Around the Alphabet and back again!

The holiday season is here and the children are excited for all things turkeys, trees and toys!!!  The past couple of weeks we paused on the letter "B" as it made a perfect topic for this time of year to discuss "Blessings."  During our lessons regarding Thanksgiving we learned that the holiday of Thanksgiving is a time to gather together with friends, family and other people at church, school, shelters and hospitals to give thanks to God for everything we have and to remember to say "Thank You!" to others that help us too.  We discussed that a "blessing" is something good that we have, or love.  We named, each day, many "blessings" to help the children understand that a "blessing" can be a toy, a home, a person, a pet, food, feeling healthy and strong and LOTS of other things. 

As we would go around the table each day naming "blessings" and we came up with some pretty cute ones!!  One of my favorite blessings was learning that one of our little ones is going to be a big sister soon :))!!  Congrats to you and your sweet family!!! 

---

Just a few of the things we are thankful for...

Pizza Fun Friday with Friends!

The privilege to VOTE!!! We voted what type of apples we liked best...red, or yellow!

A little talk time with buddies...

Learning that our Flag is a made with red, white and blue and is also a blessing!!

Making turkeys in sooo many ways like this...we discussed colors and numbers of "feathers" and that turkeys have feathers instead of fur...

Each turkey is a bit different!!

We can experience a new sensory of poking feathers into semi-circle styrofoam balls, while naming colors, comparing lengths and giving them a little face to make ANOTHER turkey!

Painting hands, elbows, cheeks, papers, trees, tables, and chairs TOGETHER! (Ms. Donna isn't afraid of a little, or alot of paint :))

After taste testing yellow and red apples, cutting them open to discover that they all look the same inside no matter what color they are on the outside!! :))

Getting lots of time to explore and play outside with friends...

Big ones teaching little ones how to reach, share and accomplish a goal together...

Getting to read LOTS of books each day by ourselves, with a friend, on the computer and with the teachers...

Playing together, experiencing leaves, sand, dirt, water, working together and having fun...

Our hands can make turkeys...

We can make turkeys with playdough and colored feathers :))

We can all work together making turkey puppets and practice LOTS of turkey sounds! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!!!

One sweet turkey puppet!!

My Thanksgiving Book...

During Thanksgiving week we focused on the history of Thanksgiving as we made this book.  This was quite a project as we have a very young group, but it turned out SO CUTE!!! 
The story inside is one sentence on each page and what we learned about Thanksgiving.  Page One is pictured to the left.  Page Two says, "The Pilgrims sailed on a boat to discover a new land."  We discussed that a pilgrim was a person that wanted to be able to say prayers to God in his own way and left his home to find a land where he could do that.  Page Three says, "The boat was called the Mayflower."  We learned that they sailed an a large boat and that it was the Mayflower.
Page Four says, "They sailed to Plymouth Rock."  We learned that they finally spotted dry land after months and months of seeing nothing but ocean and water. Page Five says, "They made friends they called Indians."  We discussed that the people already living on the land knew how to grow food and hunt for food and that the Pilgrims were hungry and sick and that the Indians helped them to eat and be healthy in the new land.  The final page says, "The Indians helped them plant lots of vegetables and they shared with each other on a day we call Thanksgiving."  We learned that the Pilgrims and the Indians decided to have a great big meal together to say "Thank you God and Thank you friends," and that we do this each year too to remember that everything good we have comes from God.

---

Page 1

Page 3

Page 5

Page 2

Page 4

Let "C" for Christmas Begin!!!