From kindergarten to the second grade, the Friday before Thanksgiving break we would learn about Thanksgiving, do activities, and say what we were thankful for. In all grades I learned about a “general” Thanksgiving. We talked about how the Pilgrims came here on the Mayflower, that the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims grow food, and that the Pilgrims were so thankful toward the Native Americans that they celebrated with a large feast. Through these grades i made a lot of different crafts but the one that stuck throughout all of them was the hand-turkey. We would make a cut out of our hands and add parts to it to make it look like a turkey. The first four fingers would create the feathers and the thumb would be the turkey’s head. In the fingers we would write what we were thankful for.
I think the hand turkey project is definitely the most used craft for kids when learning about Thanksgiving. I know my first Thanksgiving project was this activity and as far as I know kids are still doing it today! It’s interesting to see how other people learned about it and how the future is changing in certain things but they still carry on this tradition!