I'm thankful for... Thanksgiving!

happy (belated) thanksgiving, friends!

I must say, I just love teaching kindergarten. Only in kindergarten can you completely neglect curriculum for an entire week for the sake of Thanksgiving. :) ...just kidding – but seriously....

The past few weeks, we’ve completely devoted ourselves to learning about the Pilgrims, the Mayflower, and Squanto.

And in the past few weeks, I discovered that it is rather difficult to try to explain Thanksgiving to a kindergartner in their second language....especially when they have no background knowledge concerning it. (I’m seriously afraid that my students still may believe that any type of boat is called a “Mayflower” and that any person wearing a funny hat is called a “Pilgrim.”)

But despite the language barrier, we had a blast learning about Thanksgiving and preparing for our big EK-family Thanksgiving feast we held on this past Friday. In the preparation, we made pilgrim hats, silly turkeys, Native American masks, and mini-Mayflowers. 

But despite all the fun activities, my favorite part about Thanksgiving this year was the open doors that it granted. Through discussing the Thanksgiving holiday, He granted opportunities to share with my students about the Pilgrims, their f*ith, and their desire to w*rship G*d.

In our “thankfulness discussion,” when I asked my kiddos were thankful for, one little girl raised her hand and said, “G*d.” (Of course, I was attempting to draw a little picture of everything that my students were saying on the whiteboard as part of a “thankfulness web”….it became a little more difficult when I now needed to draw a picture of G*d, haha. :).

The next day, as we were continuing our discussion, another little girl raised her hand and said, “Teacher, I’m thankful for J*s*s because He loves everyone.” This led many of the students to shout out, “J*s*s? Teacher, who is J*s*s?” I was so thankful to share with my students as much about J*s*s as their short attention spans would allow. :)

And before our Thanksgiving feast/celebration with our parents on this past Friday, I was able to pr*y with my students before our big meal (just like the first Pilgrims did!).

All that to say, my Thanksgiving day was a little non-traditional this year. Not only did I have to work and be away from my family, but I ate rice and Chinese veggies for my Thanksgiving lunch. :) And yet, I’m so thankful for it. Through this very-American holiday, He provided so many little open doors with my kiddos and co-workers.

And so many reminders of just how much I have to be thankful for. :)