Today is Day Two of our Thanksgiving Curriculum!
We began the day by talking about what we do on Thanksgiving Day. We talked about food and all their family members that they hope to see.
I then transitioned us into reading the story of the first Thanksgiving. We read all about the Pilgrims and the religious persecution; we learned about the Mayflower and the living conditions aboard; and of course, I read to them the story of Plymouth and the helpfulness of the Indians.
Once I finished the story, I sat them at their little desk and we worked on the Thankfulness Tree. Today, Rudy was thankful for turkey and Mark was thankful for food. 🙂 They glued on their little leaves and admired the thickening of the foliage.
Next, we worked on page two of the “My First Thanksgiving” Book. Today’s page was about the Mayflower crossing the ocean. While the kids glued the pieces together, I told them all about the living conditions aboard the Mayflower.
They were very interested in the idea of a long, tough journey across the ocean. Rudy asked if there were storms. He asked if they were cold. Good questions!
After they completed their incredibly adorable construction paper Mayflower, we moved into the kitchen for Game Time!
I always want the game to correspond with whatever page we do in the “My First Thanksgiving” Book, so today’s game had to do with the Mayflower crossing the ocean.
This is what I came up with:
I made an interactive word search across our kitchen floor. The word hidden inside the word search was, of course, Mayflower.
Using one of their toy boats, they had to pull it across the ocean (aka my kitchen floor). The only way the boat could cross, however, was if they pulled it along the letters making up the word “Mayflower.” If they ventured onto the wrong letter, they ship was “blown off course” and they had to start over.
To assemble the word search, I first taped each letter of the word “Mayflower” in an individual square of my beautiful linoleum floor.
Then I filled in all around the Mayflower letters to make it look like a giant word search.
When it was time to play the game, I told my boys that the area of the floor with all the letters on it was the ocean that the Mayflower had to cross.
They had to get from their old land all the way to the new land, and the only way to cross was to follow the right letters.
On the front of the toy boat, I had already taped on a little magnet. I handed Rudy one of those long magnet stick things (those tools that help you reach something metallic that has fallen into a tiny little area), and showed him how to pull the boat along the floor.
When it was time for the boat to set sail, I would call out a letter, and Rudy would “sail” the boat to that particular letter. We eventually spelled “Mayflower” and ended up on the other side of the ocean. 🙂
They loved it!
We had another fun day learning about the history of the first Thanksgiving, talking about the blessings God has given us, and playing a fun word search game!
My hope is that this serves as a useful tool for other homeschooling mommies out there!
