Feasting like the Pilgrims

I love history and I love food.  Add in a dash of my passion for hands on and you have Thanksgiving in my classroom.

First the food....we cook a feast.  I am crazy, I know.   I have a roaster and I cook the turkey in there.  I stuff it with celery, onions, apples, and sometimes an orange.  It sits and cooks all day (well until about 11:30).   I forgot to take a picture when it was all brown and yummy.  This is right before I put the lid on at 6:30 in the morning (yes, I came to school early).

We have a campfire ring at school where I light some charcoal...however I have used my charcoal table on particularly a snowy November.  In the charcoal we cook Rhodes frozen rolls in dutch ovens (amazing simple, but the effect and taste is wonderful) and potatoes.  Each student cleans one potato and wraps it in tin foil.  They cook on the coals for about an hour and a half.

Cranberries are an American food and traditional for Thanksgiving.  We grind our own.  I have a grinder (I actually think I have three...my husband keeps picking them up at thrift stores).   It is not hard to work and I have done it by myself....but if you have mom helpers, this is a great time to use them.  My grinder attaches to a desk or cutting board with a big screw.  I put a tray to catch the cranberries as they come out of the grinder and a bowl underneath to catch the liquid (which is yummy and I save it).  I use one orange (cut in wedges) for each bag of whole cranberries.  Each student gets a chance to turn the handle and I do enough for everyone to have a turn (leftovers find their way to my Thanksgiving table).  This is a to taste recipe...want more orange flavor, add another.  Need it to be sweeter?  Add some sugar, brown or white.  This gets made early in the day, I have seatwork activities going on for students who are waiting their turn.

Next carrots...I have a bunch of cheap peelers and I let each student peel one carrot.  Very funny to see what the carrots look like when they come back to me.  I cut them into carrot sticks.  The best place to do this is outside on a warm day, but if it is too cold I try to remember to put something under the trash can because not all of the peels make the trash.  Think easy clean up.  Another good place for mom helpers.

The last thing we do is make butter.  This we do all at the same time.  I have two cases of half pint canning jars (the skinny shape is best) that I use every year.  I half fill each jar with cream (heavy cream makes butter quicker but regular works fine too).  Be sure the lid is on securely and shake.  Shake and shake and shake!  Then shake some more.  First it is whipped cream....keep shaking.  After what seems too long...presto....chango...it clumps and separates and it is butter!  I pour the liquid (buttermilk) into an empty jar and the butter goes on a paper plate with a paper towel underneath.  I put it on paper because there will still be liquid that comes out of the butter.  You could squeeze it a bit with a spoon.  I will sometimes do that to make it a little more solid.

When everything is cooked we eat with our reading buddies (who bring the apple juice and dessert).  The last few years it has been warm enough to eat outside.

My great high school aide.

Wishing you a happy and safe Thanksgiving.  I was going to say healthy....but hey it's Thanksgiving.  Enjoy!

Peek at My Week...Turkeys

I have often said that my talent is recognizing a good idea when I see it.  This week my plans are filled with good ideas...a little bit of everything Kindergarten and turkeys. 

The ideas and activities in my plans I have found across the internet.  I am so thankful for creative teachers who create wonderful resources and then share them on their blogs, tpt stores, and through pinterest.  I have included links to each of these  resources and ideas.  Some are free, some are paid items.  The paid items are so worth the cost.  So without further adieu here is what we are doing.

We are still working our way through the letters and the numbers.  Our routines for both are going strong. You can read about my number routine here.  I love using peas and carrots to really look at the numbers.  For letters we use Animated Literacy, plus Reading a-z and several other resources collected over the years for phonics and handwriting.

Content Area and ELA standards will meet while we learn about Turkeys.  We will use Kathleen's Pederson Let's Talk Turkey to learn more about Turkeys and more about nonfiction.  We will label the parts of a turkey using Lori Rosenberg's labeling page.  You can grab it at her blog or on Freebielicious.  We will be using what we learn to write about turkeys.  Our nonfiction writing will start with a tree map.

Next week I am back in the classroom and I will be prepping for our Thanksgiving Feast and learning about pilgrims.  This week...enjoy Turkeys! 

Head on over to Deedee Wills and take a peek at what everyone else is doing.

Thanksgiving Preview

As much as I love October and Halloween...I love November and Thanksgiving more.  It is my birthday month, but I don't think that is the reason.  We are getting closer to Christmas, but I don't think that is the reason either.

I like history!

I like food!

I like saying Thank-you!

and....I like playing dress-up.

I go a little crazy...I admit it, maybe a little too crazy.  With the help of my students (and sometimes their parents) I cook a Thanksgiving Feast.  Yup...turkey, carrot and celery sticks (I have seen a 5 year old peel a nice fat carrot down to one carrot stick, yum!...others are using a peeler for the first time), rolls (I use frozen rolls, but I bake them in a dutch oven...outside), homemade butter (made in a jar), ground cranberry/orange relish (I have an old-fashioned grinder), baked potatoes (wrapped in foil in the coals), apple juice and sometimes we get ambitious and make pumpkin pie with the pumpkins we played with at Halloween.

With all this fun there is great learning going on.  I wanted to give my kinders chance for more practice with positional words.  Turkeys seem like the perfect way to do just that.  Follow this turkey around the farm...

 

If you want to download it, just click on the cover.  Then, please leave me some love.  Follow my blog and watch to see how my feast goes this year!