Giving Thanks

Today we focused on the upcoming holiday~ Thanksgiving! I like to take the spin on focusing on something that we are thankful for, as well as someone that we could say 'thank you' to.

So, we read the story Thanks for Thanksgiving (I had a few other great books lined up but we ran out of time!). We discussed some reasons why you may say 'thank you' to someone. Then we worked on thank you cards. The students got to chose anyone that they wanted to make a card for. They were given blank cards. They could choose to print the word "Thank You" on their card or make the words with letter stickers. It was very interesting hearing their reasons for saying thank you. :)

 

 

We had a lot to talk about during our morning calendar meeting. We received two piece of mail (which happened to conveniently lead into our card making activity). Firstly, we were invited to the town library for library week. Second, we received our first package from our Little Passports explorers! We received a letter from Sam and Sofia, telling us all about their trip to Brazil! They send us a photograph of a monkey that they had befriended, a piece of amethyst from an amethyst mine, a luggage tag, and some stickers. Very exciting!

 

I'm not sure who is more excited about our Little Passport packages- the students or me!

 

Early finishers during snack ventured into our literacy buckets for the first time today. They explored some magnet letters, but were very excited to discover bananagrams! They were super keen on spelling their names.

 

Our schedule today was a little mixed up because of working in an art project, but also we had a surprise presentation by the fire chief! We gathered in the library with the grades one to four students. Everyone was very eager to talk about what they know about what starts fires, fire alarms, and fire safety tips. We will have to get more into fire safety next week. We had to get back to our Thanksgiving art activity!

 

There were a few steps involved and I had some much appreciated help with making the handprints.

 

After last recess, we put together the body and head of our turkeys. It was our first time using white glue, but we survived! :) I think they turned out great!

 

While we were waiting for handprints to dry, we watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. While they were watching it, I wasn't sure how much they enjoyed it. However, a lot of them mentioned the 'movie' when they discussed their favourite part of the day in our talking circle. They find Snoopy and Woodstock very funny.

 

 

We managed to fit in our free choice center time amongst these activities. Once again, the main hits were play-doh, house building, and road making for the farm toys. Someone came up with the idea to make a ramp for the farm vehicles, so some science came into play today. :) They did also engage in some role playing in the drama center after the presentation today. I heard a lot of calls to 9-1-1. :)

What a busy day! I am so glad that I document our days with photographs, as I had already forgotten some of our adventures from the day!

 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend, filled to overflowing with reasons to be grateful! Make sure that you say 'thank you' to someone this weekend. :)