So with Thanksgiving approaching we wanted to add on to the "open please" and the like which we have already become accustomed to hearing / saying. What better a time then now to introduce "thank you".
THE STORY - invused with value of saying "thank you" to those who help us
We began with telling the Thanksgiving story:"A long time ago there were a group of people called the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were going to go on a special trip. They were going to go on a boat and sail to a new land. They packed up their things and climbed onto the boat and sailed in the water till they came to the land. The Pilgrims then got off the boat and looked all around. They saw lots of grass and trees and floweres - but where were the stores? "There are no stores anywhere. No grocery stores to buy food!" said the Pilgrim sadly, "I am so hungry."
Then the Natives came and asked, "Pilgrims, it looks like you are sad. Can we help you and give you some food to eat?" The Pilgrims were so excited, "Yes please!" "Here. You can have some turkey, cornmuffins, pumpkin pie..." (please excuse the inaccuracies)
"Thank you Natives. Thank you for sharing with us."
The children were very excited at hearing a full story with puppets and would often take the puppets and "repeat" the story on their own - helping them develop the early stage of the story telling skill.APPLICATION - learning when to say "thank you"
To help us practice saying "thank you" we have been singing our thank you song -to the tune of If you're happy and you know it
"When our friend gives us something we say thank you.
When our Morah gives us something we say thank you.
I can see it makes them happy when I say it so politely,
When someone helps me I say "thank you".
When singing, we stop before the word thank you - giving the children the chance to practice saying the words on their own. When situations arise in the classroom we refer back to the song - for example: Morah helps someone open their container. Then Morah tells the child, "Morah helped you open your container. (singing) When a Morah helps us we say ___?" "Thank you!"
Throughout the day when a child helps out we take the time to acknowledge what was done and what the response should be For example: "Sammy, you gave Lexi her clip. That was so helpful. Thank you Sammy." or "Ava is helping the baby feel better. Thank you Ava."THANKSGIVING IS A SPECIAL DAY! - we celebrate with our friends and families
Preparing the children for what was coming, we spoke about how all the mommies and daddies were coming to school for our thanksgiving feast.
Can you imagine how it feels for a toddler to walk into their playroom and see lots of big adults! We prepare for this by talking about how there wasn't going to be any bikes or cars in the playroom - there would be lots of tables and chairs for the thanksgiving meal. On the day of the feast we took a peak into the playroom before everyone came to help us imagine what was coming.
Together we sang, (to the tune of Mary had a little lamb)
On thanksgiving we have a big meal. We have a big meal. We have a big meal.
On thanksgiving we sit around the table and we eat a big meal.
On thanksgiving we eat pumpkin muffins. We eat pumpkin muffins. We eat pumpkin muffins.
On thanksgiving we sit around the table and we some pumpkin muffins.
On thanksgiving we eat (some turkey, cranberry sauce, corn bread...)
Thank you Doug - Meyers dad - for helping us bake the pumpkin muffins for the feast. The children were very happy to be part of the process.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Morah Chaya and Morah Gittel
