Today we continued exploring Thanksgiving and putting a little “fun” in the mix.  While we continued discussing the history of the holiday, we also read/sang a silly book titled “THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLOWED A PIE.”

During morning rotations, the children worked to create their personalized versions of the old lady, cutting circles to create her hair and coloring her face and clothing to mimic the illustrations in the book. After practicing the songs for tomorrow’s performance, we read/sang our way through the book itself.  Prior to reading the book, the children were given foods from the story to “feed” to a 3-d cardboard version of the old woman.  As the foods were sang, the children had to pay attention to the lyrics/story line and feed their items to the old lady without prompts.  They then had to recall foods from the story, draw them in a small book and dictate to us what they drew.  They also either copied or traced the letters.  Finally, they also cut out pictures of healthy foods and glued them on to pictures of the old lady, whose mouth was cut wide open, eager to eat something good for her.

Once each child had completed their drawing, writing, cutting and gluing portions of their work, they were asked to wash their hands and come to the table where they followed multiple step directions to make their own, personal, Thanksgiving pie.  They crashed graham crackers, mixed in a little butter and placed it in a muffin liner to create their crust.  They then measured out both pumpkin and pudding, mixing them together in a cup and then filling their crust to create their own, mini pie!

I know 11 children who made their own pie……the rest is yet to be told!