Collecting Thanksgiving Ideas!

Happy Thanksgiving!  We hope that you and your family are enjoying this special holiday.  We have so much to give thanks for in our lives!

If you're looking for some online ideas to use with your children this week, check out these links:

Free BrainPopJr. movie about Thanksgiving:

http://www.brainpopjr.com/socialstudies/holidays/thanksgiving/

Lots of Thanksgiving games (Spot the Difference, Dinner Bounce, and Puzzles) and printables:

http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/thanks/thgame.htm

Beautiful Thanksgiving printable book from UCreate:

http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2013/11/thanksgivingactivitybook.html

And, here's a link to our Thanksgiving reviews:

http://ourlearningcollection.blogspot.com/search/label/Thanksgiving

Remember it's a great time to videotape your children telling their version of the First Thanksgiving!  :)
We're thankful for you and your support in reading our blog!  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Pumpkin Book

The Pumpkin Book, by Gail Gibbons, is a great resource for a nonfiction look at pumpkins.  We like to start looking at books like this by taking a picture walk. We enjoyed seeing the labeled illustrations of different kinds of pumpkins. Even young children can begin to develop an understanding of the growth of a pumpkin from the interesting pictures in this book. 

Ways to plant pumpkins in a patch and on a farm are described by Gibbons.  Various aspects of what is needed in nature for successful pumpkin growth is also discussed.  The book also shows the use of pumpkins at Halloween and Thanksgiving times.  

Older children could use this book to develop charts about pumpkin development.  The illustrations delightfully explain the text so that listeners/viewers/readers can all enjoy learning. We found this to be a great book to add to our autumn reading. We love reading books by Gail Gibbons and hope you enjoy this one, too!

Question Collection:

*Which pumpkin varieties have you seen before?

*Can you explain how a pumpkin seed grows?

*What’s your favorite use of pumpkins?  Why?

Thanksgiving Review

We hope that you and your family are preparing for a meaningful Thanksgiving!  If you're looking for some more Thanksgiving books to read, here are some that we reviewed last year:

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks

T is for Turkey

Five Silly Turkeys

The Littlest Pilgrim

Also remember it's a fun time to collect memories by videoing your children re-telling the Thanksgiving story in their own words.  You can create some great memories by doing this and showing them to your children and extended family members each year.  
Happy Thanksgiving!

One is a Feast for Mouse

Teaching gratitude is important to our family.  The book, One is a Feast for Mouse, A Thanksgiving Tale, written by Judy Cox and illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbeler, is a fun, engaging story that lends itself to good family discussion.  Mouse goes searching for Thanksgiving leftovers with the mantra, “Give thanks….One will be a feast for me”.  But as more tempting foods appear, one becomes more and more.  The author and illustrator paint vivid pictures as Mouse starts accumulating more than he needs or can handle.  Mouse has to scramble quickly as Cat challenges his feast. We like this book because we enjoy reading about Mouse and the lesson he learns about giving thanks for what is sufficient.  We hope reading this book will help you and your family as you contemplate giving thanks!

Question Collection:

*What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?

*What is the moral of this story?

*Have you ever felt like Mouse?

Gobble Gobble Crash!

Gobble Gobble Crash! by Julie Steigmeyer, is one of my favorite read alouds!  The rhyming and cadence of the words just enhance the humorous tale of turkeys that crash into a sleepy farm.  Although not specifically a Thanksgiving book, it’s such a fun book to read about some hilarious turkeys!

 Gobble Gobble Crash! is also a counting book as counting numbers are used as the farm is described.   The word choice used by the author paints vivid pictures of the turkeys’ actions.  Children can cheer on the animals as they decide to help the turkeys from becoming the Farmer’s feast.  It is just a laugh out loud book that we hope you enjoy!

Question Collection:

*What’s the funniest part of the story to you?

*Can you find the turkeys that are hiding from the Farmer?

*Can you remember some of the rhyming words from the story?

