Preschoolers Teach Each Other about Thanksgiving

This year, Preschool teachers took a new approach to Thanksgiving. Instead of covering similar topics at all levels, they taught only a few points in common. From there, each class learned different information, which they then shared with the other levels. In addition, the Preschool spread its feasting and activities over three days to bring their celebration more in line with the first Thanksgiving (which is thought to have lasted three days).

On Wednesday the week before Thanksgiving, the junior and nursery classes visited the seniors, who were dressed as Pilgrims. The younger classes toured the seniors’ living museum, learning from them about Pilgrim life. Exhibits included the Plimoth Plantation mural they’d painted, a Pilgrim house set up under their loft, and a Pilgrim kitchen in what’s usually the home corner. Visitors tried out a pine needle-filled pillow made by the seniors, played Pilgrim children’s games, and listened to the seniors sing songs that told about their “adventures on the Mayflower.”

The next day, juniors, dressed as Wampanoag people, invited the seniors and nursery students to their classroom. Using the wetu (home) they had built, juniors showed what a Wampanoag home might have looked like.  Visitors were invited to try weaving, grinding corn, and pretend fishing and hunting. They also played Native American games, like the Pin Game (catching a ring on a stick), and enjoyed class-made cornbread, carrots grown in the Acorn garden, and pumpkin pie made from a real pumpkin.

Finally, on Friday, nursery children (dressed as Pilgrims) displayed numerous artifacts—a Bible, pewter pitchers, a straw broom, and a candlestick, for example—and shared information about them with the juniors and seniors. The class also welcomed visitors aboard the “Mayflower” (a transformed outdoor climbing structure), served popcorn and dried cranberries, and led a dance to an old English song.

After this, the Preschool gathered in the gym for a feast, including contributions made by each class. The seniors shared pumpkin custard; juniors baked cornbread; and nursery made applesauce. (The kitchen provided turkey, corn, and green beans.)

By the end of the Thanksgiving unit, culminating in this memorable three-day adventure, not only had students learned by listening and by doing, but they had taught their schoolmates as well. Dorothy Halverson, early childhood director, was especially pleased about the latter. As she explains, “The best way to assess students’ understanding is to give them the opportunity to share and demonstrate what they know. ”