being thankful for the people and things we have in our lives.

Hey y’all. So I recall learning about the first Thanksgiving when I was in elementary school in Mountain Home. I remember the teacher telling us about the Pilgrims and how they dispersed into the original 13 colonies. We then progressed into how these colonists met the Native Americans and became good friends with the Native Americans. I remember Squanto, which was the Native American who interpreted the English to the Native Americans and vice versa. He and some of the colonists decided to make a great feast in order to give thanks to God for such a blessed new life and a new beginning. I believe they feasted for several days, in which everybody had a very fun time. They ate water fowl, turkey, had cornucopias, corn, potatoes, etc. Also, that reminds me that the Native Americans taught the colonists about growing corn in order to sustain their growing population.

Some of the activities that I can remember doing in school are the How to cook a turkey article, coloring a Thanksgiving turkey, coloring Pilgrim pictures, reading about the Pilgrims and then doing a crossword or some sort of related activity. We also watched the School House Rock videos, studied what the Pilgrims wore, how they wanted to escape the rule of the King and practice religious tolerance, and I’m sure there are more activities but I can’t really remember them at the moment.

Pete Cook