FFCA: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Fun!

Tracing Names with candy.

Candy Patterns!

Team Work

The students worked together to create colorful paper to use for Thanksgiving projects.

They painted with ice paint and water colors.

The preschoolers reenacted the story of The First Thanksgiving.

Encouraging preschoolers to participate in dramatic storytelling, reaps many benefits, such as:

1 - Development of the imagination.

2 - Problem Solving.

3 - Critical Thinking.

4 - Social development and learning to work with others.
5 - Fun, Fun, FUN!!!

The Thanksgiving Play was a spontaneous idea we developed, last minute. Ms. Kristen is an AMAZING storyteller. I am so grateful for her. She works remarkably well with the preschoolers, and the kiddos adore her:)

A long time ago, people who lived in England were very sad, because their king would not let them pray to God. So they decided to find a new place to live. They traveled in a ship called the Mayflower. Once they started traveling, they named themselves Pilgrims. The Pilgrims decided to move all the way across the world to America. It was a long trip, finally, they looked over the ocean and saw land!

When they came off the Mayflower they built houses. They did not know that there were some people, called Native Americans, watching them from a distance.

The Pilgrims were cold and hungry. So they prayed and asked God for help.

The Native Americans felt bad for the Pilgrims, so they decided to help them by teaching them how to plant food and catch fish.

The Pilgrims were so thankful the Native Americans helped them. They invited the Native Americans to join them for a big feast.

So they all sat together and thanked God and enjoyed a huge feast. And, this was the First Thanksgiving Celebration.

Today, we stay home from work and school to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Native American Headbands:
Materials:

Construction paper

Feathers

Glue

Scotch tape

The children cut a headband out from construction paper. The headband should be a little bit larger than the child’s head. Some of the students painted the headbands with water colors.

The children cut out feathers printed on construction paper.

They used scotch tape to attach the feathers to the inside of their headbands.

And, voila, the preschoolers made their very own Native American Headbands.

Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat:

We cut a headbands out of black construction paper.

Using black construction paper, we cut-out a rectangular hat, matching the width of the headband.

We cut strips of brown construction paper, matching the width of the hat.

We cut-out, yellow squares, for the buckle.

Each preschooler attached the hat to the headband using a glue stick.

We stapled the headband to fit around each student's head.

To be completely honest, due to the last minute agenda of the Thanksgiving Play, I was focused on the Native American headbands, and Ms. Kristen, on the Pilgrim hats. Therefore, I was unable to take photos of this process :(

However, the preschoolers were delighted with their Pilgrim Hats! :)

Turkey Footprints

I think footprint art is absolutely ADORABLE!!!

Procedure:

We used brown paint to paint one foot brown and gently place it on yellow construction paper.

Some of the preschoolers painted their own foot:)

We used the, water color paper, to make turkey feathers. Each student chose the portion of the paper they liked best. We cut the paper accordingly. The students traced their hand 3 times.

Some of the students helped their friends:)

The students cut-out their hand prints. They learned to turn the paper to cut around the fingers.

The students glued the hand prints at the top; middle, left and right of the paper.

They glued the footprint in the middle of the hand prints and added googly eyes.

They used orange glitter glue to give the turkey's beaks, legs and feet.

Super Cute Turkeys!

Native American and Pilgrim Hand prints.

I LOVE hand print art!
Native American:

The students painted the palms of their hands with peach mixed with a few drops of brown paint.

They painted their fingers with red and blue paint creating an AB pattern.

Pilgrim:

The students painted the palms of their hands with peach mixed with a few drops of brown paint.

They painted their fingers (no thumbs) with black paint. We helped them to gently place their hands on the paper.

Each preschooler cut a strip of black construction paper (Pilgrim Hat) and a strip of, water color paper,(Native American headband) to resemble the brim of the hat and headband. They glued the strips on their hand prints.

They used black markers to add the faces.

We laminated these adorable hand prints to use as Thanksgiving place mats.

Play Dough Turkey Math Game: a math game that focuses on number recognition and one to one correspondence counting. The students were too busy creating, to realize they were learning. I LOVE these activities!!!

First we created play dough turkeys.

I created a turkey with each group to help guide them through this process.

Some students followed my procedure and others, confidently, created independently.

Benefits of manipulating play dough:

1 - Manipulating play dough encourages tactile learning for preschoolers, as they feel the soft and flexible sensory qualities.

2 - Play dough stimulates creativity and exercises exploration, as well as, imagination as they visualize the immediate results of rolling, patting, squashing, etc.