Thanksgiving Montessori Nomenclature Freebie

Here are some free Montessori Nomenclature cards for Thanksgiving.  You can download them and it’ll keep the kiddos happy and out of your hair while you pray for heavenly help.

Gobble! Gobble!  It’s getting to be Thanksgiving time!  A time when families gather around the table, yell “pass the ‘taters!” and “hey…why’s the gravy lumpy?!”, kids and unpopular relatives are left to the ‘kiddy’ table and you wonder how much booze it’ll take for you to forget and come back for Christmas. 😉

On that note of togetherness I’ll share what we’ve been making and doing. We’ve made decorations for the last bit of fall which reminded me to be thankful for my blessings and it gave me a few minute to eat a piece of sweet potato pie I stashed on top of the fridge.  Hey…at my house if it’s not pecan pie it’s sweet potato pie and they like it too!

So! Rhea’s been reading Sarah Morton’s Day to Sunshine. It’s about a little girls life in 1627. Tyler’s reading the boy version called Samuel Eaton’s Day by Kate Waters.  Sunshine walks us through all the pictures and retells what she heard.  And we’ve all started reading ‘Squanto, Friend Of The Pilgrims‘ by Clyde Robert Bulla.

They have enjoyed these stories every year.  This year I realized how much they have grown because last year they could all cuddle beside and on me, although it was REALLY tight, on the loveseat.  Now with Sunshine being really involved with her learning (she talks with her hands and has to hold the books) we need a couch for family reading.  I wonder how many years or months we’ll have family reading on the loveseat….

We made some amazing crafts courtesy of Craft Gossip.  I’d share our pics but well…let’s just say Sunshine decided that the Mayflowers should float while I was running the bath water.  **Note to self….take some pics DURING and immediately following creations.**  The tub looked more like the start to a man made coral reef….

We’re having Thanksgiving with friends and while the kids are playing games, watching the Macy’s Day Parade and I’m cooking I thought it’d be cute to have some snacks and decorations that’d keep them out of the kitchen.  Paper Glitter, a printable decoration site, has a REALLY cute freebie for Thanksgiving decorations.  (Side note…she also had a Halloween!!!! one and she’ll pop stuff up every now and then.  Check her out on facebook ’cause that’s where I ALWAYS see the freebies first.)  I’m using the place cards as a way to write what each of the snacks are and the banner and the toppers.  I thought they’d be cute to make a little ‘take home’ thank you.  I’m making little apple muffins with a cider icing and sticking the little circle tags on a stick as a cupcake topper.

Another thing we do every year is a thankful tree.  Normally we’ve drawn a tree and added cut out leaves but this year I wanted to do something ‘fancier’ and I wanted to keep it to add to it every year.  Early this year I saw some blog posts where moms had made fabric leaves and decorated trees they had permanently drawn on their walls, paper leaves with blessings and they were taped to branches in a jar on a table where they were read during the meal.  So…I mixed those ideas and voila!  Fabric and felt leaves where the kids add their blessings and thankfuls and they get added to the tree.  Now…the tree will be made fuller and bigger each year and we’re able to track the kids and their joys.  Here are some leaf patterns you can download and cut out from me.  (Check the remnant section for fabrics especially when Christmas stuff goes on sell is a good time for me to find 90% off fabrics.)

I’ve JUST found this gal and wow….hello! handmade Christmas things.  She’s got a bird pattern that I’m making for the girls room for Christmas.  Rhea LOVES all things birds…little glass figures, statues, drawings, softies….even cement birdy yard ornaments are worthy of adoration.  And…I’m back on track.

We do poems in the pocket chart…make handprint and thumbprint turkeys…create a pilgrim village…create pilgrim and Native American outfits…read books like ‘Turkey’s Gift to the People’ (so beautiful and I’d tell you the author but it’s downstairs in the learning room!)…match up nuts to their trees…

The toy maker has some foldable pilgrim and native americans for your village.

This year we’ve watched on the History Channel some Thanksgiving specials.  They’re informative and appealing to our visual and auditory learning styles.

http://www.history.com/videos/the-mayflower Is a snazzy catchy song and overview of the whole pilgrim thing.  Warning…it may hold an odd appeal for your son who will sing it over and over and over and over and over and over until you threaten to duct tape his mouth shut.  It’s times like these I wish my kids believed my threats and wouldn’t giggle at me.  One of these days they’re going to wake up in Timbucttoo!

http://www.history.com/videos/deconstructed-mayflower Is a very cool video of the Mayflower and its spot in the journey

If you have a copy of America the Story of Us there are downloadable guides for every section.

http://www.besd61.k12.il.us/webquests/sewest/pilgrim/pilgrimsprogressstudent.html is a theme unit for additional ideas.

Heidi at http://www.amonco.org/fall99.html ideas and a fall newsletter.

Jocelyn Scotty has a Montessori Gratitude Jar.

Motherwell made a Thanksgiving download for noun sorting. I love when you involve the holidays.

My Thanksgiving Montessori Nomenclature are here.  Links to the post NOT the download are always appreciated.

Well, it’s time for Sunshine’s Chestal by Childrens.  She’s a sore throat and between it and the popsicles she’s doing pretty good but she’s not sleeping well at all.  I gave her some Ibuprofen about an hour ago and she’s out here next to me…humm…I think I’ll let her sleep.  Have a good night and I hope ya’ll enjoy the links and download.  Be sure to check ’em all out ’cause they’re seriously some amazing links and you’ll LOVE using them with the kids.

Honey
…pardon the typos and spelling errors.  My spell check isn’t working for some reason and as it’s 1 in the morning…I’m off to bed.  Nighty!