BC News

ELC’s Pilgrims and Native Americans share their Thanksgiving bounty
Release Date: Nov. 21, 2007

The Native Americans in Mrs. Raffe’s kindergarten class knew that the Mayflower was going to land any moment. They did not know that the Pilgrims on board would be their friends from Mrs. Fusco’s class next door.

But then, the divider between the two classrooms opened, and the Pilgrims and Native Americans exchanged Thanksgiving greetings as if it was 1621.

“Welcome to America,” the Native Americans said. “Let’s be friends.”

Indeed. The students shared food and introduced themselves and their classmates to their new friends in the adjacent class.

This has been tradition for the classes of Mrs. Raffe and Mrs. Fusco for the last few years. Students begin studying the history of the first Thanksgiving in early November. They learn about the length of the voyage to America for the Pilgrims, the impetus for the journey (The King of England was being a bully), the friendship with the Native Americans and facts about turkeys.

In school, the students know they are going to have a feast. One class dresses up as Native Americans; the other as Pilgrims. And then, the Mayflower lands (the divider between the two classrooms open) and the sharing begins.

“The most important thing that they learn is friendship, caring, and helping people,” Mrs. Fusco said. “It’s an important lesson for them to learn in kindergarten. And here we have a lesson right out of history that shows friendship and compassion.”

The students’ homework assignment over Thanksgiving weekend is to tell everyone at Thanksgiving dinner about the first Thanksgiving.