Thanksgiving Thankful Mix

Today, I have created a fun video that shows you a few Thanksgiving activities you could do this week or next! 

Prefer to read the transcript?

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Transcript:

Hi, everyone! Charity Preston here from the Organized Classroom blog. I hope you are doing well today.

So had a couple of questions on the fan page recently about what people are doing for Thanksgiving celebrations.

I know some schools allow you to do some things. Some schools do not allow you to do some things.

I thought of a really cute little activity that you could do with your students if you are able to do holiday activities. And you can modify this if you need to, but I would say K to 6th grade students could do something with this idea. You’re just going to have to change how much responsibility you let them do whenever they’re putting the activity together, as well as any other added activities with the books or different things that you want to do as well.

So I was thinking that you could start easily just by reading a book. Literature is always fantastic and wonderful. And even sixth graders love to hear simple picture books. They don’t take a lot of time.

You can really talk about some of the deeper concepts that are in them, and then you could do a much more difficult activity to wrap it up.

Just a couple books that I had at my house already: I’ve got One Little, Two little, Three little Pilgrims.

I also have Arthur’s Thanksgiving and Pocahontas: Young Peacemaker, if you want something that is non-fiction, which is always a fantastic thing to work on.

And then my favorite Turkey Pox. And if anybody knows this book, they know why it is my favorite.

Spoiler alert: the main character’s name is charity. So of course I love that one, and my students love me reading it allowed using my own name.

Okay. So after you did a read aloud, you can have the students do this fantastic little activity. It is a Thanksgiving Thankful Mix that you can make, which is like a trail mix with a special meaning for each ingredient.

You’ll mix everything up into a little baggy.

And the first thing that you’re going to start with are Bugles. It is shaped like a cornucopia or horn of plenty. It’s a symbol of our nation’s abundance.

The next item is pretzel twists. And this one says arms folded in prayer of freedom sought by those who founded our country, which is true. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that statement in a in a public school system because it’s talking about the freedom of religious rights.

The next one, candy corn, is about the sacrifices of the first winter when food was so scarce that settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn a day.

Up next: either nuts or seeds. If you can’t have nuts, due to nut allergies at your school, then use seed instead which is all about the promise of a future harvest, one we will reap only if seeds are planted and tended with diligence. And there you can talk about the word diligence and what that means.

The next one is dried fruits, which are harvest gifts of our bountiful land.

M&Ms are memories of those who came before us to guide us to a blessed future.

And the last one is Hershey Kisses, which are a symbol of the love of family and friends that sweetens our lives.

You could start with an empty big bowl, and then have students help you to add full packages and stir it all up.

Then everyone gets a baggy to fill up from the large bowl which can be staples until they get home (or eat right away in class as a reward or party snack.

Then if you want to build on that at the very end, you could also then do some type of writing assignment where the students write about other things maybe that they would like to add to the mix.

With their good ideas, you could continue the following year to keep adding different items in your Thanksgiving Thankful Mix.

So that’s a super fun activity and easy activity to prep and do.

I will have the Thanksgiving thankful mix PDF below to download and staple to the student baggies.

I hope you have enjoyed and that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, no matter where you live.

I’m sure that I will talk to you soon again at the Organized Classroom blog! Okay. Bye.

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Enjoy and I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday coming up soon!

~Charity