Turkey Time Traditions {with Mrs. Decatur's Little Gators}

I just cannot get over the idea of Thanksgiving being THIS Thursday y'all. I am ready but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that the 2015 holiday season is already in full swing! 

I decided to share how I celebrate Thanksgiving with my class and coworkers since we are all already on break and in full relaxation (yeah right!) mode and no longer looking for that one last turkey themed activity! 

With my colleagues, hands down my favorite part about Thanksgiving at school is our potluck lunch! I look forward to it each year! {Chalkboard done by my lovely team teacher, who doesn't blog, but should}

The hospitality committee puts out a sign up sheet and everyone gets to choose their favorite dish to share with everyone else. I love trying other 'family recipes' its neat since most of us just share these dishes year after year with our own families. 

The administrative staff is kind enough to provide the turkey, ham, and drinks each year. It is such a nice time to just slow down for a few minutes & eat some yummy hot food with colleagues. 

The hospitality committee decorates and sets things up the morning before, so the rest of the staff can just pop in and leave their dish in the morning. We did a #thankful board this year, it was a super cute and quick way for the whole staff to connect since some of us rarely see the others because of scheduling. I  wish I would have grabbed a picture after it was completed. 

With my students, my favorite thing about Thanksgiving at school is making butter! Each year after our nonfiction Fall and Thanksgiving unit in November, we make butter. 

I usually show this short video of a reenactment of a Pilgrim churning butter. She is speaking french but its translated into English text & the kids enjoy it! 

You need several small containers with secure lids, I usually go with these 4oz glass mason jars. It just feels more realistic than plastic. I have done this with my class for the last six years, this is the first year we used a marble to help 'churn'. Honestly, it was loud and I'm not sure it made much of a difference anyways. I'll leave it out next year. 

You fill each jar about 2/3 full with heavy whipping cream & secure the lids.

Then its time to shake, shake, shake! I like to have my whole class sit in a circle on the rug while we shake. I make six jars of butter and start them every few kids. Each kid just shakes until they get tired & pass. It takes about thirty minutes, so by the end they each get to shake about five or six times usually.

It should start to look something like this after about ten minutes.

but you'll want to keep shaking until the sides of the jar are 'clean' and the butter is in a bunch on top of the jar or on the side. For best results, let your jars of butter in cool in the fridge for an hour or more before serving.

The best part is of course trying it out on a roll! The kids usually make weird faces which cracks me up because it is actually just regular butter..same flavor. Ha! 

Despite all the fun that Thanksgiving brings, my absolute favorite Thanksgiving tradition is decorating for Christmas before its even Thanksgiving! What is your favorite way to celebrate Thanksgiving at school?

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Time Traditions from Peppy Zesty Teacherista

Hey Hey Ladies and Gents!

This is my first official post for Elementary Entourage! I'm super excited to blog with these fantastic peeps! I blog over at Peppy Zesty Teacherista. 

I love all things technology so of course I have to share a Thanksgiving activity using the iPad. 

My kids just finished learning about multiplication, so I have attempted to turn a free fun app into something educational. Download the app below, it's FREE :)

Tell your kids that they will be building a Thanksgiving Candy Pizza!

However, they need to be mindful of what they put on the pizza because it will cost them for every topping!

Every items that the kids can decorate their pizza with will cost money.

Give the kids prices, or use the task cards I made with predetermined spending criteria. 

Kids will work the math on their recording sheet. 

To snag this for FREE

Click the image below!

I also love writing notes to my kids every year for Thanksgiving!

To snag this template for FREE…

Click {HERE}

That's it, folks! 

I hope you were able to take one of the PeppyZesty ideas back to your classroom! 

Pin the image below so you can save these ideas and freebies for next Fall! :) 

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Time Traditions {with Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all!! Welcome back for another selection of our Turkey Time Traditions. Here you are hearing all of our favorite Thanksgiving ideas, lessons, crafts, and more! I hope you are enjoying yourself just as much as we are enjoying sharing with you.

We have been spending our time talking about everything Thanksgiving the last several days, and we will continue into next week. One of the second grade social studies standards we like to focus on for this theme is comparing various interpretations of the same time period. Perspective can be very difficult for our little sweeties to grasp. This year, my team and I took a different approach to help with this.

We found these books to help us:

We started out by introducing the theme with the book The First Thanksgiving and exploring the Scholastic's The First Thanksgiving. After a needed brain break on Go Noodle, we delved into day one of the lesson plan: The Pilgrim perspective. We read through the book, Giving Thanks, but we only read the perspective of the Pilgrim, Resolved White. (Day two consists of re-reading the story but this time from the Indian, Dancing Moccasin, perspective)  We held partnered discussions on what it was like to be an English Colonist in 1621, mapping out our thoughts on chart paper.

