Mayflower Day! (+ printables!)

Going with the onslaught of belated Thanksgiving posts...

Here's a snapshot of our Mayflower Day!  

I saw the idea of making this Mayflower book over here at First Grade Parade (where I get at least 50% of my ideas!).  I loved it so much I decided we had to have our very own Mayflower Day here at Gettin' Skooled.

Here is a a glimpse of the book that Merrick and I made together:

I had cut the pattern out the night before from 3 different brown paper grocery bags.  They were so kind at the local health grocery store, Sprouts, and just handed me a stack of bags for free!  See the video below for more info on how I pasted the pages together.

Here are a few of the pages...

First, Merrick colored a map of the crossing of the Mayflower.  Then, he filled in a couple of fact sentences.  Next, he drew a picture of his favorite pilgrim.  Then, he wrote a sentence about why he chose that particular pilgrim as his favorite.  This is where the fun always comes in for me.  I thought Merrick would choose the two little boys we read about because they caused so much trouble (like almost burning down the Mayflower).  However, Merrick chose Myles Standish because, "he looks cool."  

In case you'd like to make your own Mayflower book, here is a link to the printables we made to go inside the pages.  For the brace map and graph, you can download those at First Grade Parade.  

Click here for the printables:

Did You Know?

Fact Book (cover)

My Favorite Pilgrim

Crossing Mayflower Map

Mayflower Border (for drawing your fave pilgrim)

And, of course, like every lesson plan here at Gettin' Skooled, it always goes over best with a nice cup of hot cocoa.  :)

Here are the books we read together about the Mayflower and the pilgrims:

For dinner, we had a Mayflower French Toast Pizza.  The sail is a slice of mozzarella cheese.  Don't be fooled by these pics.  The sail only stayed up for about 3 seconds before toppling over.  I think my pizza wasn't thick enough to hold the dowel in place (and the cheese slice should probably be frozen for a few minutes to harden it up before skewering it).

Though Merrick sweetly smiles for these pics, I don't think he is too impressive when I make him special meals like this.  Unless the special meals are made of sugar cubes or cake.

Here's the video of the Mayflower book to give you a more tangible idea of how it was constructed:

Merrick's last line in this video is soooooooooo typical...

Thanksgiving Homeschooling + Freebie

I am soooo behind in posting our Thanksgiving lessons.  Prepare yourself for a barrage of somewhat outdated posts!

Here is a snapshot of what we did together this Thanksgiving.  For our unit study plan, check out the post here. 

We disguised a turkey so that it wouldn't get eaten (it didn't work...we still ate turkey on the big day).  Merrick decided he wanted to disguise his turkey as Elvis. 

These were great books to read with the Disguise the Turkey craft:

We used the feathers of a turkey to write different words with the -ur sound.

We made a turkey handprint plaque.  

The twins joined in and made turkey handprints as well.  I love that their hands/turkeys are facing one another with a heart between them.

We printed out the Thanksgiving banner from Paging Supermom and colored it together (it took several days to do this).  

We made a paint-drop turkey.  This is similar to what I did as a kid to make butterfly paintings.  We cut out the shape of the feathers, dropped some paint on them, then folded them in half and smooshed them.

We also kept a gratitude journal.  I liked the idea of having a specific question to help Merrick think of things he is grateful for.  Throughout the month, we filled in the question, "What are you grateful for that's ________" with words like square, red, and silly.  

You can download a free copy of the gratitude journal here.  

Here are a few of the other books we read this month:

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Unit Study

For November, I plan on teaching about the history of Thanksgiving for the first two weeks.  After Thanksgiving, we will do Five in a Row's The Cranberry Thanksgiving.  I hope to use plenty of games and activities to teach Merrick not only what a joy this season is, but how the traditions of Thanksgiving came to be.

