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Halloween is over and now it is time to start planning Thanksgiving activities for the classroom!
Sometimes making these plans can seem redundant or less than lively, because it’s the same thing year after year. We talk about the Thanksgiving story, the Mayflower, and the feast. We have students write about what they are thankful for and make turkeys by painting their hands. It’s the same year after year.
Well if you are tired of doing the same Thanksgiving lessons over and over each year, imagine how many times your students have done them by the time they get to you. It’s getting old for them too!
What if instead you planned unique Thanksgiving activities for the classroom? Activities that tie in your standards, but also totally engage them in what they are learning?
Sound amazing?
In this podcast episode, I am chatting with one of my teacher besties, Stacey. She is sharing three super simple and unique Thanksgiving activities that she has done with her third graders. Plus, I throw in a fun science activity that my students always enjoyed.
Unique Thanksgiving Activities
- Stone Soup
- Pumpkin Pie Science
- Making Butter
- Cranberry STEM
Where can I find more info about the Cranberry STEM and making butter?
I love Stone Soup! I have been doing it for 19 years. It started out with a crockpot in my classroom but now we do it as a grade level. We bring everyone in the cafeteria first thing in the morning to read the book and make our soup. Each child brings in one ingredient already cut up and ready to go. We call each ingredient up one at a time and measure then add to our huge stockpots. The teachers bring in diced chicken for the protein. When we are done we have a recipe for our soup that we share with the families. We enlist the cafeteria to cook our soup since it is such a large quantity. We have some parent helpers come in to help serve the soup later in the day. We also make butter for corn muffins. I use baby food jars half filled with heavy cream. Place the jars in a small ziploc just incase of leaks. I have groups of two or three student work together to shake. We end our feast with pumpkin pie in a cup. To make it, mix one container of cool whip with one can of pumpkin pie mix (be sure to get the mix and not straight pumpkin). Put some graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of a short cup and then fill with the cool whip/pumpkin mixture. Add a spoonful of plain cool whip on top. The children have a Stone Soup Feast that they have made themselves!
These are amazing ideas! I’m planning to use the Stone Soup activity with my kids next week Hope the soup turns out well!