For today's lesson I wanted to do a lesson about Thanksgiving and I found this great lesson on the yahoo group fhe4children. I really liked the pictures and the narrative that went along with it. Songs that I choose were Children's hymn book pg. 10 "Thank Thee For Every Thing" and pg. 20A "A Song of Thanks". Next here is the narrative:
1. A long time ago, over in the country of England, there was a king. His name was King James. He said, “Everyone must go to MY church.” Some of the people said, “We don’t want to go to his church. We like our own church.” Therefore, these people traveled to Holland to live. However, they were not happy there. They wanted to go to the New World.
The New World was named America. These people were called the Pilgrims. They all got on the ship, which was called the Mayflower. There were men women and children. There was even a little cat. They traveled on the ocean for many many days.
2. It was a terrible trip. The waves were big. There were too many people on the ship. Many of the people were sick. A baby was even born during the trip and the Pilgrims gave thanks to God. They were excited about traveling to a New World where they could go to church they liked.
3. Finally, the Mayflower reached the New World. There were no friends there waiting to meet the Pilgrims. There were not even houses for them to live in. There were no church buildings for them to meet in together. In addition, there was not enough food to eat. It was winter and it was very cold. The snow came down and covered everything. Still the Pilgrims were happy to be in the New World where they could go to the church they choose.
4. Some of the men got into a little boat. They rowed and rowed until they found a little harbor. They said, “This will be a good place to live.” There was a big rock at the shore. The place was named Plymouth Rock. It was a very hard winter. Many Pilgrims got sick because of the cold and wet weather. Moreover, many Pilgrims were hungry. Some of them even died. Nevertheless, they were not sad they had come to live in the New World.
5. Finally, spring came and the snow melted. It was time to go to work. They needed to build better houses to live in and to plant gardens for food. The Pilgrims needed help. An Indian named Squanto came and taught them how to plant seeds in this new world. They planted corn, squash, and other good seeds. Squanto taught them how to fish and to hunt. He showed them how to use animal skins for clothing and in their homes.
6. Everyone worked. Cabins were built and a small church was built. More Pilgrims came from England. More Indians came from the woods to help.
7. Summer came and the crops grew tall. Then the summer was over and it was time to gather the crops into the storehouse and prepare for the winter. The pilgrims were glad they had built warm cabins before the winter snows would come again. Their leader said,” The Lord has been good to us. We will have a day of Thanksgiving.”
8. They invited the Indians to a feast. Everyone ate and ate and ate… For three days they ate. They gave thanks for the good food, their new homes and new friends, the Indians. That was the very first Thanksgiving in this New World, America
Hope y'all like this one. I love the yahoo group that I joined. It is a great tool.
