Gingerbread Ethics

My favorite unit of the year---Gingerbread! We read the books about the boy, girl, friends, the Runaway Tortilla and the Cajun Cornbread Man. I start to view my food differently-watching to see if it will up and run away after a few weeks of these stories!

So I started with the basic good 'ole Gingerbread Man classic story. I asked the kids to write whether it was right or wrong that the cookie ran away from everyone. I LOVE that they came up with so many different kinds of reasoning for their answers:

Blurry pic I know but I love her answer-it was right because he can be free.

Our Thanksgiving Poems

We read poetry every day in our class. I use it as an activity to practice reading fluently as well as for introducing new vocabulary and literary devices. This was our first foray into writing them ourselves! I asked them to use a very simple format-write a title, decribe your family traditions for Thanksgiving by using adjective/nouns and then a sentence to sum it all up. We are still working on things like handwriting and better word choice-but you can see their writing skills really developing. We turned them into our class book for November.

good turkey

green broccoli

cold ice cream

yellow fruit

happy family

We sit at the table.

Colors

pretty tablecloth

green vegetables

red leaves

brown leaves

yellow corn

Cooking family

good ham

turkey leg

pretty mom

strong dad

funny sister

At my house we eat a lot.

Share Food

good turkey

squishy potatoes

good apples

yellow bananas

together family

I feel good.

My Turkey is Yummy

crazy corn

soft mashed potatoes

melty cookies

good squash

juicy lettuce

I feel thankful.

Turkey Day

soft fish

hard carrots

caramel apples

thankful family

cute clothes

It is a happy feast.

I like Thankgiving

chewy meat

bright lettuce

heavy presents

dazzling fireworks

cheesy pasta

The moon is dazzling in the night.

Yummy Food

squishy potatoes

hot turkey

hard corn

potato pie

pretty family

We look nice dressed up.

Skinny potatoes

swirly lettuce

flat chicken

happy family

pretty decorations

All the food you like.

We Celebrate

rough turkey

black beans

hot sauce

crunchy carrots

hard cookies

We go to my mom's house.

I Love to Eat Turkey

Mushy mashed potatoes

loud family

round pumpkin pie

dazzling clothes

It is sweet and yummy.

Giving

spicy chicken

yummy turkey

face squash

nice family

nice cousins

Celebrate.

I Eat Chicken for Thankgiving

pretty world

pretty Bianca

pretty school

yellow corn

pink apples

My chicken smells like turkey.

Good chicken

yummy turkey

delicious lettuce

good mashed potatoes

nice family

It is fun.

A Family

Good turkey

Squishy potatoes

Good waffles

Candy lollipop

Family nice.

Fun.

Thanksgiving Community Service

A big focus for us throughout the year is on community service. I think it's important to help develop those empathy skills and it's easy because little ones are very good at making cute things! :)

We made Thanksgiving placemats. We will give half to a local nursing home that we have adopted this year and the other half will be delivered to Meals on Wheels recipients.

I very much believe in open-ended products. I'm not one to cut out the pieces and then tell the kids where to paste them. So I demonstrated how to cut out squares and suggested maybe a pattern around the frame, asked them to draw something Thanksgiving-y in the middle. They really enjoyed making them and put a lot of love into these simple placemats. (P.S. I took the pics before I laminated them).

(for some reason this one reminded me of Where the Wild Things Are :)