Polyglot Pupils Give Thanks : Education: Two elementary school classes join for a holiday feast in Garden Grove, and for half of the youngsters, it is their first Thanksgiving.

The children who gathered at Morningside Elementary School on Wednesday for a Thanksgiving feast came outfitted as Pilgrims and Indians. While there were no real American Indians in the crowd, most of the children were indeed pilgrims.

And like the original Pilgrims of nearly 400 years ago, the celebrants rejoiced in their new-found freedom, gave thanks for what they have and reflected on past hardships.

Among the 60 pupils at the feast--second-graders from Morningside and their pen pals from nearby Post School--were children who had recently arrived from China, France, Vietnam and Mexico.

For about half the kids, today will be their first Thanksgiving in the United States. For most of the rest, it will be only their second or third Thanksgiving celebration.

“We never celebrated (Thanksgiving) because we never had money,” said sixth-grader Alvaro Benavides, 11, a Post student who arrived from Mexico as a toddler with his parents. “We might do a party (today) with Mexican food.”

Alvaro got a taste of a party with Mexican food--and Vietnamese, Chinese and other foods--at a sort of classroom dress rehearsal Wednesday. Bearing foods of their native lands along with a few traditional Thanksgiving staples, the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade “Indians” from Judy Vaden’s combined class at Post donned crayon-colored cardboard headdresses and walked over to visit Lea Kiapos’ class of “Pilgrims” at Morningside.

The two classes, which formed a pen-pal relationship last summer, and Vaden and Kiapos, realizing that most of their kids were new or recent immigrants, decided that Thanksgiving was an appropriate occasion for a face-to-face meeting.

“It’s a good way for them to get together and celebrate a real American holiday. . . . We brought popcorn and cranberry sauce, because that’s what the Indians brought to the first Thanksgiving,” Vaden said.

But most of the dishes covering the classroom Thanksgiving table definitely were not served at that first Thanksgiving feast. The potpourri of international goodies included enchiladas, tacos, fried rice, egg rolls, and banh gio , a Vietnamese dish of pork, mushroom and glutinous rice steamed in banana leaves.

While the foods were different, the spirit of the original feast was very much in evidence. Like the original Pilgrims and the Indians, the youngsters were strangers making attempts to communicate with one another. But the children managed to bridge the language barrier by doing what the original Pilgrims and Indians did--sharing a meal and communicating in sign language.

Sign language was used when Kiapos led her pupils in a song telling the story of the first Thanksgiving. After reciting the words and demonstrating the signs, Kiapos invited the Post children to sing along. Afterward, the Morningside kids paired off with their Post pen pals and filled paper plates with food.

While the young pilgrims ate eagerly Wednesday and said they are looking forward to “pigging out” today, they also realize that Thanksgiving is about more than watching football and eating turkey.

Some of the pupils in Kiapos’ class expressed their thankfulness in three-sentence essays penciled in block letters and posted on a classroom cabinet. Although the sentences were written in the simple prose of second-graders, their poignant content suggested hardships rivaling those that caused the original Pilgrims to make their perilous journey to the new world.

“I was born in Vietnam,” said an essay signed Thao Traong. “My family came to America from Vietnam. We are thankful to be here because it is a safe place to have children.”

Another Vietnamese student wrote, “I was born in Vietnam. . . . We are thankful to be here because we can have enough food.”

And from another youngster: “I was born in Thailand. . . . We are thankful to be here because there is no war where we live (now).”