Thankful Mayflower boats

We read a few Thanksgiving books and then created small Mayflower boats out of cardboard, the sails listed what children were thankful for.

Materials:
brown cardboard strips (from box), stapler, brown construction paper, black and brown markers, Dixie cups, Popsicle sticks, Elmer's glue, white paper, pencils, scissors

Steps:
1.  Build a cardboard frame out of a strip of cardboard, you could also use milk cartons
2.  Cover the frame in glue
3.  Wrap the frame in construction paper (making sure there was a bottom for the Dixie cup)
4.  Draw "wooden" boards and windows on our ships
5.  Turn the Dixie cup upside down and cut a slit in the top
6.  Insert the Popsicle stick mast
7.  Write our thankful items on the white paper and cut it out
8.  Attach it to the mast


Extension(s):  the children can also create Pilgrims to ride the ship,  write about the activity from a historical event perspective, as a "how to" paper, or a fiction story from a Pilgrim's perspective

 

Friendship Mandalas

We talked about mandalas and looked at some examples on line.  We discussed how people create them for spiritual reasons or to calm themselves, or to create something of beauty.  I drew a circle with three rings and cut it into quarters and copied it several times.  The children worked in groups of 4 to create a design.  They had the freedom of making any design they wanted, but one element (pattern or color) had to flow with the friend next to them, so they had to have a conversation about their plan.