The Crescenta-Cañada Cooperative Nursery School – CCNS – taught their Busy Bears, the 4 year olds, and Darling Ducks, the 3 year olds, the meaning of Thanksgiving, and the children also learned the gift of giving and the art of sharing.

The Busy Bears’ Thanksgiving celebration included crafts, singing and making stone soup. Each child brought in an ingredient for the soup and deposited a stone into the pot of soup. Once cooked, they sat around the table holding hands, said grace and shared what they were thankful for. Each child received a stone from the soup to take home and share with their family. The Busy Bears also made friendship necklaces. By the end of class, each child drew a name and gave their friendship necklace to the child whose name they drew.     The Darling Ducks had fun making friendship fruit salad, singing and sharing with their classmates what they were thankful for.

“Thanksgiving is a very special time of the year. Not only do we teach the story of our country’s first Thanksgiving, we also teach very important lessons about cooperation and sharing,” said Nita Imm, director and teacher at CCNS. “I love the holidays. They allow for so much fun and so many teachable moments.”

Contributed by CCNS