Building a Teacher’s Toolbox
Volume 1, Issue 11
Prepared by: Robin C. Letendre, M.Ed.
Learning Disabilities Consultant
Mentor Teacher
Reading Specialist
Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!
This newsletter, as like last issue, is full of tidbits of information that I hope that you can use in
your teaching.
I have included a history of Thanksgiving, a Thanksgiving puzzle, an ice breaker activity, (a
mini-grant that I did) a newspaper activity, (a mini-grant that I did) and a reading
comprehension
The Firststrategy.
Thanksgiving
Enjoy!
In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast
which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the
Page
2-3: History
of Thanksgiving
colonies.
This harvest
meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between
English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the
Page
very4-5:
firstThanksgiving
ThanksgivingPuzzle
celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of
celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native
Page
6: Ice breaker
activity the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and
American
groups throughout
many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of
Page
7: Newspaper
activity
thanks
for centuries
before the arrival of Europeans in North America.
Page
8: reading
comprehension
Historians
have
also recorded strategy
other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in
North America, including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site
http://www.history.com/video.do?name=Thanksgiving&bcpid=46875634001&bclid=16720797
near the Charles River in December of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain
02&bctid=1586348651
John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged "Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy
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some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on
record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas,
http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htm
celebrations of thanks have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of
The
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butsurvived
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have
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the if
you
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this
might
be
fun
to
do.
United States gather family, friends, and enormous amounts of food for their yearly
Thanksgiving meal.
What Was Actually on the Menu?
What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain
about the full bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or
playing with their mashed potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to
the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast. However, the only two items that historians
know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl, which are mentioned in
primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes from
Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:
"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might
after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They
four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company
almost a week. At which time, among other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of
the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with
some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and
killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor,
and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at
this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish
you partakers of our plenty."
Did you know that lobster, seal and swans were on the Pilgrims' menu?
Seventeenth Century Table Manners:
The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped
their hands on large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food.
Salt would have been on the table at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it
on their food. Pepper, however, was something that they used for cooking but wasn't
available on the table.
In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The
best food was placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample
everything that was on the table (as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.
Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't
served their meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took
the food from the table and ate it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the
place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were
placed on the table at the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes
there were two courses, but each of them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and
sweets.
More Meat, Less Vegetables
Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't
the case at the Pilgrim's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable
dishes, one of the main components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large
part in the feast mentality of the seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year,
many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.
The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had
brought some sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply
had dwindled. Also, they didn't have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not
possible at all. The food that was eaten at the harvest feast would have seemed fatty by
1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the pilgrims than it would be for
people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart attack was
the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.
Surprisingly Spicy Cooking
People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices,
including cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the
seventeenth century, cooks did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and
tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best way to cook things in the seventeenth
century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was assigned to sit for hours at
a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.
Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth
century, they tended to dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn,
hams, fish, and herbs.
Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals:
The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called
noonmeat or dinner. The housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that
meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to
be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.
In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on
them. The foods that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but
their eating patterns were different. While the colonists had set eating patterns—
breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to eat when they were hungry
and to have pots cooking throughout the day.
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation
All Photos Courtesy of Plimouth Plantation, Inc., Plymouth, Mass. USA. ca.
http://www.history.com/content/thanksgiving/the-first-thanksgiving
WORDS TO FIND IN Thanksgiving WORD PUZZLE:
AUTUMN
FAMILY
CRANBERRIES
FEAST
DINNER
FRIENDS
GOURDS
HOLIDAY
NATIVES
PEACE
PECANS
PIE
PILGRIMS
POTATOES
PUMPKIN
STUFFING
THANKFUL
THANKSGIVING
TURKEY
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http://www.best-free-word-search-puzzles.com/holidays/thanksgiving-s.htm
Ice breaker Activity
Truths & a Lie
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A different kind of get-to-know-you activity which engages and challenges each
group member in a fun way
Particularly useful as an icebreaker, or it can be used as an opener for a
workshop/conference.
