FEAST DAY AT LITTLE SCHOOL!

Yesterday was the day of our annual Feast at Little School. It is such a fun day for the children. They get to dress up as Native Americans and all of us teachers dress like Pilgrims. Well, not really. We wear black pants and white blouses so we really resemble your basic restaurant server-type, but we tell the children we are the Pilgrims and since they're 4- and 5-year-olds they pretty much don't know the difference. It works for us so why change?


But anyway, we move all of our little tables and chairs into fellowship hall and set them up with colorful placemats, tiny plates, spoons and tiny plastic cups. It's so cute.

We are all in our classrooms for the first hour of school. During that time we do our usual opening circle times and then each class gets to whip up a culinary delight to be served at the Feast. The 5-year-old class makes mashed potatoes (instant of course, but you have to start somewhere), and the 4-year-old classes prepare the batter for Mrs. Dikeman to make the corn cakes (Jiffy corn muffin mix but again, you have to start small) and all the classes make their own butter to use on the corn cakes. It's amazing what a clean plastic peanut butter jar, some heavy whipping cream and a marble can do! You should try it sometime, it's delicious and fun. They also get some time to play with some special Native American themed items which is a lot of fun for them.




Once it is time for the Feast, all the children put on the necklaces and headbands they made then they head out on a little "hunt." They aren't really hunting anything but they"re very quiet in the hallway as they are looking for deer. All the classes gather together in fellowship hall and Mrs. Dikeman tells them a little about our history and how we celebrate Thanksgiving to honor God and to thank him for all the blessings we receive from him. She also teaches them a little bit about Squanto and how he and his people helped the Pilgrims learn to farm and hunt and fish, as well as a little about the homes the Pilgrims built and the longhouses that the Indians in our area lived in. They also get a mini nutrition lesson when Mrs. Dikeman holds up various fall vegetables and asks them to help her identify them. This year we also taught them a little song about an Indian who is hunting for deer.

On the menu this year: roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, raw carrots, dressing, and corn cakes & butter. We've tried serving pumpkin fluff and applesauce in the past but found that the children just really didn't eat it. One thing that is certain though is that every year the unanimous favorite Feast food is CORN CAKES. The children can't ever get enough of them!

Oh yeah, we had special visitors this year too. One of the little girls in our morning session has am uncle who trains bird dogs so she and her dad brought in a couple of live pheasants and a couple of live quail for the children to see and learn a little bit about. That was pretty cool although I had forgotten my camera so I didn't get a picture. Pheasants make a pretty strange sound. It actually sounds like someone with a dry cough. I thought it was kinda weird but I learned something new which was kinda cool.

A bit of a sad note, this will be my last time to have a child of my own at Little School on Feast Day. I will always enjoy the Feast, but it will never be as special as it has been for the past 8 years. I have gotten great joy out of watching all my children have fun at their Feasts and I will miss that.

BIG BLOG CHALLENGE #29: A GOOD EMAIL

Today's challenge is to copy and paste a good email message I've recently received. One of my friends and fellow staff members at Little School sent me this. It actually made me LOL several times and then I realized... yikes! this stuff is sooooo true. :/

YOU might be a school employee if you believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick. YOU might be a school employee if you want to slap the next person who says, 'Must be nice to work 8 to 3:30 and have summers off." YOU might be a school employee if it is difficult to name your own child because there's no name you can come up with that doesn't bring high blood pressure as it is uttered. YOU might be a school employee if you can tell it's a full moon or if it's going to rain, snow, hail... anything!!! Without ever looking outside. YOU might be a school employee if you believe "shallow gene pool" should have its own box on a report card. YOU might be a school employee if you believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today." YOU might be a school employee if when out in public, you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior. YOU might be a school employee if you have no social life between August and June. YOU might be a school employee if you think people should have a government permit before being allowed to reproduce. YOU might be a school employee if you wonder how some parents MANAGED to reproduce. YOU might be a school employee if you laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the "lounge." YOU might be a school employee if you encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling and are willing to donate the UHAUL truck should they decided to move out of district. YOU might be a school employee if you think caffeine should be available in intravenous form. YOU might be a school employee if you can't imagine how the ACLU could think that covering your students chair with Velcro and then requiring uniforms made out of the corresponding Velcro could ever be misunderstood by the public. YOU might be a school employee if meeting a child's parent instantly answers this question, "Why is this kid like this?" YOU might be a school employee if you would choose a mammogram over a parent conference. YOU might be a school employee if you think someone should invent antibacterial pencils and crayons...and desks and chairs for that matter! YOU might be a school employee if the words "I have college debt for this?" have ever come out of your mouth. YOU might be a school employee if you know how many days, minutes, and seconds are left in the school year. ENJOY YOUR SUMMER!!!!