We have continued  working on the details for our Thanksgiving feast. Today during circle time, I invited the children to brainstorm with me what they think we should serve for our Thanksgiving meal…
Each child told me what they would like added to our list. By the end of our list, the children were really catching on to the idea and I was running out of room on my chart. As I wrote each menu item on the chart I would casually say things like, “Strawberries – wow, that is a very long word!” or “Pumpkin Pie is two words.” Â I didn’t over do the academic part of this process but I briefly pointed out different parts of the writing process as we went along. Â The children caught on too and would say things like, “That word is short!”
Once we had our menu all prepared, then I went back and asked the children to raise their hand if they liked chicken or macaroni and cheese and so on. Â My goal was to briefly review the words we had just written out together…
After we finished our menu, then we did a simple chart on how we will need to set the table for our meal. Â I asked the children to help me decide what non-food items we will need at the table. If they couldn’t think of something, I would say things like, “Well, what will I drink out of?” or “Hmmm, I might need something to wipe my face while I eat.”
They listed off things like a plate, fork, spoon, knife, and so on. As they listed items for the table, I tried to draw them on my paper…
Once we had our table setting completed, including our turkey decoration, then we added the food items we had made on our first chart. I would draw something from our menu and the children would guess what they thought I had just drawn from the menu – some of my drawings were quite a challenge to figure out….
So now that we have our menu all ready and we know how to set the table – we are just about all ready for the big day! Stay tuned for more!
