Thanksgiving Story

This is a little 'old news' now, but at least it will be ready for next year. Two years ago, I had my kiddos work on Christmas story book while we were traveling for Thanksgiving. This year, I thought we make one for the Thanksgiving story. 

Here are Bee and Lou's books.  I printed each one of them up a book and had them bound at Office Max.  It cost more there than it has in the past at Staples.  But it was under $5 for both.   Here are what the pages read; feel free to use my text in a book for your little ones. (not in your for-purchase downloads though).  I don't use sell-able or share-able clipart, so I can't even really share the files, but if you want, I'd be happy to e-mail you it, so you can 'see it better.'

The Pilgrims wanted to worship God in the way they thought the Bible told them to, not the way the law made them.  (Kids color and write their favorite bible verse on the pages)  Hannah's favorite is 1 John 4:6.  Lou's favorite is Psalm 118:1.

102 set sail on the Mayflower with 32 crewmen.  It was cold and cramped for the Pilgrims below the deck.  Many were sick from the rocking waves. (we painted with watercolor paints, the rocking waves.)

They continued to pray and thank God for their safety.  ( I traced their hands 2 times on peachish paper and we glued them on like praying hands.)

They landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.  It was winter and there were no houses.  They lived aboard the ship while some men built a few homes.  (They glued cut pieces of brown paper and thinner pieces of cut tan for the logs and thatching.  They also added some black squares from another page for the chimney.)

The first winter was rough on the Pilgrims.  Many were sick and half of them died.  (They cut out paper snowflakes -with glitter- and taped them in place.) 

An Indian named Squanto came to stay with the Pilgrims.  He taught them about local plants and animals.  (They colored a coloring sheet page here... Bee passed, Lou protested by painting a mess.)

He taught them about growing corn.  The Indians placed a fish in the hole with the corn seeds.  The corn grew tall and healthy. (the kids glued on paper fish and paper corn seeds in the first box.  In the second box, they colored and added big yellow corns to the healthy plants.)

The Pilgrims grew a hearty garden and had more than enough food for the next winter.  (they stamped circles using our paint lid for the orange pumpkins and used a marker lid to make yellow squash.  The squash plants were tomatoes, but them I remembers that they weren't eating tomatoes at the time.... so we have staked squash on our pages. )

In 1621 the remaining Pilgrims, half of them children, planned a harvest feast.  About 90 Indians joined them in the feast.  They played games, shared music, and shared food.  They ate deer, turkey, pheasant, fish, lobster, squash, onions, pumpkins, and corn.   There was no pie or potatoes. (I thought the kids would draw Pilgrim food on the plates, but they wanted to draw their own favorite foods.)

In 1863 Abe Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday.  (The kids glued black paper squares mosaic style on an outline of abe's hat.)

 Today, we celebrate by getting to together with family, eating delicious food, and giving thanks to God for all of our blessings.  (Lou only has one family member in the portrait too.)

I think this would make a fun project for a class to work on in those random spare minutes during the day but was also a fun activity to pull out here and there when the kids needed to settle themselves... or the aunts and uncles needed a break from playing 'horse' with the kids.  Their poor backs.