Kacsko's Kiddos: Pilgrims, Indians, and Turkeys...Oh My!

Ms. Groom (my student teacher) taught the students all about the very first Thanksgiving this week. They learned how the pilgrims came to America in the Mayflower and settled under some extremely harsh conditions. The students wrote in their journals about what they would have to do if they were pilgrim boys and pilgrim girls to help their mothers and fathers. They also wrote/drew about how the pilgrims came to America. I tell the students to draw a picture first and use as much detail as they can. Once they've done this, we've taught them to label special parts of their pictures. When they can express themselves sufficiently through drawing, we encourage them to use letters and words to tell about their picture. The students use resources around the room to help with spelling (most of the time, key words can be found written on the board) and they also have to segment (break down) words into their individual letter sounds. We do not expect perfect spelling. What is most important right now is that the students can recognize the beginning and ending sounds of words. Anything in the middle is a bonus!

Here, a student shows with a drawing how
the pilgrims made it to America,
including details about the harsh
conditions. She also wrote a sentence to
describe her picture.

Here, a student shows a pilgrim girl planting seeds in the garden. The picture shows some good details and even a label of "girl." This student will soon begin working on how to use many words to tell about her picture.

For our weekly art project, the students got to make their own Native American "pouch" with a brown paper bag and a black marker (they LOVE markers)! Ms. Groom showed them some examples of Native American symbols and the students got to tell a story with the symbols of their choice.

We wrapped up the week with a very special guest! Amy Neel (Riley's mom) is a Native American from the Osage tribe. She grew up on a reservation in Pawhuska Oklahoma. She brought lots of great visual displays such as clothing, pictures, and a feather fan for the children to see and touch. She taught them how to say hello and the steps to her tribe's traditional dance! The students thought this was WAY COOL! In the video below, you will see the morning class performing the special dance and leave with the message "hohwah" which means 'hello' in her tribe's native language.

Amy dressed Riley in her special ceremonial shaw to show the class.

Kaydence gets a feel of the buckskin mocassins.

We, of course, had centers as usual this week too. Ms. Groom made fun Thanksgiving shape mats for the students to sort and match different shapes in the math games center. In the block center, the students got to experience a tiny glimpse of pilgrim life, as they played with Lincoln logs for the first time. And in word work, they strung letter beads on string to make words.