Thanksgiving Day

As we approach an upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving, I am so excited to teach my son about why we celebrate this holiday. My son, Joseph is two. He loves books. He enjoys when i read to him. As Thanksgiving gets closer, I decided the best way to teach him about Thanksgiving would be to read him a story, that he would be able to understand. We went to the library last week and we found a book about Thanksgiving. We picked the book "My first Thanksgiving" by Tomie dePaola.
Joseph really enjoys when i read this book. It is so cute to hear him say words such as pumpkins, Indians, stuffing, sweet potatoes etc. As I showed him the pictures in the book, which are great visual cues, he was able to connect the pictures to what he already knows. A cute example is, I showed him a picture of the Pilgrims, and he thinks because of the hats that they are cowboys. It's been tough trying to get him to except that they are Pilgrims.
Most importantly, It's really a great way to teach him the true meaning of Thanksgiving. That we are thankful to God for being with our family and for the food we will eat together. Joseph is really looking foward to going over "marma" house for Thanksgiving and playing with his cousins.

Approach- v. to come near
Upcoming-adj. about to take place
Holiday- n. a day in commemoration of some event or in honor of some person
Celebrate- v. to obsere a day or commemorate festivities
Thanksgiving day-n. a national holiday celebrated as a day of feasting and giving thanks
Visual cues-n. a visual signal such as a picture
Pilgrims-n. One of the English Separatists who founded the colony of Plymouth in New England in 1620

1. An ___________ shopping event is Black Friday.
2. _______________ are especially important to show when teaching ELLs.
3. I can't wait to eat turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie on _______________.
4. The ___________ escaped England for religious reasons.
5. Christmas is another religious _______________.
6. I love the __________ season, it's the best time of the year.
7. The students will ______________ the teacher about the final exam.


Grammar Point:
Proper Nouns:
Thanksgiving - name of holiday
Joseph-name
Pilgrims-people
God- person
Plymouth Rock-Place
Tomie dePaola-authors name
My First Thanksgiving- title of a book

Racial Tolerance

The recent death of Marcelo Lucero, the Ecuadorian immigrant has brought fear to many hispanics in our communities. This heinous hate crime of which seven young man are allegedly responsible is disturbing. As I read the newspaper and watch the news, I wonder why these young men had to kill an innocent man. As a fellow hispanic living in Long Island, it sickens me to think that someone would want to hurt me because I am Hispanic. I never really thought about it this way.
As a parent, I feel it is important to teach your children tolerance. I find this especially important in my home where we me and my husband come from two different cultures. He is Irish/Italian-American and I am Colombian-American. I look foward to educating my son on his different cultures and teaching him to be accepting of other's cultural differences. It is important to teach children about racial tolerance and acceptance of different ethnic groups.

Immigrant-a person who migrates to another country.
Heinous-hateful.
Hate crime-a hateful offense.
Allegedly-not yet proved.
Disturbing-upsetting.
Fellow-belonging to the same class or group.
Racial-characteristic of one race.
Tolerance-recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
Acceptance-being accepted.
Ethnic-characteristics of a people.


1. The student was graduating with his ________________ classmates.
2. The murder was ________________ for the community.
3. She could not forgive him, what he did was ________________.
4. The burglar ____________ stole the money.
5. The boy was not ____________ in the girls club.
6. The _____________ left his country for better opportunities.
7. In order to promote unity we need to teach ________________.
8. The ___________ dances of African culture were performed at the museum.

Grammar Point:
Adverbs
ending ly- allegedly, especially, really