Hosting a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in Your Classroom

If you have students in class the week of Thanksgiving you know what a challenge it can be! Why not take some time and start celebrating with them? Transforming your classroom into the Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving will create memories that will last a lifetime!

Food you will need:

• Sliced Bread
• Popcorn
• Pretzel Sticks
• Jelly Beans
• Ice Cream
• Butter
• Drinks

Supplies you will need:

• Plates
• Napkins
• Table Cloths
• Ice Cream Scoop
• Toaster

Gathering Donations

Our team uses an app called Class Tag which has a great option for parents to sign up for conferences and of course party foods! You can be very specific in what you want the students to bring. This is especially helpful when you have allergies in the classroom or you need specific Charlie Brown food items. 

Our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

The menu items we asked students to bring were: pretzel sticks, popcorn, jelly beans, bread, bowls, plates, plastic spoons and drinks. The teachers provided the ice cream and butter. We also purchased white table cloths to make the tables look fancier. Once all of the items came in we knew we were going to have quite the celebration. Thank goodness we didn’t forget our toaster! I am sure you could toast more bread at once if you used the cafeteria oven; but a four-slice toaster worked just fine for us! 

When the students walked into school we had the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD cued up for the students to watch as we created the holiday plates. Toasting the bread and buttering took the most time but with a couple extra hands (volunteers) this process went smoothly. As the video ended we passed out the food and started to enjoy the treats. I had the students tell a buddy one thing that they were thankful for before taking their first bite. 

Turkey Glyphs

Once all the eating was complete we decided to end the morning with some arts and crafts. We love to do monthly glyphs to get some fine motor practice for the students. These are also great to display on a bulletin board and save into a portfolio to show growth throughout the year! 

Today we made turkey glyphs which made us reflect and look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday that was ahead of us. The students choose different shapes and colors to decorate their turkey based on the choices from the holiday glyph. It is so fun to see how different all of the turkeys come out. Some years I don’t save them for the end of the year but have the students make Thanksgiving cards with them instead. 

You can find directions to make the Turkey Glyphs in my TpT Store here:

Turkey Glyphs

You can find other Thanksgiving Resources at my TPT Store HERE.

With the hustle and bustle of the academics these fun filled “kid” days are appreciated by everyone. We love to capture pictures from these special days and post them on Class Tag for all of the families to enjoy along with us. Happy Turkey Day!

Summarizing Strategies

 

Teaching kids concrete ways to summarize makes the process much easier to learn and much easier to duplicate when it comes time to do it independently. There are so many terms students need to think about: main idea, gist, central idea, theme - the list goes on!  I try to give them clear guidelines so these words don’t get cloudy in their minds. In this post I will share two strategies I have found work well with my students. Whether you are working with fiction or nonfiction text, these strategies will hep your students summarize!

Fiction Summary

I call this the 5 finger method. I like providing them with a graphic organizer that they can identify and create for themselves. To start, I have them trace their own hand to create a thinking space. Within the traced hand there is space for different information. I have them label each finger with the 5 Ws: who, what, where, when, and how/why. These question words will help the students make quick notes about the text.

Once I have them fill in all of the important pieces, they start building the gist statement (introductory sentence) that will start their summary. 

Who:  Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

What:  Big Bad Wolf is trying to out smart Little Red

Where:  In the Woods

When:  In the morning

How/Why:  The Wolf impersonates Grandma but Red wins in the end

For organizational purposes, I like to have them start with the where and when to set the scene of the gist. Students seem to have an easier time with the rest of the summary once they have those parts figured out.

Sample Gist Statement

One morning, deep in the woods, Little Red Riding Hood meets up with a Big Bad Wolf who is trying to outsmart her. 

Once the gist statement is complete, I have them trace another hand to use as a main idea catcher. In each finger, I have them write a main idea statement from the sections of the story.  These sentences will then be added to the gist statement to begin telling the main ideas from the beginning, middle, and end of the story. I also encourage them to write their main idea sentences in their own words. This allows them to paraphrase in their notes and avoids a direct copy of the text. The gist statement along with the main idea sentences will make a complete summary.

I use this approach to summarizing fictional text over and over. The combination of a predictable organizer, ease of duplication, and structured format helps students stay focused on the content. 

Nonfiction Summary

I have found that the 5 finger method can work with non-fiction texts as well, but I recently found a strategy that makes a nonfiction summary even easier.

First, I have the student number the paragraphs or chunks of information so they can be organized into numbered parts. I create a chart that is divided into 2 columns. Each row is numbered to help with organization. In the left column I paraphrase the paragraphs into main ideas statements. On the right hand column you can have the students add detail statements that supports the main idea. The first time I modeled this to the students I had them just focus on the main ideas. This limited the size of the summary paragraph so they didn’t get overwhelmed. After all of the main idea sentences are complete, I move into creating a gist/topic sentence for the summary.

I used a strategy called SAAC which breaks down the parts of the topic sentence. 

S:  State It - (name of article, type of writing)

A:  Assign  - (use the author’s name or publication)

A:  Action  - (choose a verb like explains or tells)

C:  Complete the Sentence (use your main topic)

Sample Gist Statement:
In the article, “The Sounds Around Us” the author explains all about sound.

The last step is to put the gist statement (introductory sentence) at the beginning of the summary. If the main idea sentences are already paraphrased, then the students are ready to add them after the topic sentence. I have the students choose the order of effectiveness of the main idea sentences.

Whichever way you teach your kids to summarize make sure to keep your strategies consistent. When you lessen the cognitive load for your students by using predictable organizers or processes, your students will be able to put more thought into the content. Good luck getting your students summarizing like champs!