For Thanksgiving, I just really couldn’t bring myself to teach the way I was taught. I really have an unsettling feeling about dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans- and I’m not really here to get into why but I just sort of avoided it altogether. I decided to focus on gratitude and traditions. I just wanted to make sure my students understood that it is important to take time out and reflect on all of the wonderful things that they have in their lives.
I had a student bring me to tears when we did a gratitude circle. She’s a language learner and we’ve been really working on letters and sounds. When it got to her, she began to cry. She said, “I thankful you are my teacher and you tell me I can do it.” Annnnnnnnd I’m done. Full blown tears. So was half of the class.
I wanted to create a poem that would allow my students to understand these concepts of gratitude and reflection. We focused on those kinds of words for our vocabulary instruction. Click any image to see more!
Now MATH! I’m so excited to share what we did for math. I wanted to think of something that my students could do that would actually be helpful in their real lives. As I was thinking about what young friends could help with, I thought about setting the table. There is tons of math that happens when you set the table! So, I created a week long project that would allow my students to get some things figured out that they can share with their families.
On day one, you just create your family and table. I have them color and write their family members’ names. Then, they fold the paper back and glue it down to the table!
On day two, they figure out how many knives and forks they’ll need. In primary, it isn’t always obvious to them that if you have 5 family members, you’ll need 5 forks and 5 knives. They need that direct modeling. I did bump up the difficulty level by telling them that adults get a knife and fork but children only get knives.
On day three, they figure out how many chairs they will need or will have left over if they only have 5 chairs at their table.
On day four, they get to help with dinner rolls. I gave them a “pack” of twelve dinner rolls and they had to figure out if they have too many or not enough.
On day 5, we package the whole project into a book and get it ready for home. There is a parent letter that I send home that tells the family that they are all ready to help set the table!
If you’d like either of these resources, just click below! They are CHEAP! You can get them BOTH for 5 bucks. I’m grateful that you have been following along and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Wife, Mama of 2, and apron wearing primary educator from Indianapolis.
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