Fifth grade students in Sarah Dyer and Kari Calcagno’s class gathered together yesterday to reflect on their blessings while they shared a homemade meal Wednesday.
The Thanksgiving feast began years ago when Lincoln Trail fourth grade students traveled to Lake of the Woods for a colonial feast, which included turkey and all the trimmings.
When Mrs. McCartney moved from fourth to fifth grade she teamed with Calcagno to continue the feast. Fifth grade students study the original 13 colonies at the beginning of the school year.
“The pilgrims were so thankful they survived the first winter,” Calcagno said. “It was such a victory to celebrate that first thanksgiving.”
Calcagno begins the colony unit with an overview of explorers searching for new land. Students learn the Vikings were the first ones to discover America, and that Columbus actually set sail headed west to find the shortest route to Asia.
She also feels it is important for students to think about the discovery from the perspective of the Native American people. While pilgrims helped Native Americans plant crops, they also brought disease.
This year, a new student from South America was able to give Calcagno’s class perspective as she learned different information in her school there.
In the fifth grade social studies unit, students learn how to take notes individually, and then together as a group. After they compare notes, the groups try to convince people to visit their colony with paper slides. They use technology to present the slides.
The State of Illinois has provided schools with limited access to Trueflix. Calcagno used this technology with students as they researched their colony. This tool helped students who work better with auditory texts.
“They are taking the text features and the heading to know what the text is about,” Calcagno said. “We have been talking about the author’s central idea, and not to just summarize. We get a lot deeper than we ever used to go with it.”
Through research, Calcagno’s class learned the first Thanksgiving began in Texas nearly 100 years before the pilgrims and Native Americans.
Dyer’s class began the school year with a science unit, but her class talked about how the settlers celebrated the first Thanksgiving. The discuss how the first meal is different from the Thanksgiving celebrations today.
She gives her class a global perspective on the abundance of resources Americans have to do in comparison with other countries. Dyer introduced her class to Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education. She’s shared a typical grocery trip in other countries with her students.
In both classes, fifth grade students share or individually reflect on what they are thankful for.
“Initially they all start with the stuff they have,” Dyer said. “And then we get back down to families and relationships,” Dyer said. “They think they are entitled to be at school, and they deserve everything they get. This gives them a chance to reflect on family, shoes, school and getting a hot meal at night.”
Many students had their first opportunity to make a pie on Tues. Each year, Calcagno takes a homemade pie recipe with Crisco, water, flour and salt and allows students to knead their own together in a bag. They then peel and core apples, add the ingredients and then bake the pies.
“It’s amazing how many kids have never made a pie,” Calcagno said.
“It connects what life was like in the past to what it is now because we’re so quick in everything we do,” Dyer said. “I think most kids live in a grab and go situation because they have to get to their next activity. It helps them see how life has changed. It can be a bonding experience too.”
The two classrooms eat their homemade pies after they share a vegetable soup in their classroom.
