Cranberry Thanksgiving (Five in a Row)

(November 14-23) In order to get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday and learn as much as we could about the history behind this holiday we rowed Cranberry Thanksgiving.  This was a fun row.  It turned out to be all I’d hoped it would and more.  We are still greatly enjoying Five in a Row and the unit study approach.  Cranberry Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday read of ours, so Joe was excited when I told him it would be our book for the week. 

Social Studies: Geography – New England

We located the eight New England states on the map and briefly discussed what each one is noted for, as well as what New England is known for as a whole—cranberries, maple syrup, ship building historic sites and so forth. Judging by Appearance

We discussed how it’s unfair to judge others by their outward appearance—that it’s what’s inside and a person’s actions that matter and determine what kind of character a person has.  We used the example from the book of Maggie’s grandmother unfairly judging Mr. Whisker’s based on his appearance and smell.

History – Thanksgiving

We spent a huge part of the week on our history study of Thanksgiving.  We used the book …If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 for our studies.  This was my first time reading this book.  It is a wonderful read, easily understood and fascinating.  Joe and I both thoroughly enjoyed it, learned lots and I’m sure we’ll reread it for years to come.

I made a Mayflower Facts book for Joe out of brown grocery bags, wooden skewer, white paper and 1st grade writing paper I printed from Donna Young.  After we finished reading our Mayflower book Joe wrote five facts inside his facts book that he found interesting.

I made a suitcase from brown cardstock and had Joe write and draw, “What I’d Take on the Mayflower”, inside. Language: Elements of a Good Story

Joe and I talked about the following elements in a story:  title, author, setting, important events, conflict, resolution and theme—what they are and what they mean, how to identify them—this is something I plan to do with him off and on throughout this school year when we are reading a book that the elements are easily identified.  He did pretty good with it considering it was his first time ever learning any of this.  We did a lot of it together though and I’m sure we will for some time to come.

I made a story map using the back of our FIAR animal classification board, printables, cardstock and post-its.  I used a printable for Joe’s small story board as well.  **All of the materials I used in this row can be found at the end of this post.** Art

We didn’t do any formal art lessons for this row.  The kids made handprint turkeys.

Joe made a handprint Mayflower ship.

We read A Plump and Perky Turkey and both boys completed projects based on this book.  Jack made a paper plate turkey.

Joe wrote and illustrated a printable titled, “How to Catch a Turkey”.

Joe played the following Language Arts games—noun/verb sort:

Ten Little Indians adjective/verb complete the sentence.  This was fun for Joe and he liked this game a lot.

Math

Besides daily Singapore lessons, Joe mainly played math games for review of addition and subtraction this week.

Science: Cranberries

We learned about cranberries—where they are grown, how they are harvested and conducted a simple sink float experiement with them in our own homemade cranberry bog. 

First, to see where they are grown we watched a Dirty Jobs episode on Netflix about cranberry bogs and the wet harvesting process.  I like this show and this was a great episode. 

Next, we talked about whether cranberries sink or float.  Joe guessed float and told me it was because he thought they were filled with air.  We cut one open to see if he was right and he was.

We tested whether he was right about them floating, and again, he was.  Finally, we made a homemade cranberry bog using a plastic pan.  All three boys LOVED this!  It made for some fun outside play.

Jesse thought this was fantastic and had a blast!

The boys had fun bobbing for cranberries too. 

Jack enjoyed puzzles, “How many feathers on the turkey?”, and homemade pumpkin pie play doh.  I’d gotten him some new play doh tools especially for this row and he loved them.

I made pumpkin cookies and served them with cranberry juice.  Joe thought it was too sour, but surprisingly Jack loved it and asked for it all week.

I also made cranberry bread using the recipe in the back of Cranberry Thanksgiving. When I tried making this last year it wasn’t good, but this year it turned out great and was delicious!  We ate it up super fast and I plan to make more over Christmas. 

Here are most of Joe’s finished lapjournal pages:

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving as a family.  We are very much looking forward to Christmas and all of the special memories that go along with it each year.  We are so blessed.  I am almost finished planning our Christmas studies and will be posting them soon—I’m excited to start that fun the end of this week!

Ideas, inspiration and printables for Cranberry Thanksgiving can be found at:

• Five in a Row Volume 1 manual
• Homeschool Share’s Cranberry Thanksgiving unit
• The First Grade Parade – Mayflower Facts book and Mayflower suitcase
• How to Catch a Turkey printable
• Printables on Pilgrims and Indians from Teachers Pay Teachers
• Paper plate perky turkey
• Thanksgiving Preschool Pack from Lawteedah
•  cranberry science from Almost Unschoolers
• Almost Unschoolers Mayflower handprint ship
• Create, Teach, Share’s Post-It Story Map printables *here* and *here*