Mayflower

I decided this year in our effort not to "skip over" thanksgiving and head straight to Christmas (not easy to do if you've already heard the music and seen the decorations in the stores) that we were going to learn about early Thanksgivings. What better place to start then with the story of the Pilgrims and the traditional first Thanksgiving?

We've been especially interested in the Mayflower and the journey of the pilgrims to the new world in the past week. Garett first painted a picture of the Mayflower...

and then I helped him to make a model using pieces cut from a paper bag.

Emalee has been especially fascinated by a picture in a book (The Pilgrims at Plymouth, by Lucille Recht Penner, 1996) that shows a cut-away view of how and where everything fit on the boat.

I highly recommend this book as each page is its own section so it is extremely easy to stop reading and pick back up later... An important consideration for those of us who sometimes read to our kids while they are putting on their shoes to go to school! :)