1-2-3 Come Do Some Pete The Cat Thanksgiving Activities With Me  

Are your students a bit bananas over Pete the Cat?  Mine are; so I was excited to find the book "Pete the Cat and The First Thanksgiving", which allowed me to carry my students' "fur frenzy"- enthusiasm into November.

Because this story is a “lift the flap” book, I thought it would be fun to make a “Flip the Flap Thankful Craft” for an interesting transition activity after reading the tale.

On the last few pages, Pete’s family goes around their Thanksgiving table and tells what they are thankful for.

His mom is thankful for family, his brother Bob is thankful for his skateboard, and Pete is thankful for the Pilgrims. The author then asks the reader what they are thankful for.

The craft features these characters as well. When you lift the flap you see a picture of what they said they were thankful for.

The last flap has a variety of options:
* There’s a blank section so that students can draw a self portrait, or for a sweet keepsake, children glue their school photograph on. (See sample pictures in the PREVIEW.)

* I’ve also included 4 boy graphics, as well as 4 girl clips for students to choose from.

Children pick an option then color, cut and glue their “thankful for” answers under the flaps; completing the project by writing what they are thankful for and then illustrating it.

During Pete’s “The First Thanksgiving” play, children learn a variety of fun facts; so I’ve included a “color me” writing prompt worksheet, where they can list some of these.

There’s also a fill-in-the-blank worksheet, where students complete the 3 sentences with what that character was thankful for, as well as an “I’m thankful for . . .” writing prompt page, where students can write a lot more, then color the picture.

Finally, I’ve included 2, “Roll and Color” game sheets. One is for numbers 1-6 for younger kiddos, the other for numbers 1-12, where students roll 2 dice, then add them together to get numbers 7-12. 

This activity is no longer available in my TpT shop, so if you'd like a copy, please e-mail me for details. (Simply click the blue LINK.

Today's FREEBIE is a Thanksgiving-themed Pete the Cat number puzzle, which comes in black and white so students can make their own, as well as one in color to use as an independent math center.  The FREEBIE is one of the four 6-piece puzzles included in my big packet.

Students can simply color, cut and put their puzzle together, or they can pick a partner and take turns rolling a dice.

Whatever number they roll, they place that numbered piece on the matching numbered square on their puzzle grid. The first one to complete their puzzle is the winner. 

Besides the black and white patterns for your students, I’ve also included colorful templates that you can use for an independent math center.

My students absolutely love the puzzle games, so if you're looking for a "sanity saver" before the holiday break, these provide a quick, easy, and educationally fun activity, which can be used as a sweet Thanksgiving card for parents too.

To extend the activity, have students glue their pieces to the puzzle grid as they play the game, then when done, write about the things that they are thankful for, or a note to parents of why they are thankful for them on the back of their completed puzzle.

Well that's it for today. My feet have hit the floor running, as 2 of my grandchildren are coming over for the day. 

Wishing you a day filled with giggles galore and lots of snuggly hugs.

"Even when my grandchildren are not in my arms, on my lap, or in my home,they are in my heart and there they will stay forever." -Unknown

1-2-3 Come Do Some Thanksgiving Craftivities With Me

Thanksgiving break is almost here!  Woo hoo.  I always like to toss in a little bit of craftiness for that energy-filled (them, not me) Wednesday before vacation.

Here's a quick, easy and fun little My Thanksgiving Dinner Writing Prompt Craftivity,  with a variety of options to fit different age groups.

After reading several stories about the first Thanksgiving, have a discussion with your students about the kinds of meals that they enjoy for their Thanksgiving dinner.

How are they similar? How are they different? Do most of them have a traditional or non traditional Thanksgiving?

If they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, does their family have another special dinner at some point in the year?

Students then transition to the writing craftivity. They trace and write the words, add end punctuation and color the pictures; then trim the pages into a circle, collate and staple them to a paper plate.

For that extra pizzazz, I like using small, decorative fall plates from The Dollar Store, which also sells the real looking, plastic silverware for that special 3D effect.

