Posted by
Billy on Thursday, November 26, 2009 12:36:49 PM
To the class of “newcomer” students at Jefferson Elementary School,
Thanksgiving was largely a foreign concept.
Then they made cranberry sauce.
(Cranberries, they learned, were among the few fruits the Native Americans
shared with the Pilgrims back at the first Thanksgiving in 1621.)
The students also got a taste of local customs by reading, “Thanksgiving at
Our Home.”
And they drew a world map showing the route the Pilgrims — and each classmate
— took to get from their respective homelands to the United States. (A taste of America )
With most of the 15 young immigrants and refugees about to spend their first
Turkey Day in their adopted country, the uniquely American holiday served up the
opportune time to teach about cultural similarities, differences, even food.
“We wanted to give them a flavor for holidays here, so they understand
American traditions and feel part of it,” said Trish Vojtech, who co-teaches
with Lindsay Ehresman.
In their English as a Second Language class alone, eight countries are
represented. One boy arrived from Thailand only a month ago. Others came within
the last two years.
Vojtech and Ehresman revolved much of their teaching around food, employing
tactics to expand student vocabularies. They also were teaching about the five
senses.
(It is nice that these students learned about foods at Thanksgiving. However I wonder if these kids were taught that Thanksgiving is a faith based holiday and since these students are in a government school I rather doubt it. I hope somebody will teach these young ones why the Pilgrims risk their lives to come to this new world like their Pastor, Priest, or Sunday School teacher. This is another reason why you might want to remove your children from the government schools or at least make sure your children and grandchildren are taught in your home the whole Thanksgiving story.)
