Thankful Turkeys!

Thanksgiving is around the corner and we are getting ready for the season.  I started planning all the fun activities that we are going to have this month.

These are the vocabulary cards, game, and some of the worksheets we will use. This is a product that I sell on TPT. It comes in both English and Spanish.

English - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Thanksgiving-Mini-Unit-957745

Spanish - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leccion-sobre-el-dia-de-accion-de-gracias-Thanksgiving-961887

We also started writing about things we are thankful for. I gave each kid a feather and they had to write what they are thankful for. As you can tell, my turkey is still missing some feathers, but I'm hoping my kids will finish this tomorrow!

The day before Thanksgiving break, we are going to have a Thanksgiving Feast. We are going to eat together as a grade level. Some classes will be Indians, some will be Pilgrims, and others will be turkeys. 

I used to love being the indians because my kids used to earn feathers for their headdresses for displaying positive behaviors or for doing random acts of kindness. The student with the most feathers became the "Chief" and he/she was the one getting the 1st meal of Thanksgiving! However, not many teachers from my team know how to make the coif for the girls, so we will be pilgrims. I might make some kind of badges that the students can earn for displaying good behavior. 

On Thursday we are going have a super fun activity with our reading buddies. They will have to create costumes to disguise their turkey so it won't get eaten this Thanksgiving. They will have to choose a character from a book as their inspiration. I cannot wait to see their creations!!!

A Day to Give Thanks!

Today is Veteran's Day and I couldn't let this day go by without expressing my most sincere gratitude to all the men and women that risk their lives so we can live in a wonderful nation. Today in class we talked about the different branches of the military and how brave these men and women truly are. I used the Scholastic News Magazine to launch the lesson and then we watched a video in Safari Montage about Veteran's Day.
The best part was when we wrote letters to some of the parents of my students that are active military officers. I sent them home today and I hope they liked them! The kids put forth so much effort and they wrote their hearts out!

Here is the template that I used. It is a free download. Just click on the link below:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Letter-to-a-Hero-Veterans-Day-972015

Next year I am planning on hosting a breakfast for our heroes. I will have the kids serve them and maybe recite some poems or something like that. I might even do it during Valentine's Day...who says that we cannot show our heroes some love during the rest of the year, right?