The Giving of Thanks and Good Food

ISL DIXON- Kindergarten Social Studies

This semester I have been trying to have a mindset of “progress and growth” when it comes to the lessons. I want every lesson to build upon something that the students are already familiar with, be it from a previous lesson or something outside of school. Incorporating language with social studies and art has lead to some really great opportunities! My most recent lesson felt like I finally hit the sweet spot of all three at once. The lesson was about Thanksgiving and holidays. So far this semester i have kept all of the student’s art at the school. Naturally they want to bring some of it home to show their families. I used that desire as a stepping stone for some social emotional learning in this lesson. I went over Thanksgiving with them as a holiday of spending time with loved ones and showing them appreciation. We went over some of their favorite foods that they like to eat with their families.

“I want every lesson to build upon something that the students are already familiar with, be it from a previous lesson or something outside of school.”

After that intro, the students were taught about collage as a visual art form. I used an example from my SLG assignment the night before to show them how they can cut out shapes and glue them onto paper to “draw” an image. I then showed them an example of a plate of food that i made out of cutout paper on a paper plate. The children were then told to make their favorite foods for their plates, and that we were going to “cook” for our families. The students were so excited and used the extra motivation of doing something that they got to take home and give to a loved one to produce some truly inspired work! After they were done, they were allowed to show their plates of food to their peers as well as tell everyone in the class who they all decided they were cooking for at home. Their explanations of whom and why they were bringing food home to were so insightful and deeper than i was expecting for children their ages. I hope that the rest of my lessons draw from the depths of these children as deeply as this one did, but in different ways.