Thanksgiving Stone Soup

For the past week and a half, we read a variety of versions of Stone Soup. Fitting along with the comprehension skills and strategies introduced and practiced with our reading series, we talked about the characters, sequence of events, and visualized each book. 

We created a chart to compare the four versions.

Books we read:

Stone Soup by Jess Stockham

Stone Soup by Ann McGovern

Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth

Stone Soup video from Speakaboos.com

We voted for our favorite version and counted the votes. 

The winner was Stone Soup by Jess Stockham. The kiddos loved that the characters were animals and that the book had lift the flaps on each page.

We made our own stone soup the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone LOVED the soup! Even the kids who didn't want to try it. 

I used five cans of mixed vegetables from Aldi and four cans of Aldi tomato soup. I added tiny purple potatoes as the stones. Everyone asked for seconds! Stone Soup fits well into studying healthy foods and the food groups. 

Unrelated to Stone Soup, but very cute and appropriate for Thanksgiving is our turkey collection!  The kids in my class and the other kindergarten class worked with their families to decorate plain turkeys printed on cardstock. I am very impressed with the creativity!

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store December 1 and 2 to take advantage of the Cyber Monday Sale!

FestiveFriday

Happy (almost) Friday!  I am excited to be a part of the FestiveFriday $1.00 on TPT. Simply type FestiveFriday (no spaces and both F's are capital) into the search on Teachers Pay Teachers to find great resources for only $1. This is going on every Friday in November!

I love everything about November and December. I am a fanatic when it comes to the holidays! While my house is not decorated for Christmas yet, we are listening to Christmas music!  My kinders are enjoying listening to Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas albums on Spotify while they work. It's amazing- they are so quiet in order to hear the Christmas music!

Despite the Christmas music, my classroom is getting ready for Thanksgiving. My Festive Friday Dollar Deal for the week is a turkey-themed short vowel word family sort.  Click on the image below for this activity.

Turkeys and More Turkeys! (and a freebie)

We have been doing lots of Thanksgiving activities this month. I am in love with these awesome turkeys the kids made with their families!

The other kindergarten teacher and I sent home a turkey blackline on cardstock. The families were instructed to help disguise their turkey. I love all the creative disguises!

We made hand print turkeys yesterday and added a sentence about what we are thankful for.  This is the third time the kids had to write what they are thankful for, but they still seem to enjoy thinking about it and writing it.  Click here for the writing prompt.

I used to be intimidated by the idea of doing paint hand prints with 28 kindergarteners. I have found that it works best when I paint their hand with a paint brush. Instead of having a looong line of painted hands and fingers to use the one sink in the classroom, I have a tub (like a plastic washtub bin) of warm, soapy water. They swish their hands in that to wash away the paint. It works so much faster and better than having them wash in the sink.  I can easily get done with the entire class in fifteen minutes or less!

Only 4 more days until Thanksgiving break. Although I am anxious to having time off to spend with my family, I love the excitement and fun we are having in kindergarten learning about and celebrating Thanksgiving!