Mapping it Out and Thanksgiving

We've been learning about places on the map in Social Studies, which has brought us to our next big project of the year.  Soon we will be sending out our Flat Stanley people.  In the classroom, we made a huge map on our bulletin board and we are mapping where we are going to.  Mine had a bit of a hiccup as my flat person did not return from her trip last year.  She had an extended stay with my best friend in Florida.  Hopefully Flat Mrs. Smith will be returning this year with lots of things to report on. 

Since Thanksgiving is coming up, we have been learning all about Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.  I have to say, I love Scholastic.  They have a great web site where you can take virtual field trips.  We took one and went on the Mayflower.  The kiddos have been able to compare and contrast Pilgrims and Wompanoags.  They have also been comparing themselves to pilgrim children and how different times are.  More to come next week on Pilgrims since we have a three day school week before Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, our weekly writing project was to write a persuasive piece on why not to eat the turkey.  They had to use a graphic organizer, make a rough draft, then come up with a final draft.  Some reasons they used to support not eating the turkey was,

"His brothers and sisters would miss him"
"Eat at Applebees instead"
"They have too many feathers"
"Eat a hamburger at McDonalds"
"They are nasty"-- this little guy just got right to the point I guess.
"Make more pumpkin pie"
"The turkey will peck you"
"They are too fast to catch"

On Friday, we then made disguises for our turkeys.  They turned out great.  We had peacocks, clowns, a mummy, snow princesses, princesses, queens, snowmen, gymnasts, unicorns, an astronaut/skateboarding dude, and even Santa!