New Mexico

I thought you would like this inside view into early childhood classrooms. This is what it is really like.

Current- Argus
Carlsbad New Mexico
A feast of knowledge ECEC Students Learn Thanksgiving Traditions
By Erin Green Current-Argus Staff Writer
Nov 20, 2005

Turkey and stuffing, gravy, beans, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top, and mashed potatoes are good, but for Seth Tanner, the best of all is dessert.

"I like pumpkin pie because sometimes they put whipped cream on it," Tanner said.

Tanner will be careful not to eat too much, though.

"I just eat one plate or two," he said. "I don't go over three because I don't want to get sick and have to go to the hospital."

He and his classmates in Nancy Burt's room at the Early Childhood Education Center spent time last week learning about Thanksgiving, its history and traditions. They've learned Thanksgiving songs and made drawings of turkeys.

Some classes were creating their own feasts made up of cut-up fresh fruit, while others were learning about the history of the holiday by re-creating the voyage of the Mayflower and dressing up as pilgrims and Indians.

Burt's class made friendship turkeys, with cut-out construction-paper handprints of their friends' hands as the feathers. As with the other classes, they're also doing drawings of pilgrim and Indian children.

Autumn Onsurez, busy coloring a picture in class, summed up Thanksgiving, saying in her house, the holiday is kind of like a circus.

"It's a holiday where we eat turkey and we have a feast," she said, explaining what Thanksgiving is about. "We have salad, and we have potatoes, and we have beans."

Classmate Garron Burgess said he's looking forward to spending time with his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. He also gets to help his mom set the table for the holiday meal and places the candles on the table.

In Dianna Hutchison's class, the children were making Thanksgiving placemats, gluing cut-outs of turkey shapes onto blue paper, then coloring in the feathers.

Carefully cutting out her shapes, Verity Burdine said she especially enjoys having turkey on Thanksgiving.

When asked how to prepare a turkey, Burdine's answer was simple.

"You have to put it in the oven," she said.

Turkey wasn't the only food item on the minds of some of the children, though.

For Brianna Jaure, Thanksgiving isn't about turkey at all.

"I like eating cheese on Thanksgiving," she said.

But for others, like Sean Phillip Ford, any type of meat would be good.

"I like turkey," he said. "I like chicken. I like fish, too."

And after everyone is finished eating, many of the children said they spend their Thanksgiving afternoons watching football on television.

"We eat, and then we watch television," Tanner said.