[flreader]

I have the freedom to develop my own units and have found that my students are much more involved when everything we do centers on a common theme each week. This past month I did nocturnal animals (owls and bats), spiders and pumpkins. Moving into November, I have some ideas after looking at other websites. I was just wondering if those of you experienced in Kg have any suggestions for the three weeks of November before the holiday.

Do you do pilgrims and indians? Thanksgiving in general? Or would you recommend sticking to a turkey theme one week?

Any suggestions on books that you enjoy during the month of November or crafts/art activities that are appropriate?

I have so many things going and it seems that just planning and preparing week to week is overwhelming in itself. Though, it is fun if i can somehow manage to forgot all of the other things I have to do.

TIA!

[PoohBear]

I concentrated mostly on Native American themes.....differences in housing, food, traditions, travel, etc among the different tribes across the United States and comparing that with present day life. Then I would introduce the Pilgrims and their journey the last week before Thanksgiving.

For the Pilgrim unit I recommend "Sarah Mortons Day", "Samuel Eatons Day" and "On the Mayflower". They have great pictures and are a good resource for day to day life. They are written in the vernacular of the day though so I generally tell the story rather than read it.

[grtlaks]

I do Pilgrims and Native Americans and bring in quite a few things. We look at pictures of both and color them. We make models of the homes they both live in and compare the types of clothes they wore. We look at the different type of work children did then and compare it to now. Scholastic has some good teacher refernce books and I use pocket chart strips that have both on them. You can go to Scholastic.com to look up some neat things and you can go to Plimoth Plantation's website for info, too. I use a smartboard and show the class the pictures on these sites. I do a popcorn unit during this time as well. We end the unit with a feast.

[flreader]

Just curious what your popcorn unit entails. Thanks so much for taking time to respond!

[grtlaks]

Basically with the popcorn, we read some books I get from the library, and I have a booklet we do from I Can Make It-Fall. We study corn and all of the products that contain corn. We just did the pumpkin farm and they did show us some products with corn products in them as well. We talk about popcorn's history and how it came to be. I bring in corn on the cob popcorn, microwave popcorn, and a popper to make regular popcorn. I do the cob one first, and try to have them guess what it is and what will happen to it when I put it in the microwave. Of course, we get to eat it then. I try to use black and burgundy popcorn so they can see the difference when it pops.

[gr8ideas]

We make life size scarecrows...there are a lot of centers...art....books....Love it!