Celebrating Thanksgiving with Books

Thanksgiving is only days away and we have been reading some of Mrs. Hembree’s favorite Thanksgiving Day holiday books in the primary classes.

 

 Tuyet is dismayed when her Vietnamese/American family wants to eat duck for Thanksgiving Day dinner. When she returns to school after the holiday, she soon realizes that many families don’t eat turkey at Thanksgiving either! Tuyet realizes matters is spending time with family and friends, not what food they eat. Nominated for the Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award for 2012.

 

 

 

 Thanksgiving Is by Gail Gibbons provides information about the origins and meaning of Thanksgiving in America, and describes many of the symbols and traditions associated with the holiday, including feasts and parades. (Follett description)

 

 

   When the turkey slides out the door and into the pond, a series of food disasters happen to the Tappleton family. They too realize that family is more important than special food on this holiday.

 

    A group of schoolchildren go on a field trip to Farmer Mack Nugget’s farm. When they realize that the fat, and friendly turkeys are about to become Thanksgiving dinner, they rescue them from the dreaded ax. Dav Pilkey’s story always generates some Thanksgiving laughs.

 

 

Check out these original Thanksgiving stories!

The fourth grade students have also been in the Thanksgiving spirit! Ms. Holder, Ms. Lawson and Mrs. Raffel’s classes each wrote a class turkey story, some with original illustrations. I think you will enjoy the creativity of these funny turkey day stories!

 

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What is your favorite Thanksgiving story?

Have you every written a Thanksgiving Day story or poem?

What does your family like to do on holidays?

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20 thoughts on “Celebrating Thanksgiving with Books

  1. Dear Mrs. Hembree’s class,

    I love the story of Terri and how you so creatively described his journey to safety! I plan to share your story with my 4th grade students as they will be writing holiday stories in December and will be inspired by your collaborative work.
    Keep up the wonderful writing and thanks for sharing!

    • Dear Ms. Young,
      Thank you for visitng our blog and reading the story of Terri! The students showed a lot of creativity in their stories. I think writing a similar holiday story would be fun as well.
      However, the credit is not mine. Our 4th grade teachers came up with this idea, I’m just sharing on the blog! I will look forward to reading your stories. Will they be published on a blog as well?
      Gobble, gobble,
      Mrs. Hembree

  2. Aloha Mrs. Hembree,
    Terri was indeed one lucky turkey! The story was so well told with just the right amount of twists and turns and wondering what would happen next.
    This is one for me to share with all classes. Some can listen and enjoy while for others it can be a stepping stone to inspire them to write.
    Happy Thanksgiving!
    Mrs. Jacobs

    • Aloha Mrs. Jacobs,
      I hope you are saving some sunshine for us! Our students will be thrilled that you would like to share their turkey stories with some of your classes! They had a lot of fun with their group writing. it will be interesting to see what your students might want to write now!

      Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
      Mrs. Hembree

  3. Dear 4th graders,
    I love your turkeys. They’re incredible.I think that every buddys story was great like Ms.Holder,Mrs.Raffel,& Mrs.Lawson.4th grade is awesome.

    Sincerely,
    Ben.

  4. those were really great stories i really like mrs.raffles class story it funny! i really like how the cow looks and i like the drawings of mrs holders class those are awesome and i love mrs lawsons story. i like all the stories they are all awesome!!

    from, alexandra

  5. Dear Mrs. Hembree,

    Thank you for posting our classroom story! I love reading it! We are going to put our pictures up soon so you can add the pictures!
    We never have read Mrs. Raffels story or Mrs. Holder’s story. What story did you like the best?

    sincerely,
    Jordan and Claire

    • Dear Jordan and Claire,
      I’m glad you liked reading all of the 4th grade stories. I can never pick a favorite because all of the stories have great parts. I thought it was very creative to have a turmelian turkey, I laughed at the Farmer’s pink pants and the yellow kayak in your class story!
      I wonder what story you will write next?
      From,
      Mrs. Hembree

  6. Dear Mrs.Hembree’
    I loved the slide shows you did and it is a cool blog post you did. I hope you have a Happy Thinksgiving. I love about Thinksgiving is that you get to realx and spend time with your family.
    From Alex

    • Dear Alex,
      I’m glad you liked the slideshow! It was fun to make. Mr. Avery gave me the suggestion to use Slideshare and it worked really well.
      The best part of Thanksgiving is having really great food and being with family! I totally agree with you.
      I hope you have a great holiday.
      From,
      Mrs. Hembree

  7. Dear Mrs Hembree and Bulldog readers,

    I loved reading your amazing turkey stories. What a great way for you to celebrate thanks giving by writing about it. This is just awesome.

    Here down under we don’t celebrate Thanks giving but I sure would like to the first to start if of. This sounds like a wonderfu time to get together with family and friends.

    From your friend down under.
    AA.

    • Dear AA,
      The 4th grade turkey stories made me laugh too! I love reading them to our students and it was fun to see the 4th graders write their own.
      The Thanksgiving holiday is all about eating! We typically have traditional food for Thanksgiving, with turkey being the main meat. At our house, we have turkey with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, a selection of other vegetables, rolls and cranberry sauce. Then the best part is dessert! Pumpkin or apple pie is the traditional dessert! After dinner, nobody can walk very well!
      Do you have an Australian holiday that cetners around food at all?
      Now I’m hungry,
      Mrs. Hembree

  8. Dear Mrs. Hembree,
    Duck for Tukey Day was funny and sad at the same time. She wanted turkey, but her family was having duck.
    At the end it was okay when she had duck for dinner.
    From,
    Desar, SArah, Kailer, Gage and Meegan

  9. @ Mrs Hembree,

    Thankyou for writing back to me.

    I just love how you celebrate Thanks giving day with food.

    My back ground is Italian and we love to celebrate with food every chance we get.

    Your desserts sound so yummy! When I lived on the farm my mum would make apple pies as a matter of fact she made one just last weekend. I have never eaten a pumpkin pie but I bet it would be yummy too. However I have made pumpkin scones and they are rather delicious.

    Here in Australia we really don’t have anything that centres around food and a holiday. About the only holiday where food is a big part for us as well as around the globe would be Christmas time. Oh yes I just realised Australia Day this is where most people light up a BBQ and cook sausages, chops with a number of salads and have a pav for their dessert. Pavola is a very sweet dessert with fresh whipped cream topped with berries. 🙂

    Now have a safe and Happy Thanks giving!

    From your friend down under,
    AA. 🙂

  10. Dear Ms. Hembre
    I was the one who made the title I’m a chicken??
    I did a lot of parts in the story.It was a really fun time we had whille making the story.
    From,
    Syon

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