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plenty." Explain to them that cornucopia is a Latin word and literally means "horn of plenty."

SOCIAL STUDIES

Explain to the students the original feast in 1621 was shared between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. The three day event occurred somewhere between September 21 and November 11. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln set the date as the last Thursday in November. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.

If you want to delve deeper into colonial history and territories, a great website chockfull of information is linked here: http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyi l/colonial.htm.

MATHEMATICS

A great way to incorporate math with Thanksgiving is to let the kids go shopping. Teach money skills to elementary aged kids by handing out a variety of fake coins and bills. Set your room up ahead of time with laminated pictures of turkeys, corn on the cob, pumpkin pies, and other modern day Thanksgiving foods. Price each of the food items and allow one of the students to play cashier, adding the food item costs by hand. Let the students take turns shopping and attending the "register."

Teach fractions using laminated drawings of a pumpkin pie. You can even bring in actual pumpkin pies to teach and treat the kids with math. If you can find the tiny pie pans of pumpkin pie, allow each of the students to have their own individual pie and have them fraction it into fourths. This is a perfect way to make math fun and edible!

ART

Ask the students to decide if they could choose who they would want to be: a Native American or a pilgrim. Give them appropriate colored construction paper to let them make either a pilgrim hat or a feathered headdress. The "pilgrims" need to have only a 2-D black hat which when turned upside-down resembles a clay pot. They can adorn it with a gold buckle, using yellow construction paper cut into a square. The Native Americans need to only make feathers of any colors of their choosing. Pre-cut long strips of construction paper to wrap around their heads and use as bands for the feathers and hats. Tape the feathers to the back side of the Native Americans band and the hat to the front side of the pilgrims' band.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Now that you have a room full of pilgrims and Native Americans, have them write a journal entry. Remind them that the weather is starting to get colder at this time. Explain that the entries should be creative and well-thought out and relative to the particular person of their choosing.

Another writing project that students of any age can write on is the theme "Giving Thanks." Depending on their writing skill, ask them to write about what they are thankful for and why.

DRAMA AND SPEECH

Have each student stand before the class and present orally their journal entries or "Giving Thanks" themes. Allow them to wear their hats or headdresses. Discuss a few simple drama elements such as diction, pronunciation, and volume. Tell them to hold their papers down at chest level so the audience can see their faces.

SCIENCE

Leaf collecting is fun for kids of all ages. Creating a booklet of various leaves can help children learn the different shapes and how they can identify trees through the shapes of leaves.

For older students, you can teach about the amino acid L-tryptophan and how it induces a sleepy effect. Here is the skeletal structure of L-tryptophan: http://chemistry.about.com/od/ imagesclipartstructures/ig/Ami no-Acid-Structures/Tryptophan. -0uk.htm.

The students will really enjoy this Thanksgiving themed plan. It will also help them develop a sense of the holiday for when they share time with their own family. They will also learn interesting tidbits of knowledge they can share while eating their turkey dinner.

Learn more about this author, Wendy Brock.
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