Take Me To Post Comment Form This past week my five-year old daughter, Rebecca, came home from kindergarten with a whole pile of handprint turkeys and construction paper cutouts of pilgrims and Indians. Every day when I picked her up from school she told me about yet another fun seasonal activity that her teachers had organized.

One day Rebecca’s class made butter in baby food jars to spread over fresh cornbread; another day they made miniature cornucopias. On Wednesday they had a Thanksgiving feast at Chops over the lunch hour. The kids dressed up as pilgrims and Indians---of course!

I can still remember when I was in the first grade, and we had a Thanksgiving feast in our classroom. I wore a paper pilgrim bonnet, and my parents came to school to share in the meal. Then when I was in the third grade my class had a "Colonial Day" right before the Thanksgiving break. We made vegetable beef stew, learned to do simple cross-stitch patterns, and stuffed apples with cloves---it was so much fun!

Surely there are many people out there with memories similar to my own. After all, as I told Rebecca the other day, shaking cream in glass jars to make butter and cutting out construction paper Indian headdresses has been part of the American elementary school experience for at least a couple of generations!

I am delighted to see my daughter experiencing so many of the same small joys that I experienced as a child. This year on Thanksgiving I have only to look at one of Rebecca’s little handprint turkeys to be reminded of much that I am thankful for: the simple pleasures in life, the sense of continuity between the generations and the range of shared experiences that draw us all closer together.