Thanksgiving Facts (What I'd Like My Kindergartener to Know)

- "Pilgrims" left England in search of religious freedom.
- 102 colonist (including one baby born at sea) were aboard the Mayflower, the ship that brought the pilgrims to America.  They were at sea for 2 hard months (66 days).
- Pilgrims - I would like him to learn about the pilgrim culture.
- The Mayflower landed at Plymouth,  Massachusetts.  Massachusetts is a part of New England.  New England consists of 6 states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and, of course, Massachusetts.  I would like him to be able to locate New England on a map.
- The Wampanoag Native Americans were already occupying the land and had been for 12,000 years.  I would like him to learn a little of the Wampanoag culture.
- The pilgrims suffered through a very, very hard winter.
- One Native American in particular, Squanto, helped the pilgrims.  He brought them seeds and taught them how to fish.
- The first Thanksgiving feast probably took place around 1621 (though some believe it was actually 1623).  The settlers and Native Americans both brought food to the feast, enough to feed 53 settlers and 90 Native Americans.
- Some of the foods that may have been served at the first Thanksgiving feast are: fish (cod, eels, bass), fowl, venison, berries, fruit, vegetables, beans, maize, and squash.


Here's how I plan on introducing this information to Merrick:

The Mayflower
 - Map out the route in which the pilgrims may have taken on the Mayflower (Geography)
- Learn about the states in which the pilgrims first lived.  Discuss the location of New England. (Geography)  Use the printable here.
- For the life of me, I can not find the source of this idea, but here you go: make a Mayflower French Bread Pizza.  Get a slice of french bread pizza (or cover a half of a slice of french bread with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni) and bake.  After removing it from the oven, poke two wooden dowels through 2 slices of mozzarella cheese and into the pizza (to make sails).  Adorable!
- Lovin' this Mayflower book (First Grade Parade):

Pilgrims 
- Do a Venn diagram to compare pilgrim boys and girls OR pilgrim children and children today
- Make a pretzel log cabin.  Here or here.

- Must, must, must make this little pilgrim (once again, as seen at the First Grade Parade):

Indians
- Read Nickommoh!  Then, make an Indian headband, make a teepee, play tug of war, and have a "dance party" (as my 2 year old daughter would say) around a fake fire.
- Web site with info about the Wamponoag Indians here.
- Technically, the Wamponoag Indians didn't live in teepees.  But, it would still be fun to make some!

We could either make them out of cardboard like this:

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...or go nuts and build a 6 foot tall teepee like this:

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- How to build a teepee here,  here,  here, and here.

- Native American napkin holders

{image source and printable}

- Great info and directions on how to build a construction paper canoe and teepee using Indian symbols:

{image source and printable}

Gratitude / Bible Study
- Memory scripture: Psalm 9:1 I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; 
   I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.- Keep a gratitude journal (Handwriting and Spelling).  One way to do this might be to make this Gratitude mini book here.
- Make a turkey.  On each feather, write something for which you are grateful.

Crafts 
- Read Gus the Pilgrim Turkey (or Run, Turkey, Run), then decorate a turkey in order to disguise him.  Example here.
- Love this!  Make a "Give Thanks" banner.  Just print, color, and hang.  Printable here.

- Make corn out of painted lentils and cardstock

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- Would LOVE to do something like this:

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Food
- Great time to talk about food groups and the importance of eating a balanced meal.  Great worksheet here (along with many, many other worksheets and activities)
- Popcorn Balls - these may have been served at the first Thanksgiving.

(image source)

Handwriting/Reading/Phonics
- great Fall ideas from Peterson Kindergarten
- Thanksgiving handwriting sheet here.
- Phonics prompt and printables (First Grade Parade)

- How to catch a turkey from, you guessed it, First Grade Parade:

- Thanksgiving secret message printable here. 

Math

- Subtraction worksheet here
- Anther beginning subtraction worksheet here and here and here and here.
- Color AB, ABC, and ABB leaf patterns here.

Just Plain Fun
- Gourd games at Family Fun.

Lapbook Ideas
 -  Church matchbook - Front: Why did the pilgrims leave England?  Inside: Child's answer
- Vocabulary book - pilgrim, Indian, Mayflower, gratitude
- Acrostic - write a word that describes thanksgiving for every letter in "Give Thanks"
- Mayflower - write 4 facts about the Mayflower
- Geography - Map of the voyage of the Mayflower, map of New England