Day Three! The kiddos are really getting into the swing of things with our Thanksgiving curriculum. By now, they know what to expect each day.
As I brought the boys into our little school room, I did a quick review of what we have learned so far. Just a few questions: Who are the Pilgrims? Why did they leave their land? Who helped them in the new land?
I then started the lesson with our daily reading of the Story of the First Thanksgiving. It really is a great children’s version of the story. And since I am reading it to them every day for two weeks, I have a feeling that by the end of our Thanksgiving school they will have every little detail memorized.
After the story, I ran through the highlights again and had the boys walk me through it.
Then we moved to their desk. I pulled their Thankfulness Tree off of the bulletin board, and we discussed what wonderful things the Lord has blessed us with! We compared the ease of our living conditions to the hardships that the Pilgrims faced. But even in the midst of their hunger and cold, they loved and trusted God.
Rudy said that he was thankful for his friends, and Mark said that he was thankful for apples. 🙂
After the Thankfulness Tree, it was time to create page three of our “My Thanksgiving Book.” Today’s page was a depiction of the Mayflower landing at Plymouth Rock. As they glued it all together, we talked about life aboard the ship, how happy they must have been to find land, and then the shock of landing in such a foreign environment.
Once again, the book is absolutely adorable! Cannot wait to see the final product and display it in our home!
Finally, we moved on to the game (the funnest part!). I like for the game to correspond to whatever the boys created in their Thanksgiving book that day, so today’s game had to do with landing at Plymouth Rock.
So, after racking my brain for a landing-at-Plymouth-Rock game, I came up with this:
Backyard Plymouth Rock Maze!
I was so excited when this little idea popped into my head! This was the general idea…using a recipe for sidewalk paint, I painted a giant maze on our driveway. For the maze, I just copied a picture of a fairly easy maze from Google Images.
The stuffed Kohl’s bag in the middle of the maze is supposed to be Plymouth Rock. Haha!
While holding the Mayflower (a toy boat), my two boys had to navigate themselves from the start of the maze to Plymouth Rock (a giant rock made out of pillows and blankets) at the end of the maze. They absolutely loved it!
Once they got to the end of the maze, they docked the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock. Cute!
Here is the recipe for the sidewalk paint:
– Equal parts water and flour shaken in a container. Add washable paint or food coloring.
As they journeyed through the maze trying to find Plymouth Rock, I reminded them of the faith that the Pilgrims had in God even though they were scared and hungry.
Today was truly fun! I hope that this lesson is fun for you and your child as well.
