Building Fond Memories...Thanksgiving

We do not remember days...

We remember moments.

-Cesare Pavese-

Thanksgiving has always been my holiday to host, and this year there will be no children coming. So, I  have to capture the childhood perspective when I go to the classrooms that I volunteer in. Turkeys, food, stories and conversations are ways to help children connect to this holiday. One of our more recent Thanksgiving traditions helps even adults focus on what we are grateful for. We create a gratitude book. It can be set up before or assembled afterwards.  

• Each guest is given a 3" X 3" piece of paper. Number 1-5
• They are to write down 5 things they are thankful for.
• Share what you have written.
• Take a picture of each guest.
• Make a mini scrapbook by letting each person decorate their page with stickers, templates, markers and etc.
• Or you can put a 4"X4" book together yourself. 

This makes a perfect gift for the host or hostess.
   Hint: This is what we are going to do...Not do you want to? Once people get into it, everyone has fun.

There are three children's books that I would like to suggest.

• I'm Thankful Each Day, by P.K. Hallinan This is a simple book that will give young children some "eye-deas" about what we can be thankful for. It is written in rhyme.
• Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving. A parody on A Night Before Christmas shows us how we can have a great Thanksgiving without the turkey. Humorous but still invokes conversation.
• Thankgiving at the Tappletons, by Eileen Spinelli. This is one of my favorite and is about the perfect Thanksgiving dinner gone bad. After a comedy of errors, the family is around the table and starving. What happens to solve the problem, what is learned from the situation, and how lemonade is made from lemons, teaches us some valuable lessons. Maybe I like it so much because it is done like a scrapbook.

"Eye-deas" for Children...

• Make a gratitude journal. This can be an activity done all year long. Before bedtime, before or after a story, children can write or draw something about their day that makes them thankful.
• This is a great time for cooking activities. Even young children benefit from doing a food project. "Ants on a log" only involves taking a piece of celery, spreading peanut putter or cream cheese on the celery and placing raisins on it to be the ants.
• Help set the table and making a centerpiece of name cards can be fun. Stickers make the place cards an easy activity.
• Learning about the history of Thanksgiving and how it ties into Freedom, is an important part of the holiday. Older children can  go into the story extensively.

However we choose to celebrate, no matter how difficult the times, as I sit here with Daisy on my lap, I am grateful for you, my friends, supporters and students. I hope there are "eye-deas," and thoughts that you think about, use and share with others. 
In short, I hope you make this a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Jane

Next week: "Great Eye-deas" hat.