MARSHALL - It's all about the food for the little ones as Park Side Elementary and Samuel Lutheran School celebrated Thanksgiving a couple of days early. The Park Side kindergartners brought a variety of food to eat Tuesday morning in the cafeteria, and Samuel Lutheran's kindergartners hosted the pre-kindergarten class in a gathering that featured games and food.
Getting to eat all the goodies was tops on a lot of kids' lists about what they liked best about Thanksgiving.
"My favorite part is eating," said Matthew Mercer at Park Side. "My favorite food is beef jerky."
"There's lots of fun at a feast and a lot of tepees," said Brooklyn Gossen, looking at the tepees set up in the Park Side cafeteria, which some of the kids went into, before the teachers and paraprofessionals told them the structures weren't to play in, that they were decorations to fit with the theme. All the kids were dressed up as either Pilgrims or American Indians.
"Being with all my friends," was Bellamy Sukalski's favorite part.
"Eating the popcorn," said Charlie Jacobson.
All eight of the kindergarten classes contribute the food for the feast, said P.S. teacher, Amber Swenson. Cornbread or popcorn, and fruit are staples, but sometimes the kids have had deer, antelope, elk and bear, said Swenson and Laurie McDowell, paraprofessional.
"It's neat to see what they will try because their friends are trying it," Swenson said, adding the menu has included pomegranates, mangoes, pears, starfruit, kiwi, cantaloupe and pineapple.
Over at Samuel Lutheran, the kindergartners were dressed as Pilgrims and the pre-kindergartners as American Indians while they played games like squirrel in a tree and one where the kids tried to guess who had a certain bundle of sticks.
"Playing the games" was Hailey Lyons' favorite part.
"I like when I'm eating," said Isaac Baldry.
"Eating," said Malaki Sik.
"Eating pumpkin pie and popcorn," said Landon Lenoye-Guerrero.
The teachers were able to sneak in a few lessons along the way.
"I didn't know there was real Indians," said Brooklyn Peterson at Park Side.
"I learned table manners," said Matthew Mercer.
"Learned about new things about how the Indians and Pilgrims shared," said Gabe Sherman.
"That the Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower," said Lyons at Samuel Lutheran.
"Planting corn," said Isiah Limo. "Put some fish on top first."
"I learned that they liked popcorn," said Katelyn Connot.
Both schools have had the Thanksgiving feasts for a while.
"We kind of inherited from the people who did it before us," said Julie Festerling, kindergarten teacher at Samuel Lutheran. "It's a good culmination project for the kids to think about Thanksgiving. We talk about how it comes from the Old Testament, the day of thanksgiving.
"Especially with the kids with dads overseas, we talk about how God takes care with everybody," she added.
"We started our Thanksgiving project, the Pilgrim Book, the first of November," Festerling said. "We do a page or two every day, learn why they were called Pilgrims, what they could take on the Mayflower, the Mayflower Compact, and how many died the first year."
Park Side has had the feast for more than 25 years, said Swenson.
"The whole month of November we work on families; that's one of our themes," said Swenson.
"We talk about Thanksgiving and who celebrated the first Thanksgiving," she said. "They prepare ahead of time making a costume - Pilgrim or Native American - and come together that day."
Swenson said the Thanksgiving feast is one of the few times all eight kindergarten classrooms participate in an activity at the same time.
"We don't often have all eight classrooms together," Swenson said, "usually just four."
She said when the kids are asked what they are thankful for, some say things like Nintendo, "so we talk about food and shelter and basics," said Swenson. "We talk about how they didn't have TVs and electricity, no stores to buy stuff.
"We try to put a current spin on it," Swenson added. "What we're thankful for is different or can be the same."
