Hello, friends! As I try to get caught up on posting, let's head back to last week when it was Thanksgiving! Over the past several years, I've been learning more and trying to be more mindful about including culturally sensitive and inclusive resources into my Thanksgiving lessons...well all of my lessons really! There are some amazing resources available to educators- we just need to seek them out and then take the time to learn and most importantly listen.
I wanted to share three beautiful picture books that I included in my first grade lessons as well as at home with my own children during this Thanksgiving season.
The first book is called Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Chief Jake Swamp. (There is a really wonderful Reading Rainbow episode featuring this book as well!)
Oh my...this book. It is just so beautiful. In fact, we read it twice in class because it's just that good! I found some really wonderful lesson ideas here to use. We began by discussing what our first thoughts are when we wake up in the morning. We then talked about how wonderful it is to look beyond the "things" we have and instead to the world outside, what are we grateful for that we can see, touch, hear, or feel? I read the story to them, taking care to slow down and really let the words of each page sink in.
After the story, students closed their eyes as I played different sounds from different environments (the ocean, the rainforest, a thunderstorm, a river, etc.) They loved this activity and they loved trying to guess where the sound came from. It really got them thinking about our earth and all of the beautiful things it provides for us. Students spent some time drawing the parts of nature that they were grateful for.
The second book we shared together is called Jingle Dancer by Cynthia L. Smith. I love this story because it shows our children that Native American Tribes and Indigenous people are not just of the past, but are still very much here today. I pulled out a small set of jingles that I had stored away and played them whenever the jingles in the story went "tink, tink, tink". We watched a short clip of jingle dancers from the Ojibwe Tribe and became mesmerized by the drumming and jingles during a powwow. We then made connections to a time when we had given to others without expectation of anything in return. It was a special way to send my first graders off for their Thanksgiving holiday.
The third story is Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard. This book shows the wonderful tradition of fry bread and how it connects families across many generations. My husband cooked up some gluten free fry bread for dinner one evening for the kids to try...we definitely need to work on the recipe ;) but it was fun to experiment! There are many stories out their for children about bread and the significant role it has played in many cultures- it would be a great way for children to make connections between stories and their own family experiences.
What a wonderful opportunity we have as teachers and parents to provide a new lens for our children to view holidays or historical events with. Letting the voices of others be heard and listening to their stories is so incredibly important as we raise little ones who are loving and caring to those around them.
