Our Feast to Celebrate Thanksgiving and our Friendship.

The kids came up with a menu for our feast. 

Turkey, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Cookies, Apple Cider, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Soup, Mashed Potatoes, and Gravy! We started out by making individual pumpkin pies. 

They also made Pumpkin Soup! They were more excited to make this than anything!  We read a book called Pumpkin Soup, then made it in a crock pot the morning of the feast so that it would be ready by that afternoon. 

They created placemats and wrote what they were thankful for on them. 

They created center pieces for their tables. 

They made labels for all of the food. 

Before we ate, we stood in a circle and held hands. Each child told their friends what they were thankful for the most. This is always such a serious moment for them. 

They then sat down and enjoyed our feast and each other!

A huge thanks to all who volunteered to help serve the kids!  We had such a wonderful day!

How We Went From Haunted Houses to a Masquerade Party!

A small group finally decided to create something different in our home living area.  It has been a kitchen since school started, but some friends sat down with a planning sheet and came up with a plan to create a haunted house for kids to come trick or treat in.  They created ghosts and bats and spiders...

...but then they started turning it into a horror movie haunted house. They started adding blood to the walls by painting paper red and taping it up and some were wanting to make bloody hand prints.  We sat down and discussed that we want a haunted house that would not be too scary for kids to visit.  No blood or gore was the rule! So we brainstormed what would be appropriate to add to their haunted house. They came up with more ghosts, bats, mummies, spider webs and other much more appropriate items to add. 

The kids then mentioned that everyone needed masks to come trick or treating!  We brainstormed types of masks they could make.  One friend mentioned we could make masquerade masks. The rest of the kids wanted to know what those were so we brought up Google Images to find out!  The Promethium Board filled with beautiful examples of masquerade masks. The kids did a collective gasp and there was a moment of silence.  All of the sudden, the room exploded into very excited voices saying " I want to make that one!" "I want to make one with the purple feathers!" "I want to make..."  They wanted to start right away but I told them they needed to let me collect materials first! 

The next day, we looked at the images of the masks again for inspiration and passed out planning sheets. They got right into creating a plan showing what their masks would look like, collected the materials they put on their list, and started creating!  

Look at how perfectly they followed their plans!

A friend then suggested that we should wear our masks for our Friendship Thanksgiving Feast that was coming up soon. They also decided that we should dress up in our fancy clothes like they do at Masquerade parties.  A Friendship Thanksgiving Masquerade Feast!

They added either a stick to hold the mask up to their face, or a headband to staple the mask on to keep it on with out having to hold it. Look at these beautiful groups of friends celebrating together!

Pumpkins- The Project

We ended our investigation by measuring the pumpkins.

The kids recorded how tall they were.

The kids have learned about the pumpkin life cycle through many books that we have read and some videos from YouTube.  We decided to create a display for the hallway that shows how a pumpkin grows. The kids signed up to be on the seed/soil team, sprout team, vine team, flower team, green pumpkin team, and orange pumpkin team. We set out materials and they all created their part to show the cycle. 

Here is the finished product, along with documentation of what the kids explored and learned about during our pumpkin inquiry.

The kids also investigated foods that can be made with pumpkins. We made a list and picked three to include in our Thanksgiving Friendship Feast on Monday.  A friend is bringing in chocolate chip pumpkin bread made by their family.  We will be making pumpkin pies and pumpkin soup in the classroom to add to our feast. They are very excited to try it all!

Our feast next week has taken a very interesting and non-traditional turn!  I can't wait to show you what they came up with!  They are one creative group of children!  The conversation started with a haunted house project a group is working on and ended with a Fancy Masquerade Friendship Thanksgiving Feast!  But that is for another post...