As a young boy I remember going to kindergarten the week before Thanksgiving break. This was the day we go to dress up. I remember learning a variety of different lessons on who the Pilgrims were and who the Native Americans were. I remember learning about where they both came from, what they wore and what they ate. So that day my mom sent me to school wearing baggy brown clothes and a paper headband with a feather glued to the back. When I got there, there was two different tables set up followed by an area that was completely closed off. The first table had pieces of paper, markers, crayons, feathers, and other crafting materials. Here, we took a piece of paper, laid our hand down flat and traced around it. Then we were told to color our hand like a turkey so I colored the palm brown, and the fingers different colors with my thumb being the face. Then I added feather to the fingers and finished off my turkey with an orange beak. The next table I went to had big ice cream cones, the brown ones, I believe they’re called sugar cones? Anyways, the table also had frosting and different candies such as: jelly beans, skittles, sweet tarts and so on. What we did was we frosted a the bottom of a plate and stuck the ice cream cone upside down on the plate. Then we frosted the cone and decorated it like a tepee with different colors and such. After this was done we set it aside to dry and then the rest of my class went and sat in the closed off area. Here they set up a table with chairs all around with a ton of different sundae making materials. There was ice cream, candy, syrups, cones and bowls. My teacher a couple parents started three lines and asked each of us what we wanted, a bowl or a cone and then they put ice cream in them for us. Then we got to add all the different toppings we wanted and then we went and sat down. After sitting down my teacher began to talk. She said things like: “Remember this week when we talked about the big feast with the Pilgrims and the Indians? Well that’s what we’re doing right now! Some of you have dressed as Indians and some have dressed like Pilgrims. This represents the first Thanksgiving.” and “I want each of you to go around the table and tell us what you’re thankful for.” This began to spark conversation. Rather than talking our ears off about the first Thanksgiving she showed us what it was like with our ice cream. As a kid, all I think I learned from this was that the Pilgrims came over on three boats to have dinner with the Indians. Obviously I know more ab\out it now but that’s what I got from that whole experience. I think when were kids we don’t really understand things but learning back then we didn’t have the biases we have now. We just thought the Pilgrims and the Indians were friends and that they had dinner together. Now I know that the Pilgrims really came to America because of religion an that’s why the first Thanksgiving happened.

To be honest I have a horrible memory and have been out of elementary school for so loooong! I kid- I am 30 years old but it does seem like forever ago and now have children in Jr. High. Lets see if I think back on just growing up in the U.S and what I can actually remember about what was taught about the first Thanksgiving.

From the little bit I can remember (and to be honest some quick internet research to refresh my memory) the first Thanksgiving was a gathering of the Native Americans and Pilgrims to share a bountiful harvest. The pilgrims who settled at Plymouth Rock the year prior had a hard time with their crops and lives were lost. The Native Americans helped the pilgrims with their crops; this was thought to be the reason they survived. Due to this they had a feast to celebrate their bountiful harvest.

I do not remember specifically but since I have children who have recently completed elementary school I will guess that we colored, drew or assembled a Turkey, Native American, Pilgrim, the Mayflower, and the food scenes.

From kindergarten to the second grade, the Friday before Thanksgiving break we would learn about Thanksgiving, do activities, and say what we were thankful for. In all grades I learned about a “general” Thanksgiving. We talked about how the Pilgrims came here on the Mayflower, that the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims grow food, and that the Pilgrims were so thankful toward the Native Americans that they celebrated with a large feast. Through these grades i made a lot of different crafts but the one that stuck throughout all of them was the hand-turkey. We would make a cut out of our hands and add parts to it to make it look like a turkey. The first four fingers would create the feathers and the thumb would be the turkey’s head. In the fingers we would write what we were thankful for.

https://www.engineeringthepast.com/623-2/