Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Activities

 If you want a fun celebration for Thanksgiving, do a Charlie Brown theme. Show the video A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and treat your students with the same meal- popcorn, pretzels, jelly beans, and toast. For toast I use cereal pieces from Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Simply put small handfuls of each item into clear plastic cups and let students have a festive feast.

My students love readers theatre, so using this script is a sure hit!

After viewing the video, you can use this Charlie Brown coloring page for some extra fun.

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Thanksgiving Apple Turkey Craft

Are you looking for cute Thanksgiving craft? Your students will show gratitude and thankfulness with this hands on Apple Turkey project. A turkey head and feathers will be decorated and hot glued to wooden skewers with the help of an adult. On each feather students will write what they are thankful for in their life. The finished product is an adorable apple turkey which can be a table centerpiece for Thanksgiving dinner tables. 

Turkey, Turkey

Gobble, Gobble

Eat too much

Wobble, Wobble

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Five for Friday ....

I'm joining in again this week for some shared randomness.

My last day before my week long Thanksgiving break was Friday!

My class ended our day doing some fun readers theatre scripts and a turkey apple craft.

I've been getting back into my walking routine after a long time of going without exercise.

Harley sure does like his walks. Now he is resting in one of his favorite lounge spots.

I'm busy prepping my winter holiday gifts for my students. I get decks of cards at the dollar store and have them "Deck out the Holidays" with math games. I've had parents love it as it reinforces critical math skills in a fun game format. If you'd like to try this holiday gift this year for your class you can get it in my TPT store.

I went to the store today to pick up the baking ingredients for the chocolate trifle layer cake my family EXPECTS me to bring to Thanksgiving dinners every year. It is unbelievably yummy and is always such a hit, especially for any newcomers who taste it for the first time.

I'm hoping to read at least one good book over my Thanksgiving break.

The last book I read was The Husband's Secret which I did enjoy.

I ran across the site What Should I Read Next? which I'm planning to explore for my next read.

Find more great ideas on my Pinterest page or TPT store

Teaching about Immigration, Ellis Island and Today's Pilgrims

My class just finished an in depth author study of Patricia Polacco.

We learned how her family immigrated to the U.S. from Russia.

I read the book Coming to America to teach more about the immigration process.

Then we explored Scholastic's site on immigrants which includes video clips of immigrant children today as well as background on Ellis Island.

Finally, we connected Patricia Polacco's family history of being Russian immigrants to the novel Molly's Pilgrim. A video is available for the story too that we compared the book to.

View a video clip

To wrap up our pilgrim and immigration focus students made their own Molly's Pilgrim doll.

 

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Thanksgiving Recap a la Harley

Even dogs celebrate Thanksgiving. My parents call Harley their granddog and they do spoil him like crazy. They even dogsit him most days at their house when I am at work and he has a habit of ALWAYS hitting his dog dish first thing when entering their house to look for treats. Well, fast forward to Thanksgiving Day. My dad played a trick on him, knowing he would hightail it to his dish.

See that wooden pig in the background by the dog dish? That's my dad's recent buy at an antique store.

The pig has a name...Oscar. Oscar happened to be guarding Harley's bowl upon our arrival on Turkey Day. Harley's reaction was classic. He came to a screeching halt, and growled, sniffed and skirted around his bowl trying to figure out the nerve of something else by his bowl. Luckily, he did warm up to Oscar by the end of the day and got some turkey and gravy of his own.

Oh, on a sidenote, I got relieved of jury duty yesterday. I had to call in midday for a possible appearance. But Yay for me, when I called my group did not need to report! So I went to Olive Garden with the whole family instead.

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Thinking of Thanks

I'm joining Oh Boy 4th Grade and What the Teacher Wants Thankful linkies.

Harley & Me

I'm currently typing this post as a one eyed teacher due to eye surgery this morning. I have a huge eye patch over one eye and it's taken me FOREVER to correct all my misspellings.  But I'm recovering with gratitude because IT is the way, even though the doc says I'll be black, blue and bruised for Turkey Day. Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation.

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Thankful Bucket Fillers

Have your students fill buckets this week in a thankful way!

Click each photo to download each bucket filler note.

~Enjoy~

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 (Freebie ideas and giveaways are sometimes shared there!)

 

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A Plateful of Turkey: Turkey Craft

Come make yourself a plateful of turkeys. Here's how. I was originally inspired by the idea {HERE}, but didn't want to have my kiddos paint all those plain white plates! My easy solution was to use seasonal and colored plates. They are a little thicker and harder to roll, but it's doable.

Start with a solid brown plate and roll it into a cone. Staple it and cut off larger bottom end to use as wings. Then, cut the fall leaf plate into 3/4 and 1/4 parts for the feather accents.  Layer the cut plates and staple to cone body. Last, add your too cute turkey face.  All done and with no painting!  Wala...I'm sending mine home with the students for their Thanksgiving table centerpieces.

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Gratitude Journal Prompt Writing for Thanksgiving Lessons in the Classroom

Thanksgiving at the Tappleton's is an adorable holiday read aloud with a great message of finding gratitude in all situations. The Tappleton's traditional Thanksgiving meal goes all awry when Mrs. Tappleton lets the frozen turkey accidentally slide down the icy sidewalk into the pond. The meal plans go from bad to worse shape from there on in! It's a very cute read.

This book is a perfect lead in to my Gratitude Journal prompts I use in November.

This set has 18 prompts focused on thanks and gratitude.

I also do this adorable Apple Turkey Craft. It makes a wonderful table decoration for families on Thanksgiving.

Click picture to grab a copy.

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I recently started a Facebook Group for teachers to share ideas, questions, and inspiration. 

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