Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving is such a special time and there are so many different activities that you can do in your classroom such as how to have a student-led thanksgiving feast. It is the time of year that I get to do one of my absolute favorite things with my students. Thanksgiving brought about so much joy, laughter, and learning through the years! It is one of the highlights of my school year every year.
The student-led thanksgiving feast
So…what is it? I love doing a Thanksgiving feast with my students! But the catch is, I have them make it! That’s right, my students plan, “buy” (if we can do our CBI trips), cook, and serve a Thanksgiving feast right in the classroom. How you say? Well, that’s what I want to walk you through today, how to have a student-led thanksgiving feast.
Prep Work and Shopping for the thanksgiving feast
Prepping your students on how to start such a large drawn out task is the best place to start. They need to know what things they will be preparing for the meal. I have found the best way to do this is by using pictures to show what we will be looking for, cooking, and serving for our feast. Once we have our menu set, we gather our sales paper for our local grocery store. I have the students look through them to see if they can find a certain item we need for our ingredients. Once they find it they circle it. Then it would be time for our community based field trip to pick up all of our ingredients for our meal. I know right now some schools aren’t getting to go on trips but a VIRTUAL TRIP to a grocery store can be beneficial to work on some of the vocabulary and routines that would be used in the store.
A Few Extra Lessons
Once the items are at the school, the students will be ready to cook. I always use this time to throw in a little hygiene lesson and the importance of washing our hands and keeping things clean as we cook. We then use visual recipes for each dish we cook for our students to complete the steps as independently as possible. Even breaking down the steps to cook a can of green beans in the microwave so that each student can feel successful in completing tasks to help with the feast. As the food is cooking we are able to discuss social skills such as patience while we wait on the timers to finish.
We also learn about how to set a table with a plate, a napkin, a fork, a spoon, and a cup to get a place ready for someone to sit down. The students are in charge of all of it when we have a student led Thanksgiving feast.
Time to Eat the thanksgiving feast and Keep Learning
Once the food is ready we have the students help serve the people who come eat with us. The students really love eating the food they make themselves. They are always very happy and proud of themselves.
Even after the meal is over, the lessons are not. The students learn about cleaning up. They learn about putting up leftover food. Throwing away and taking out the trash. They learn about wiping out and cleaning up dishes that we used to cook with as well. At the end of the day, it is a lot of work to have a student-led Thanksgiving feast, but there is so much learning, laughter, and memories that come from a classroom feast that it is an experience every special education teacher should have!
In All Things Give Thanks
Having a student-led Thanksgiving feast is one of the things that I am most thankful for. The pride my students gain from this activity is worth every moment of stress that happens in the time leading up to sitting down at the table. Feel like you need a little more help tackling the feast? Check out my podcast for some extra details.
Ready for More?
Here are some craft ideas that you can do with your students leading up to Thanksgiving. I also love to incorporate some Thanksgiving themed books into our morning circle time or as an extra treat after lunch if my students need some time to calm down.
Something to get you through
If you need one more resource to get you through until Thanksgiving break check out this Fall Freebie. And if you need several so you can be done planning, then check out the Fall Bundle. It has everything you need.
