We began our session with a focus on communication skills. We practiced with our I vs. my flash cards. Danny is doing a great job with this correction. We also discussed that it’s “I” not “ight”. He was easily able to drop the ending when made aware of the error. We continued talking about the past and Thanksgiving with a picture sorting activity for “Long Ago” and “Present Times”. We made a large poster with these headings. We then examined photos in these categories: clothing, travel, houses, food, and feast. We sorted them on to the poster in the correct time frame. We then made notes as to what we see in the pictures. For example, for travel, we had a picture of a plane and the Mayflower ship. We noted that the plane has a motor, goes fast, and flies while the ship takes a long time, does not have a motor, and uses sails. We continued our Florida Studies Weekly – Week 10, The First Thanksgiving. This packet briefly covered the Pilgrims voyage to Plymouth on the Mayflower. It discussed that the Pilgrims invited the American Indians to a feast and they ate deer, geese, duck, and turkey as well as fruits and vegetables. We cut and assembled an easy reader booklet to review this material in simple terms. Danny had to draw or choose the correct item on the page to complete the story. This was sent home in his backpack for review. We will assess his knowledge of Thanksgiving next week. Then we read a sweet non-fiction story, A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. In this story, Mr. and Mrs. Moose invite all their animal friends for Thanksgiving dinner and the only one missing is Turkey. When they set out to find him, Turkey is quite afraid thinking they want him ON their table, not at it. We completed a writing activity in which Danny labeled the parts of a turkey using a word bank (feathers, wing, beak, wattle, and leg). We discussed the parts and then he was directed to the correct word in the word bank so that he could copy it. We ended the day with a funny Thanksgiving themed book entitled, Turkey Trouble. In this fiction story by Wendi Silvano, Turkey finds various ways to disguise himself in order to avoid becoming the Thanksgiving main course. We laughed at the whimsical turkey and all of his funny disguises! We made predictions as to what silly thing he’d do next!
Planning note: I spoke with Danny’s mom briefly after school to assist with an in-class project for Danny. I have asked her to send approximately 5 – 6 pictures to reflect events in Danny’s life as we will be creating a timeline. The dates and events can just be written on a piece of paper and sent along with the pictures. These can capture anything significant that has occurred in his life, particularly including his birth and something recent, such as his most recent birthday or something that happened this year. Other events could include the birth of siblings, a big trip, getting a pet, moving into a new home, the first-time meeting someone special, or seeing his first snowfall. We hope to begin this project after the Thanksgiving break.