We then used the anchor chart as our graphic organizer for our writing activity:

The kiddos really loved writing a story about what it would be like to live as a pilgrim in 1621. The story can then be attached to construction paper. They can color pilgrim shoes to glue to the bottom of their story when they are finished.

If you are like me, you like crafts around the holidays. These are just a few of the crafts we completed this week. It was so much fun having a Pilgrim day and an Indian day. Monday we plan to take what we have learned and bring it all together using a Venn Diagram and some compare and contrast fun!

The Indian fact headband was created by me, but you can find these sweet Pilgrims and Indians here.

If you are looking to add some free writing fun to your Thanksgiving plans this week, look no further. Download my free Walk Like a Pilgrim activity! I know your sweeties will love it as much as mine did.

{Click on the image above to get your copy}

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Time Traditions {with Stephany from Primary Possibilities}

At school for the past two years we have had a Thanksgiving Feast for the students on Tuesday.  We make placemats and laminate them.  Once we are done with our feast at school, they can take them home and use them at their own Thanksgiving dinner.

During some of our school breaks I like to send home these work packets.  They keep students from getting too much of a "break" brain!  I always make them optional because some families are so busy over breaks with traveling or family events that they may not be able to fit the packets into their busy schedule.  (I also have packets for winter break and spring break.)

The skills in this packet review a lot of the skills taught up to this point in the first grade.  There are lots of easy ways to adjust the packet to be used during fall AND Thanksgiving Break.  Just pick the pages you want, copy and staple.   I usually reward completed booklets with a fun pencil once we return from break!

Finally, this year we decided to spread the thankfulness all around school.  I printed these simple cards on card stock (4 to a sheet) and had the kids write personal messages to each of the teachers and staff in the school.  We slipped the cards with a piece of candy into the mailboxes to brighten everyone's day and remind them that they are appreciated!  Click here to download the freebie!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Time Traditions from The Learning Chambers

One tradition that I'm super thankful for is review games.  I LOVE that they can keep my students active, engaged, and moving around the room.  I mean the wiggles happen even more during this time of year.  Am I right?!?!  Plus, the review games help them practice key skills and that helps me see who needs a little extra help.

I use the review task cards in a few different ways....

The kids favorite way is to use them to play SCOOT.  This year instead of having one card at each desk, I hid them through out the room and let the kids move around to find them.

The math bulletin board was the first place...

Then the bookshelf in our library...

Next to our class schedule looked like a fun place to hid...

Don't worry, some are hidden in some harder to find places!!  I can be sneaky!!  Some of my favorite hiding places are under desks, under chairs, and sometimes on some of our anchor charts.  The kids really love hunting for the scoot cards.

My favorite way to use these review cards is in small groups to help students that need extra practice with a certain skill.  Today, I worked with a group that needed to work on different types of punctuation.  This set of cards was perfect and it was a great way to see who still needed some reteaching after our small group.

If you are interested in grabbing this set of review game cards, you can get them HERE.

I hope that you have a great last couple of days before Thanksgiving break.  Also, I hope your Thanksgiving is full of family, friends, and most of all thankfullness.  Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Turkey Time Traditions with Enchanted Kinder Garden

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving break? I absolutely LOVE teaching during Thanksgiving.

This week we're talking ALL things Thanksgiving. This includes past and present, Native Americans, Pilgrims, Mayflower... all of that. We'll be focusing on past and present. My practicum student has been teaching and we didn't really talk about this already.

One of my all time favorite things to do during Thanksgiving week is to talk about traveling on the ship. After we talk about what they couldn't take and that they could only take one suitcase, we always make our own suitcase. This is always REALLY interesting to see what they would take. One year, I let them just write in what they would take. However, this year I'm going to print out some pictures and let them only glue in what will fit.

I added things like brush, comb, pet, doll, truck, shoes, pants, socks, and so on. I also added a few things that I don't think are as important such as iPad, mirror, food, and other little things that will take up space.

You can grab this for free here! Just click on the picture.

We'll be making these really cute turkey hats inspired by Miss Kindergarten for our "Charlie Brown Feast" again this year. I won't use LONG brown paper this year to make them.

We'll also be using these during Math Workshops again this week.

They LOVED using these! It helps all of my kiddos get an easier sense of numbers. We've been doing a really great job with number fluency and recognition as well.

Ten Frames for Thanksgiving! I just call them the Gobble Gobble workshop. My kids pretend like the turkeys are gobbling up numbers. I have different groups use it a different way. For my kids that still need help with writing numbers, we use the ten frame frame version and write the number to match. For my kids that need help producing a ten frame, they choose a number card and make the ten frame. They EAT this one up.

An InLinkz Link-up