For large groups, thirty or more people, it is best to split into smaller group sizes.
Hand out cards or paper and pens if needed.
Explain that in this activity each person will write two truths and a lie about their
self and then the group will try to guess each other's lie. The goal is to: a)
convince others that your lie is truth (and that one of your truths is the lie) and b)
to correctly guess other people's lies.
Allow approximately five minutes for writing 2 truths & a lie - this isn't easy for a
lot of people - there will some scribbling out, etc. The slower people will
probably need to be urged along to "put anything you can think of" down.
Allocate 5-8 minutes, but you will probably need to urge people along.
Announce that we will now walk around and chat to one another, like a cocktail
party, and ask about each other's truths and lies. The goal is to quiz each about
each statement to help determine which is the truth and which is the lie, whilst
seducing other people into thinking that your own lie is a truth. At the end the
group will cast their votes and find out the truth.
Emphasize that people should not reveal their lie, even if it seems others might
have guessed.
Allow 10-15 minutes of conversation time.
Gather together in a circle. Start with one person who reads their three statements
aloud to remind everyone what they wrote. Then read the statements again,
stopping to allow a vote for each one. e.g., "I am Turkish. Who thinks that is a
lie? [Vote] I am vegetarian. Who thinks that is a lie? [Vote] I have a metal pin in
my right leg. Who thinks that is a lie? [Vote]. OK, my lie was "I am
vegetarian."" The facilitator will need to help each person out, especially initially
until the basic format is understood. The facilitator may add drama and
reinforcement for correct guesses, tricky statements, and so on.
The exercise can be run competitively, for example count up how many correct
guesses of other people's lies and take away the number of people who correctly
guesses your own lie. Highest score wins. Honesty counts!
http://wilderdom.com/games/descriptions/TwoTruthsAndALie.html
Newspaper Activity
Cartoon or Comics Scramble
Objective: to be able to put the cartoon back into correct comprehension
order
Materials: cartoon or comics that have been precut
In this activity, I take a cartoon or comics from the cartoon section from the
daily or Sunday paper.
I then cut out the cartoon into pieces so that the student has to put them back
in correct order.
This activity works on reading comprehension since the reader has to
understand what is going on in each separate square.
The great thing about this activity is that you can do it with multi-levels.
There are more complex cartoons that can be given to higher level students
and more simple cartoons that can be used with beginning readers or
students who have difficulty with comprehension.
I typically pass the cartoons around the class and they can pick out the ones
that they want to do. This is a fun activity to do at the beginning of the class
to keep the students busy while attendance is being taken. It also makes the
student know that the class will begin on time with an activity that is fun.
Readers make personal connections with the text by using their schema
(background knowledge). There are three main types of connections we make
while reading text.
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Text-to-Self (T-S) refers to connections made between the text and the reader's
personal experience.
Text-to-Text (T-T) refers to connections made between a text being read to a text
that was previously read.
Text-to-World (T-W) refers to connections made between a text being read and
something that occurs in the world.
It is important to activate reader's schema (background knowledge) before, during, and
after reading.
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/teacher_resources/literacy_pages/comprehension_strat
egies.htm
For further explanation of this easy reading comprehension strategy,:
Text-to-self, simple questions to guide your readers might be, “how do you feel
about that character?”, “what might you have done differently?”, “what would
you change?”, “how do you relate to what happened?”, are all easy ways to find
out if your reader understood what was happening in the text.
Text-to-text, simple questions to guide your readers might be, “how is this the
same, or different from…?”, “how is character x reaction different or the same as
character y?”, “how is the plot the same or different?”, “does the setting matter?”,
“how are the conflicts the same?”.
Text-to-world, simple questions to guide your readers might be, “how does x in
the story relate to y in the world?”, “which character in the text is most like a
character that you know?”, “can you think of a world event that is happening that
is like the issue in the text?”