Because they are silver in color, everyone thinks they look truly amazing, and always comment about our cool looking bulletin board display.

I've also included a blank page template for older students to write about their Thanksgiving meal.

Younger children can also exchange the pages that don't apply to them, substituting a few pages of their own.

There's also a generic "My Favorite Dinner" cover, so students who don't celebrate Thanksgiving, can still participate, creating their own pages of a dinner that's a favorite of their family.

For more writing practice and word work, I've included a set of trace & write word cards.

Children can trim, alphabetize and staple together to make an Itty Bitty booklet.

Finally, there are some larger writing prompt pages for older elementary, should you wish to skip the paper plate crafivity portion.  

Click on the link to zip on over to my TpT shop to take a look: Thanksgiving Dinner: A Writing Prompt Craftivity.

The featured FREEBIE for today is a Native American headband craft that practices 2D shapes. 

Another little something fun for your feast, or to make during the last week of school.

Well that's it for today. My "to do" list for Thanksgiving is rather long, so best get at it.  Wishing you a fun-filled day.

"There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last." -Robert Louis Stevenson

1-2-3 Come Learn About Pilgrim Children With Me

If you want your students to get excited and interested in learning about Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, do it from a child’s perspective... today’s kiddos studying about children in the 17th century.

Believe me, you’ll certainly grab their attention. Shocker; no electricity and lots of work to do!

Thirty-one children actually sailed on the Mayflower, with two born along the way!

I spent a great deal of time researching children during this time period, to create this packet, which can be simplified for PK kiddos, and ramped up for older elementary students, who will really enjoy the writing prompts.

The packet includes:

* A dozen Venn diagrams, which are an excellent way to present a great deal of interesting background information, while children practice comparing and contrasting.

* Several graphic organizers, KWLs, graphing extensions and worksheets.

* A variety of writing prompts, including an assortment of letter writing craftivities.

* A dozen games that were played during that time period, so it can be supposed that Pilgrim children might also have played them. Surprisingly, a few your students may still play today!

* 2 super-fun measurement activities that will make sailing on the Mayflower and living in a tiny Pilgrim house more real to your students.

* A Pilgrim TP tube craftivity.

Older students can staple it to the side of one of the writing prompts, to add a bit of 3D pizzazz to your bulletin board display. 

and as always . .

* Photographs & completed samples so that you can quickly & easily make examples to share.

Click on the link to zip on over to have a look see at this 86-page packet chock full of interesting activities: Pilgrim Children.

Here's hoping that your students enjoy learning about Pilgrim children, as they practice a variety of standards.

Today's featured FREEBIE goes right along with this Thanksgiving packet.

Click on the various links for my photographs of the Mayflower II, Plimoth Plantation, Wampanoag Village, and Plymouth Rock that I took, on a recent vacation in Massachusetts.

Sharing these with your kiddos also brings the 17th century to life, helping make things more real, the activities more meaningful and the writing prompts more vivid and authentic.

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.  Time to get ready to go celebrate our oldest son's birthday. 

Where have 35 years flown off to?  One seems to go from potty training to driver's training in a heartbeat, then the rest even faster.  Wishing you a love-filled day.

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey

1-2-3 Come Do A Few More Thanksgiving Craftivities With Me

I have a bunch of empty TP rolls literally rolling around the bottom of my drawer, so I decided to dream up a quickie independent center, recycling TP tubes, that children could transition to, after they completed their morning table-top lessons.

I really enjoy designing simple craftivities that I know children will have fun making, and parents will enjoy keeping.  After I glued my grandson's photo to the template, I knew I had the "Awwww!" factor.

It's a misconception that Pilgrims only wore stark black or gray clothing, with white collars and cuffs.  While the cuffs remained white, Pilgrim clothes were also green, blue, burgundy, violet and red. 

This has been documented through diaries, letters, as well as wills, where Colonials left special clothes, like a velvet violet skirt, or green doublet to a family member.

It would be historically appropriate for you to cut the construction paper rectangles out of these brighter colors and give students a choice of what they want their Pilgrim to wear. 

