Students bring in young children to celebrate Thanksgiving holidays
November 23, 2015
Janet Kidd’s Child Development class has recently conducted their annual Thanksgiving children’s workshop. Members of the class invite children within the age range of three to nine for their Thanksgiving feast prior to holiday break. During the visit, the students and children study the history of Thanksgiving through investigating activities and food they bring for into class.
“I made pumpkin bread, created coloring sheets and created a turkey for pin the gizzard,” junior Sydney Cislo said. “We had to keep them entertained for the entire class, so we had to make up games for them to do. I made pin the gizzard on the turkey. I chose to bring my little cousin because I thought it would be fun for her to come in and play games and eat some Thanksgiving snacks; I thought it was a swell thing for her.”
Groups in the class had to prepare and strategize for the day of the Thanksgiving feast. The students prepared recipes made from scratch. They wrote down what they needed prior to the feast and worked to create a delicious meal for the children and themselves.
“To prepare, my group and I all wrote down what we were going to bring for the big day and we figured out what game and crafts we would have,” sophomore Cindy Barcome said. “We were in a time crunch as well, trying to figure out what games and what crafts we were going to do with the kids. I made multipack bingo sheets for the kids to play.”
Although it was a party for the children, the Child Development students worked in preparation for the big day. The students were experiencing difficulties while trying to keep the children occupied and attentive the entire period.
“Our group had four older kids and two little ones. It was hard to keep them entertained; they always wanted to be doing something,” Barcome said. “We would have them do coloring sheets and bingo games. We also had them make turkey headbands with leaves on them, made with construction paper.”
Students tried to pick simple foods to make it not too complicated to cook. The students researched and looked over multiple recipes that coincided with the Thanksgiving holiday.The child development class hosts a Thanksgiving feast every year. To be apart of all the activities that they had done for the class including all of the Thanksgiving foods they tried to predict that the Pilgrims would have had.
