Thanksgiving school

Joshua and I are having such fun with his unit study this month! We are studying the Pilgrims--from their time in Holland, back to England, then on the Mayflower and over to the New World. We're using several resources to combine writing, spelling, vocabulary, reading, history, geography, art, social studies, and even math, as well as focusing our Bible time on giving thanks.

One thing that we are LOVING is the History Pocket curriculum from evan-moor. We are using both the Life in Plymouth Colony pocket for 1st-3rd grade and the Colonial America pocket for 4th-6th grade. Joshua loves to do crafts so building these pockets is right up his alley. One fun activity was making a model of the Mayflower. We learned all about the ship itself then turned the model into a journal. Each day he adds a new entry--he's writing as if he were a pilgrim boy on the Mayflower. When each unit is finished, he'll have a completed folder with 8 separate pockets filled with all the different things he learned about the pilgrims, Indians, and the first Thanksgiving.

Yesterday was fun having Joshua's friend Meara over to play. They made Pilgrim puppets and cooked up some hasty pudding. The pudding received mixed reviews from the cooks, but Nick was a big fan! :)

Next week we'll complete a pocket on the Wampanoags.

We will move into studying Colonial America and the Revolution after Thanksgiving and I'm excited to incorporate some more of the History Pockets then. And just wait till we get to the Wild West!!