Kim Sodano & Dotty Mooney
For the month of November, Mrs. Sodano and Mrs. Mooney’s 4 year old 5 day class has been focusing on Thanksgiving and its true meaning “Giving Thanks”. We discussed and read many books about being thankful and created a corn stalk displaying all the reasons why our students are thankful. Each child had the opportunity to create an ear of corn to add to our stalk displaying what they are thankful for. Using an actual ear of corn, the kids rolled out three different colors onto paper, creating a really fun design while enhancing their tactile awareness, as well as their coordination and hand strength. They then cut out the painted paper into the shape of an ear of corn. The kids were excited to have their corn displayed and were very interested to see what their friends were thankful for.
Since one of our letters of the week was “C” this month and to add to our Thanksgiving theme, we decided the kids would learn about and make a cornucopia to reinforce the letter sound with a picture connection. First, they learned a cornucopia was used by the Pilgrims to gather food for their Thanksgiving feast and then we showed them some images of actual cornucopias. To start the project, they finger painted with brown paint mixed with salt to give the cornucopia texture and enhance their tactile awareness. When dry, they cut it out into the horn shape of a cornucopia. At a center they were asked to cut out healthy food pictures from magazines which helped their fine motor skills and hand strength, and glued them down along with some leaves, to the large opening of the cornucopia.
We loved incorporating music in our day to celebrate Thanksgiving as well. We sang songs about big fat turkeys, as we imitate how they walk and make their gobble, gobble sounds. We also sang a song about turkeys running away from people trying to catch them on Thanksgiving Day. They had to listen for key words to initiate hand movements and run in place. These songs were fun but they’re also great listening activities that incorporated spatial awareness and gross motor skills.