Thanksgiving Week English: Storytelling Beads

 Many of the Indian tribes used storytelling beads to help them remember the stories of their heritage. Sometimes the beads were made in the shape of the animal the story was about or sometimes the color patterns were used to help them remember the stories.

For this Thanksgiving, we made our own storytelling beads to tell a story of our heritage, fittingly a story of our celebrating with the Indians, the first Thanksgiving.

 I made an example to show the boys that I had seen at My Montessori Journey, among other blogs.

(You can go there for a printout of what the colors represent.)

My youngest student, in particular, was thrilled with the idea...

 and went to work making them for Thanksgiving Day favors.

He added his own accurate variations to personalize it.

It became is own story, which he enjoyed telling again and again, just like the storytellers of old.

If you want to occupy your little ones while you are busy on Thanksgiving Day, you might want to pull out some pony beads and pipe cleaners and have them recall the story of the first Thanksgiving and add colored beads to a bracelet that reminds them of that part of the story. If your little ones don't know the story that well, take a moment out while your dinner is cooking and read them the story and have them pick out beads as you go along. Or, if you have older children, you can have them occupy the little one with this activity. Then, either before or after the blessings are said at the Thanksgiving table, your small ones can use their storytelling beads to recount the story of the first Thanksgiving count our blessings.