Celebrating the Thanksgiving Season

K-8 students at Chatham Charter ushered in the Thanksgiving season with multiple activities. Some were directly related to classroom instruction while others were simply focused on celebrating the spirit of the season. Thursday, November 16, was a particularly busy day with elementary and middle school students running the annual Turkey Trot through their PE classes. First and second grades went with their teachers to Bestfood Cafeteria for a seasonal lunch. On Friday, the kindergarten classes did the same.

Students, staff, and families from throughout the campus donated to the annual food drive. A local food pantry will benefit from everyone’s generosity. And finally, a group of our Athletic Boosters donated their time to Mountaire’s annual Thanksgiving for Thousands event, where more than 10,000 boxes were filled to feed more than 40,000 people locally for Thanksgiving.

Examples of Thanksgiving Classroom Activities

Mrs. Powell’s kindergartners read the book There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey and created a list of real versus fantasy parts of the story. They also constructed paper turkeys and wrote about what they were thankful for. In another project, the students designed Native American vests using grocery bags, compared their lives to the life of a Pilgrim, and crafted Pilgrims using paper plates. The students made a list of their Thanksgiving menus, and enjoyed a science experiment using cranberries to answer the question, Do they sink or float in water? during the process. 

Mrs. Clark’s first grade learned about the first Thanksgiving feast between the pilgrims and indians. Classroom discussions included 1) how students helped each other and became friends as well as 2) being “thankful” and what that means to each of them. The students made thankful Thanksgiving turkeys to show what they were thankful for.