Well a fun week last week, we turned a table upside down to become pilgrims and sail to the new land. I never got around to taking pictures but it was fun. I have collected some good info to use with preschool children on the pilgrims coming to America. We talked about what they would need to take for such a long journey and http://www.daniellesplace.com/ has some awesome resources to help with that. We talked about how the boys and girls had to leave all their toys behind and they played with things on the ship. We had food, dishes, suit case, clothes and other things that you might need to pack if you were sailing across the ocean to a new land. Another great resource is from http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/ in their printable books they have a book called Pilgrim, Pilgrim. It is a great very simple resource for the Pilgrims story. In block center we used lincoln logs to represent the homes the pilgrims might have built after their arrival.
We added a tee pee to our home living and the Mayflower left about mid week and we talked about how they had help from Native Americans and how they helped them learn about some new crops to grow. They worked together and celebrated the First Thanksgiving in the new country. We made Indian head bands with feathers out of sentence strips. I wanted the activity to be a math center activity so I cut triangles, circles and rectangles out of many colors of paper. I told the children we needed to make a pattern out of the shapes. I did not want to worry about the colors because I wanted their head bands to be very colorful. It was very interesting how some children not only patterned the shapes but also the colors. Some patterned the way they placed their triangles and rectangles as well. It turned out to be a great patterning math activity. Random thoughts to teach often turn out the best.
Our school is a Christian school and for us this whole month has been learning about praying and thanking God for all he gives. We read a book that was called I am Thankful Each Day. It was a great book to use to help the children think of the small and grand things in life all around us to be thankful for.
