Learning about Thanksgiving in a Deeper Way - Free Resource!

I think that I, like so many other adults my age (and now children following in our footsteps) learned about Thanksgiving in a very superficial way. You know what I mean: pilgrims, Indians, turkey, the voyage to America - that's it. I could tell you dates and reasons to be thankful, but I don't think I ever quite understood the true motivation behind the first Thanksgiving.

True, our little ones (like my five year old son) think Thanksgiving is all about turkeys and a fancy dinner, but I'm really hoping that through our studies this year we are getting at the heart of what it means to be an AMERICAN, and the importance of Thanksgiving. In our home this year we also have much to be thankful for. We have family coming (who we don't see often) and it is my father's 80th birthday.

Since we have been homeschooling I've learned so much, and I'm thrilled to be learning alongside my children. Here are two of my favorite Thanksgiving resources (and one of them is FREE!):

• Stories of the Pilgrims: You can read this online at the Baldwin Project for free. It is a beautiful set of stores following the pilgrims from England to Holland (how come I never learned they stopped there first?!?), then on to America. Last night we learned about water barges in Holland. The pilgrims have escaped "scorn" in England and are spending some time in Holland. Each chapter is full of tiny gems about the pilgrims, and also gives us a glimpse into ourselves. The chapters are short and packed with interesting adventures, so a little one can sit through the reading, but an older child will still be interested as well. Both my five and nine year old LOVE it. After dinner each night they ask me to sit down and "see what the pilgrims are up to now". Thank you to Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool for blogging about this resource!
  
• The Thanksgiving Story: This book is part of Sonlight's Core 3. It is an accurate, interesting story of the first Thanksgiving. We read it last year and it will read it again this year the day before Thanksgiving.

In addition to these resources, I'm thankful we get to keep God at the head of this celebration. When we were in public school God wasn't mentioned during this holiday. I didn't understand at the time what a travesty that really was and how much my daughter was being deprived of a real education at this time of year. I'm thankful we homeschool.

Now, Our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

1 Chronicles 29:13

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Do You Know Silly Tilly?

When I searched through my books for Thanksgiving activities, I came upon this wonderful little story, Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner. It's one of those books that I fondly remember from several years ago when my daughter was first learning to read. Tilly is such an endearing little mole. She is so forgetful, and her antics in the book really make children smile. She forgets to send out the Thanksgiving invitations (sending recipe cards instead because her glasses are foggy!), and when Thanksgiving arrives (and she hasn't cooked anything) she thinks no one will show up. Instead, everyone shows up with their recipe in hand and it's a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I read the book to my five year old this morning, and then I let him read it to me when I had finished. There are so many opportunities to be EXPRESSIVE in this book. My little guy had fun acting out each character's part. The cast includes Silly Tilly, Mrs. Squirrel, Mr. Woodchuck, Mr. Chipmunk, Mr. Rabbit, Mrs. Fieldmouse, and Mr. Turkey (who is not eaten, but brings along his special corn for popping).

To my delight, we found a song that goes with the story. I sang it to the tune of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush":

Here we go over to Silly Tilly's,

Silly Tilly's, Silly Tilly's,
Here we go over to Silly Tilly's,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mrs. Squirrel brought acorn jam,
Acorn jam, acorn jam,
Mrs. Squirrel brought acorn jam,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mr. Woodchuck brought nut cake,
Brought nut cake, brought nut cake,
Mr. Woodchuck brought nut cake,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mr. Chipmunk brought cranberry stew,
Cranberry stew, cranberry stew,
Mr. Chipmunk brought cranberry stew,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mrs. Fieldmouse brought oat bran pudding,
Oat bran pudding, oat bran pudding,
Mrs. Fieldmouse brought oat bran pudding,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mr. Bunny brought potato pie,
Potato pie, potato pie,
Mr. Bunny brought potato pie,
On Thanksgiving Day.

Mr. Turkey brought corn to pop,
Corn to pop, corn to pop,
Mr. Turkey brought corn to pop,
On Thanksgiving Day.

It was the very best Thanksgiving,
Best Thanksgiving, best Thanksgiving,
It was the very best Thanksgiving
The animals had ever had!

Tomorrow if I have time I'd like to copy some pages of the book, let my little guy cut out the characters and make puppets so we can sing the song with the puppets in our puppet theater. Doesn't that sound like fun?

This post is linked to Teach Me Tuesday over at Bokros Kind of Life - check out what other teaching is going on today!

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Our Favorite Fall Book & Activity

My children's favorite Fall/Halloween book is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything. It's one of those books that always gets a lot of laughs, involves children DOING something through the whole book, and has a million cross-curricular connections. As I pulled the large orange tub of Fall books out of the attic last week there were literally squeals from my children as we pulled out this book. The story could be considered a little bit scary, but in the end it turns out well. I always told my Kindergarten students that in the end the fears were all in the main character's imagination, much like many of our fears can be in our imaginations. I would recommend the book for children 4-10.

Once upon a time there was a little old lady who was not afraid of anything until one windy autumn night, while walking in the woods, she hears CLOMP CLOMP.
"I'm not afraid of you," says the little old lady. But the noises keep growing. CLOMP CLOMP, WIGGLE WIGGLE, SHAKE SHAKE, CLAP CLAP....and the little old lady who was not afraid of anything has the scare of her life! But by using her head and coming up with a great idea, the little old lady finds that all turns out just right in the end.
(taken from nancypolette.com)

I always enjoy putting different instruments with the sound effects in the book. If you have a tambourine, maraca, drum, and rhythm sticks at home they are great to use. But if you just make funny body motions with the "Wiggle Wiggle" and "Shake Shake", etc... that's fun, too! I found an excellent literature guide for the story which has many easy ideas to extend the story. Click here to go to the guide.

Best of all, the story can be used for music, literature, writing, research, and science! This week I plan to do a little something with the story each day, following the guide I linked to above.

I hope you try the story and have fun with it! (It's in most libraries, and I noticed that Amazon has the book for $6.99.... and if you use it year after year, it's worth it!)

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