If you’ve stumbled here from Pinterest, or some other site … welcome! While each of these books/lessons can stand alone, they are also a part of a year-long series that we have taught at our homeschool co-op. Each lesson builds in part on the one before. Some stories also have similar themes with the books that go before/after them. If you are interested in more information, or to see the complete booklist, check out our main page, More FIAR – Inspired Literature-Based Lesson Plans, especially for homeschool and homeschool co-ops. Thanks for looking around, and welcome to the site!
Cranberry Thanksgiving
by Wende and Harry Devlin
Things I Need:
- Cranberry Thanksgiving Book
- Cranberry Thanksgiving HW Sheets
- Map of New England states
- Pictures for “Who would you want to play with?” Activity
- Ingredients for Grandma’s Cranberry Bread (optional)
This is a wonderful Thanksgiving story about not judging based on appearances, with an additional lesson on extending grace and forgiveness even when someone is wrong. In addition to it being a fun holiday story, worth reading and re-reading, the depth of the lessons taught make this a book to return to year after year.
If you haven’t read the story yet, there is a fun read-aloud here:
Review:
If you’ve been following along with the class, take a moment to review the months of the year, emphasizing that this month is November, the 11th month of the year. We already celebrated Veterans Day, an early November holiday
What does Veterans Day Remember?
What books did we cover that have to do with war?
Who knows the later November holiday coming up?
If you have a favorite January, February, March song, this is a great time to introduce it to the class. I use the one below:
Months of the Year
(sung to the tune of Ten Little Indians, 2nd verse is my own addition)
January, February, March and April
May, June, July and August
September
October
November
December
These are the months of the Year
January, February, March – it’s coooold.
April, May, June – it’s warming up.
July.
August.
September – it’s HOT!
October, November, December, and the leaves fall off.
It’s getting cool, cool, cool, cool. (repeat last line and fade out)
Introduce the Story:
Our story today takes place in New England.
New England is located in the Northeast corner of the United States, and is made up of 6 states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) It is called “New” England for the obvious reason that it was settled mainly by those from England, and this was their “New” England. It is famous for seafood (being right on the coast), maple syrup (because of the abundance of maple trees), and sharp cheddar cheese (as well as other dairy products), because of the abundance of agricultural/ farming land. Think Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, Stoneyfield FarmYogurt, and Cabot Cheese … all out of New England. It is also famous for cranberries and cranberry juice (Ocean Spray, the main distributor of Cranberry Juice, is located in Massachusetts) You can find more details about simple New England life here.
Find New England and the New England states on the map. Give directional hints (North / East) to see if the students can find it on their own. This helps for continued reinforcement of the cardinal directions.If you’d like some extra geography reinforcement, this map is a perfect overview for some simple New England geography. The questions can be printed out for an older class, or used for oral discussion with a younger class. I thought they were perfect reinforcement for directions, oceans, and the state / country / continent distinctions that we have been working on recently. This map also includes the Appalachian Mountains, and you can quickly reference back to the three Appalachian books we covered, When I was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, Amber on the Mountain by Tony Johnson, and Daniel’s Duck by Clyde Robert Bulla, reminding the class that the mountains extend all the way into New England.
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| Found at Enchanted Learning |
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| Found at Enchanted Learning |
Our story today is called, Cranberry Thanksgiving. But before we read our story, I want to do an activity.
Outward Appearances Activity – “Who Would You Play With?”:
“for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Samuel 16:7
We judge based on outward appearances all the time. We surmise that someone must be a certain way because they are rich or poor or from a certain background or family or race. Employers hire or fire based on the general outward impression someone makes. We see kids with unkempt hair and messy clothes and make judgments about parents. Kids themselves may make judgments about whether they want to play with others or include them based on how they look. And while children are often better than adults at being a good judge of character, as the story shows, this activity can still be a powerful lesson. If you want to wait until the end of the story to reveal that it is the same baby, or to show the second picture of the disfigured man and teach the lesson, that could also be done, as it may give more time for emphasis.
- Print out the pictures below. Fold the top one in half.
- Show the disfigured baby to the class.
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- What does the class think about this baby?
- Would they want to hold this baby? Play with this baby? Why?
- Show the other picture of the baby to the class.
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- What do they think about this baby?
- Would they want to hold this baby?
- Play with this baby? Why?
- If both babies were sitting in the class with us, which one would you want to play with first?
(Tell that class that in reality, it is the same baby. In the second picture, the baby has had surgery to correct the problem – but did the outward appearance cause us to view the baby differently?
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| Click here for printable version |
Show the second picture to the class. When you see this man, what do you think? Would you want to come give him a hug? Would you want to run away? What would you do if you saw him at the grocery store? Why?
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| Click here for printable version |
This mans name is Reggie Bibbs. He is a Christian who loves God, and believes he should be content with what he has and with the way God made him. He could have spent a lot of money and gotten his face fixed a little. But he would rather just be content the way God made him. While his outward appearance is strange, His heart is beautiful. When God sees this man, does he see all the ugliness? No. He sees his heart.
Reggie Bibbs started a program called, Just Ask, which encourages people to ask if they see something strange- and not judge based on outward appearances. A good further discussion to bring up with the class.
Read the Story:
As you’re going through the book,
- What is the setting?
- Who can find the Onomatopoeia word?
Also take a few moments to build up the character portrait of Mr. Whiskers vs. Mr. Horace.
Other things to bring out:
- It doesn’t matter if the spoons match on Thanksgiving.
- All are willing to forgive Mr. Horace after he stole the recipe.
After the Story:
It’s Thanksgiving! Celebrate! If you have time, make Grandma’s Cranberry Bread, of course!
Recipe Here:
Handwriting Sheet:
While the bread is cooking, finish up the lesson with this handwriting sheet, and take a moment to emphasize the Bible verse again, and explain some of the context of 1 Samuel 16, if you know the story of Samuel being told to not choose a King based on appearance.
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| Click here for printable version |
That’s it for this week! To see what we’ve done so far in our Homeschool Co-op’s Literature Series this year, click here. Each lesson builds on the one before and seeks to cover basic geography within the book, historical contexts, a handwriting sheet and a language arts lesson, as it applies to the book.
Or, you can check out the complete Learning the ABC’s through Literature Series, which is a similar series that we did with this same group of kiddos a year earlier. Both of these series of books have been inspired by the Five in a Row curriculum, with many of the books being the same. The ideas, implementation of it for a co-op, and printables are all my own, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for stopping by to check it out!
