Thanksgiving Dinner, "et," Shapes

So, I put "Thanksgiving Dinner" as a topic, and didn't explain what I meant right away . . . next time I'll have to re-name that topic! As luck would have it, though, I switched preschool days with someone at the last minute and ended up teaching it. They had planned some things I didn't have all of the stuff for, but I gladly took their books (Thanksgiving dinner in nature) and filled in with some stuff I had around. I didn't have time to type my lesson plan for myself beforehand, but it worked out and here's what we did.

Gathering: Pattern blocks - magnetic puzzles and fill-a-hexagon game (dice with pictures of pattern blocks on them, kids roll and use the shapes to try to fill the hexagons)

Literacy: 'et' - Pet to the Vet - Used this activity from SEEL, but instead of using pictures, I had stuffed animals, one for each child, and various doctor items for the kids to use as they played vet. I also had some of the pets stuck in nets. We sang the song the entire time we played, and the kids really liked it. Could have done it for much longer.

math: Top the Pie
Had plates with orange circles in the middle for the pumpkin pie. Used cotton balls as whipped cream. Had a dice with shapes on the faces. The kids took turns rolling the dice and then everyone put the whipped cream on top of the pie in that shape.

The original idea was to use numbers, but since we were working on shapes for the topic, I changed it . . . this would work better with numbers. Some kids had fun making shapes with cotton balls, but others were frustrated and said they couldn't . . . for a whole group it's best to keep it simple

Social Studies: Thanksgiving dinner (recipes!)
-Made a list of all of the things the kids wanted for thanksgiving dinner
-Gave each kid a paper that had been folded in half. I said we would be writing down how to make food for Thanksgiving dinner just in case somebody didn't know how. Taught the word recipe. Told the kids to draw a picture of their Thanksgiving food on one side, and to tell me what cooking directions to write on the other side. When writing down the directions each kid dictated to me, I asked questions to further their thinking.

There were some pretty funny recipes that came from this. If I were teaching two days in the week instead of just one I would have copied the recipes for everyone to have a cook book from their preschool class.

choosing: 
painting a thanksgiving dinner
kids painted on paper plates
-cranberries - smashed up cranberries and let kids paint with the juice
-provided orange paint and cinnamon for kids to paint pumpkin pie or sweet potatoes
-provided cut up potatoes and brown paint for kids to do potato stamp painting
-provided glue and popcorn for kids to add corn to the meal
-provided markers to add other details

The kids loved this. I wish their plates had been bigger so they could explore more. The process is more important than the product, and they would have loved to paint with cranberries and potatoes more. Maybe next time I will cut very large papers into the shape of plates? I don't know, they really liked the real plate . . .
The other choosing time activities were from gathering and math time, but the kids really wanted to paint the food and play with my big baby ball-maze.