I cut 2 scallops from a paper doilie and folded it over the top of the TP tube to make the Pilgrim girl's collar.  You could also add a yarn bow for that finishing touch. 

Students have the option to color a Pilgrim head, or print off a child's school photo for them to glue to the face of the Pilgrim.  I added a bit of pizzazz to the hat with gold glitter glue.  Click on the link to view/download the TP Pilgrim craftivity.

Since writing about what you are thankful for is such an interesting and popular writing prompt, I designed yet another craftivity where students can do this.  It's always nice to give children a few options when it comes to writing. 

Run off the THANKFUL word template.  Students cut and glue the pieces together to make the word.  Children can simply write what they are thankful for inside the letters, or challenge older students to think of at least 1 or 2 things that they are thankful for that begin with those letters.  i.e. in the letter F one could write: food, family, fun, friends, freedom etc.  I added some extra pizzazz with glitter glue.

I also made an example with pictures. 

Students can use stickers, clip art, pictures cut from magazines, as well as photographs of things that they are thankful for and add them to their word. 

If you don't have time to do this in class, assign it for homework and enlist parental help.  Click on the link to view/download the THANKFUL writing prompt-word craftivity.

Finally, build students' self-esteem by making a Thankful Class book. 

Print the color or black & white cover and run off the boy and girl writing prompts and Pilgrim hats. 

Write each child's name on a hat and toss them in a container. Students choose a name and write why they are thankful for that friend. 

Encourage children to use at least 3 adjectives and 2 verbs in their writing.  When everyone is done, have students share their page. 

Collect, collate and laminate the pages and keep in your classroom library.  I've also included a thankful note from the teacher.  Print, fill in your students' names and sign.

Click on the link to view/download the Thankful Class book. Thanks for visiting today.  I design and blog daily, so I hope you can stop back tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES. Feel free to PIN anything from my site.  

"Spending time with children is far more important than spending money on them." -Anthony Williams

1-2-3 Come Play A Shape Game With Me

Come the end of November, my Y5's could identify their 2D shapes, but I liked to continue to incorporate some sort of shape review with them throughout the year, so they could retain that knowledge. 

The vocabulary words hexagon, pentagon and octagon, constantly needed to be reinforced as they easily confused them.

Thus, I like to create games and hands-on crafts that not only review shapes, but other skills & standards as well. The Native American headband does just that.

Run off the shape masters on matching construction paper.  Rough cut and have students trim.  Make the headbands out of strips of white construction paper that are 3 inches wide and 24 inches long.

Students choose a partner and take turns spinning.  Whatever shape they land on, they glue the matching shape to the center of their headband.  After the game, students can glue a feather to the back of it. 

You may want to give an extra feather to the winners of the game, or an extra shape. (When you cut out the hexagon, pentagon and octagon shapes you will have different sizes of diamond shapes as scraps.)

For extra pizzazz, students can add flat-backed rhinestones to the center of their shapes with glue dots.  If you'd like to add some writing to this activity, have students write something that they are thankful for under the shapes. 

These things should be the color of that shape.  i.e. I'm thankful for the blue sky.  You may want to brainstorm with students prior to the writing portion.  As children share things that they are thankful for that are those colors, write the words on the board to help with spelling.

If you've studied the Wampanoag people or Squanto you can also have students write a fact that they learned on the feather.

If you need some facts to share with your students I highly recommend the books: Squanto:The Miracle of Thanksgiving by Metxas,  Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims by Bulla and Squanto's Journey by Brucha.

I also found several sites that have some good factual information: Wampanoag Fact Sheet is extremely helpful with lots of links and pictures. Plimoth Plantation's site is also an excellent source as is Social Studies for Kids.   Current tribal information can be found here.  You can also check out ABC Teach,  Activity Village & Squanto.

Click on the link to view/download the Native American Headband craftivity.  Thanks for visiting.  I'll be designing lots more things today, so I hope you can pop back tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES.  Feel free to PIN away.

"I don't think the Lord wants any pompous proclamation of thanks on one Thursday in November as much as He would like a little humble service from us every day in the year." -Burton Hillis