Fisher Price Little People Thanksgiving Celebration

We love having items/toys in our home that promote retelling of stories.  Retelling is a great way for children to make stories become their own stories.  We like to tell the story initially, let play times happen with the items, and then see if the stories will be told.  If they’re not, then we give prompts.  Usually, though, children start retelling stories they’ve heard. 

A Fisher Price set we’ve used for several years is the Little People Thanksgiving Celebration.  It’s much like the Christmas set that we use to retell the Nativity story.  This set comes with two Native American figures and two Pilgrim figures along with a table, benches, food (turkey, of course!), scenery, and a donkey with a wagon.

It’s so much fun to hear a child’s perspective on the First Thanksgiving!  Another fun way to collect memories is to record your child retelling the story, especially recording it as part of your Thanksgiving tradition.  We hope you enjoy this set as much as we have and make your own family memories with it!

Thanksgiving Day Alphabet

We like to read seasonal books so we were happy to find the Thanksgiving Day Alphabet written by Beverly Barras Vidrine and illustrated by Alison Davis Lyne.  It joins another book we like to read about Thanksgiving, T is for Turkey. The book provides a nice way to introduce children to various historical aspects of our Thanksgiving holiday in an interesting way.  The bold graphic alphabet letter frames the illustrations so the letter is very obvious and grabs a child’s attention.  These illustrations lend themselves to taking a picture walk through the book first, especially for younger children who are learning more about Thanksgiving.  We hope you like reading and learning more about Thanksgiving!

Question Collection:

*What new vocabulary did you learn from reading this book?

*What new facts did you learn from this book?
*Which illustration did you like best?

Read more children's ABC books here!

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks

Learning to be thankful is a character trait we all can learn.  Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks, by Margaret Sutherland, is a thoughtful book that can be read and enjoyed by children and parents.  The illustrations by Sonja Lamut add to the simple beauty of the story.  As a parent I particularly enjoy the explanations that accompany the thankful listings.  As we try to get our children to articulate what they are thankful for, it’s important we help them tell why.  This book is a great way to explore giving thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Question Collection:

*Are you thankful for any of the things that are listed in the book?

*What things are you thankful for that aren’t listed?  Why?

*Which people have you told you’re thankful for them?

*How do you show you’re thankful?

T is for Turkey

Alphabet books are a favorite in our home library.  They were a great way to learn the alphabet and now have become a great way to introduce those early learning skills.  After several rereadings of alphabet books children can read “A is for…” that appear in most alphabet books. 

A recently discovered alphabet book for us is T is for Turkey, by Tanya Lee Stone.  This book uses the alphabet to teach children facts about the history of Thanksgiving.  We’ve discussed that although Abraham Lincoln is in this book, he wasn’t with the Pilgrims---he was the President who established the first Thanksgiving.  There are other examples that will require explanation, but we’ve learned more about Thanksgiving by reading this book.

Question Collection:

*What did you learn about Thanksgiving?

*Which picture in the book did you like best?

*What can you do to help others have a good Thanksgiving? 

Read more children's ABC books here!

Five Silly Turkeys

Indoor kinesthetic activities are important for young children during inclement weather.  We love reading and acting out Five Silly Turkeys, by Salina Yoon.  Bright colors, rhyming words, and the crinkly feathers that turn with each page make this a fun book for young children.  It is a much requested book in our reading time and has quickly become one we’ve memorized! 

Question Collection:

*Which page is the silliest to you?

*Can you find the rhyming words for the numbers?

*Which activity would you like to do most?

The Littlest Pilgrim

Children love to help!  During the busyness of holiday preparation it can be easy to overlook how children want to help, but may not know how.  The Littlest Pilgrim, by Brandi Dougherty, explores this feeling through Mini, the Littlest Pilgrim.  Mini’s determination in finding a way to help can provide a role model for children to never give up.   There’s also a subtle lesson for parents in this book about listening to children!

Question Collection:

*How did Mini finally find a way to help?

*Did you think Mini would give up or keep trying?

*What ways can you help at Thanksgiving?

*How is making a friend a way to help?

*Have you ever helped a friend by being nice?