Snoopy

Thanksgiving School–Misc.

There are some ideas and activities I used for Thanksgiving that don’t really fit in any one day of school, so I’ll share them here.

FamilyFun is an excellent website for finding great activities to do with children. They have special holiday sections, and I got quite a few ideas there. It has become a new tradition to play their “Thanksgiving Day Parade Bingo,” (from the Thanksgiving TV Bingo section), while we watch the Macy’s Parade, and this year I even had our sheets laminated (there’s also a football version, but I’m not really into football, so I didn’t bother…). They also have some really cute coloring sheets, and we took advantage of several of those.

Unwrapped is one of Turkey’s favorite TV shows, because he loves watching how things are made. As luck would have it, there are several Thanksgiving episodes, and so we learned about how things like stuffing, gravy, and cranberries are made. I count this as educational, because they manage to cram a lot of information into just one episode, but Turkey and Bunny just think they’re getting to watch a favorite TV show!

We all really enjoyed watching The Real Story of Thanksgiving on the History Channel (even Ladybug liked it!). This show detailed this history of Thanksgiving from the very first one, through all of the changes it has seen over the years. Much of the show was light-hearted, but it was full of historical information and interesting facts. Did you know that domesticated turkeys (the kind we typically eat on Thanksgiving) are pure white? I think that was the biggest surprise for all us as we were watching!

I got the idea for the silhouettes that we made last week from Great Colonial America Projects. We didn’t really use the book too much this year, but it has some cool craft activities, and it also gives a lot of history mixed in with the projects.

We also watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving several times. The real gem on this disc is “The Mayflower Voyages” segment. While it may be a Peanuts show, it’s also incredibly historically accurate. I can’t believe how much Turkey and Bunny learned (and retained!) about the Pilgrims, just from the repeated watching of this movie.

Thanksgiving with Snoopy

Although we’re not having our full-fledged Thanksgiving unit until next week, we are reading two Thanksgiving books this week:  If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 and If You were at the First Thanksgiving.  We’ve also recently watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which includes The Mayflower Voyagers, told with the whole Peanuts gang.

I knew that the Snoopy show was pretty accurate, partly because I know that they did a whole series of films to help children understand American history, and partly because I *do* remember some American history myself.  But as we’ve been reading about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower, I’ve found myself a little surprised at just how accurate and detailed The Mayflower Voyagers is.

Turkey and Bunny had been piping up with answers here and there, during our readings, which I know is thanks to Snoopy.  So, I decided to test their knowledge a little further.  We were talking about the building done at Plymouth Rock, and I know that they mention the “Common House” (the first building at the settlement) quite a few times in the course of The Mayflower Voyagers.  So, right before we got to that section of our reading, I asked them if they knew what the first building the Pilgrims put up was.  Turkey didn’t remember, but Bunny promptly and confidently answered “a dog house!”

Maybe Snoopy isn’t as accurate as I thought.