Native Americans and our

Thanksgiving holiday

Kelly Weisbeck

Teaching Critical Thinking Strategies in the Classroom

through Aesthetic Experiences

Objectives• Along with myself will discuss different stories on how the

Pilgrims and Indians lived and how it’s different from today.

• Taste different foods that were popular and how it took days to make certain foods

• Make pilgrim and Indian hats using construction paper and wear different types of clothes so they get an understanding how different dress was.

• Students will write about how it would be like to live how the Pilgrims and Indians did and what kinds of things they would eat and hunt.

• Look at pictures to compare different lifestyles and times in history using the Minneapolis Institute of Art and other internet sites.

• Read/hear literature from different time periods and to hear how Native American/Pilgrims lived and worked.

Art Collection• http://www.artsconnected.org/collector/edit/122067

Day 1…• Introduce the vocabulary of Native American’s and Pilgrims.• Use some previous knowledge to gather data on how much they

know/don’t know. • Discuss who they are and read the story Native Ame rican picture book of

change . Next, we will view images under my document camera that I have collected using varies sites.

• We will look at a map of where the Native Americans came from• Watch a video on the story of Thanksgiving.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTuFKisYnm8

Day 2…• We will review what we discussed and talked about yesterday. • We will talk about how Native Americans and Pilgrims helped start what we know

today as Thanksgiving. • We will talk about what they did and the kinds of foods they grew. • We will also talk about the way they dressed and compare it to our dress. • We will review some pictures from my art collection that showed dress pictures. I will

then bring out some clothing items that I have collected so that the children can touch and feel these items.

Day 3…• We will review the clothing we talked about yesterday each get a chance to dress up in

some outfits. • We will also be making our construction paper hats to wear a long with their costumes.

This is where I will take their picture in part to display at the showcase. • We will also read Giv ing Thanks : The 1621 Harve s t Fe as t. • We will make connections with the dress and also the food. • We will also discuss our Thanksgiving feast that we will be celebrating

tomorrow.• As we are making our hats we will listen to Native American music.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WNLLNxURt4

Boy hat

Girl hat

Day 4…• We will review the clothing we talked about yesterday and the food. • We will read the Pilgrim’s Firs t Thanksg iv ing and use that as a closure for the

lesson/theme. • At this time the students will write about how they would have lived if they lived back

with the pilgrims. We talked about mentioning what they would wear, eat and hunt. After everyone is done with their writings we will have our Thanksgiving Feast. I will have brought in a variety of Native American/Thanksgiving food for them to try.

• They will each get a chance to try a variety of foods then we will discuss what we liked best, least, and how they would have made these foods.

Thanksgiving Feast…• O N E b o x p r e p a r e d S t o v e To p d r e s s in g

• 2 0 O N E o z c a n n e d c o r n

• O N E la r g e p u m p k in p ie

• ( 6 ) O N E b o w l o f m a s h e d p o t a t o e s a b o u t lg p o t a t o e s

• ( ) -O N E c a n o f c r a n b e r r y s a u c e m ix in a w e e b it o f s u g a r O N E m in i ( 1 ) c o r n b r e a d m u f f in m a d e f r o m b o x o f m ix O N E p o u n d o f d e li s l ic e d

( ) t u r k e y s e v e r a l p a r e n t s s p lit t h e c o s t

• / O N E ja r c a n o f t u r k e y d r e s s in g

• O N E c a n o f w h ip p e d c r e a m

• Ap p le ju ic e t o d r in k

• - ! Th e c la s s k n o w s t h a t t h e y w ill o n ly b e Ta s t in g n o t g o r g in g Th e y g e t . , O N LY o n e s m a ll s p o o n f u l o f e a c h it e m IF t h e y f in is h it a n d w a n t m o r e

' . ' ' t h e y c a n h a v e m o r e u n t il it s g o n e We le t t h e s la b o f t u r k e y d e li s l ic e s 1 " . la y o n t o p o f e a c h o t h e r a n d ju s t s c o r e it in t o a b o u t s q u a r e p ie c e s A ll

. f o o d c o m e s t o s c h o o l in a m ic r o w a v a b le c o n t a in e r Th e p a r e n t s w a rm ' . t h e f o o d in t h e S t a f f Lo u n g e s m ic r o w a v e d u r in g r e c e s s Th e n w e s it

. ' d o w n t o o u r Ta s t in g F e a s t Th e k id s k n o w t h e y r e o n ly g e t t in g a t in y b it -- ' ' . a n d t h e y h a v e p e rm is s io n t o ju s t TR Y it it s o k if t h e y d o n t LIK E it A n d

. . . . . . . , s o o f t e n t h e y d o f in is h it We h a v e v e r y v e r y lit t le w a s t e A g a in s in c e ( ' t h e y o n ly g e t a B IT a n d t h a t s r e a lly r e a lly h a r d f o r t h e p a r e n t s t o ju s t

), p u t s u c h a lit t le b it o n t h e p la t e s t h e k id s w h o r e a lly w a n t m o r e a r e . - - . . . . ' ' - a b le t o h a v e m o r e A n d m a n y k id s w ill f in is h t h e ir lit t le b it e v e n

' ' . , t h o u g h t h e y d o n t c a r e f o r it a n d d o n t w a n t a n y m o r e A f t e r w a r d s e it h e r ( la t e r t h a t d a y o r t h e n e x t w e a lw a y s h a v e o u r f e a s t o n t h e d a y b e f o r e

), 2 -- o u r la s t d a y w e v o t e o n g r a p h s O u r F a v o r it e F e a s t F o o d a n d O u r' .D id n t L ik e It F e a s t F o o d

Additional Activities…• Roll a Turkey

• Indian Drum

• *These are two activities I have done in the past. If children are done with a previous activity, I always open up new centers for them to use and explore.

Assessment Rubric…TOPIC 2 Novice 1 Partially

Proficient 2 Proficient 3 Advanced

4 Total

Participated in class discussions

Demonstrated early Kindergarten writing skills.

Took part in classroom dress up

Created paper hats

Resources…• Waters, Kate. (2001). Giv ing Thanks : The 1621 Harve s t Fe as t. Scholastic Press;   New York. • Mcgovern, Ann. (1993). Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving. Scholastic; New York, NY.• Anderson, Laurie H. (2002). Thank you S arah: The wome n who save d Thanksg iv ing .

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.• Minnesota Institute of Art. Native Ame ricans . Re trie ve d on July 20, 2010.

http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/122067/native-americans.• Native Ame ricans . Google. Retrieved on July 26, 2010.http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=Native%20Americans&um=1&ie=UTF 8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1259&bih=574.• Helen1434. (March 17, 2009). Native American Rain Dancing. Retrieved August 2,

2010, from YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WNLLNxURt4.• Jstherapeutic. (November 23, 2009). The REAL Thanksgiving Story. Retrieved

August 2, 2010, from YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTuFKisYnm8.• Family Tree DNA: Genealogy by Genetics. Retrieved on August 2, 2010.

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/x/default.aspx

Reflection…• After completing this PowerPoint presentation, I feel my

students will have a much better understanding of how the Native Americans influenced our current holiday of Thanksgiving. They will get a wide variety of academic areas and time to explore this theme. In the end, I hope all my students have reached their potential in completing my objectives of this theme. I used multiple medias to bring in the technology aspect for both the students to see and learn from.