GARDEN GROVE : Youngsters Get Taste of Holiday

Wearing a bright pilgrim’s bonnet made of white construction paper, Jessica McDonald, 5, celebrated Thanksgiving early this year during a traditional turkey feast with her kindergarten classmates, many of whom had never experienced the holiday.

“I’m thankful for my mom and my dad and my brother and my baby dog,” Jessica said after the meal Tuesday at Dr. Merton E. Hill Elementary School. And although she thought that it was important to express gratitude, she also said the reason she wanted to have Thanksgiving every day was “so we could eat a lot.”

For about half of the pupils, Tuesday’s feast was “their first Thanksgiving because they don’t celebrate it at home,” said teacher Pat Elliott. Her students, some of whom recently moved to the United States, represent seven nationalities, including Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, Filipino and Iranian.

The school celebration, Elliott said, is meant to provide the children with one of their first cultural looks into an American holiday.

“I think it is a building block for their future education experience in America,” Elliott said. “We stop and talk about what we’re thankful for.”

Dressed in vests made from brown grocery bags, construction paper collars and feathered headbands, all decorated in crayon, Jessica and her 26 classmates portrayed Indians and pilgrims during their re-creation of the first Thanksgiving meal.

In preparation for the event, the children learned about where the pilgrims came from and about their contact with American Indians. In recent lessons, Elliott also used a globe to show where the children who recently immigrated to America came from.

Additionally, the class made paper models of the Mayflower and colored pictures of turkeys and other Thanksgiving-themed illustrations. “They’ve been real excited. They’ve been looking forward to this since the first of November,” she said.

Kaleigh Robinson, 5, said she liked learning about the early settlers and the American Indians who offered them friendship.

“The Indians were the goodest,” she said. “They helped all the children (learn) how to build the houses.”

She added that she enjoyed coloring pictures of turkeys and getting dressed up, but “the feast was the most fun and I liked it. I like feasts.”

Before the meal, the aroma of steaming turkey and rolls filled the room as the children marched in single file. And when they saw the food laid out before them, several shouted “yummy!” and “wow!” One wide-eyed kindergartner asked, “Is that turkey?”

Seated at a long, low table, they munched on buttered rolls, corn, cranberries, string beans, carrots and celery sticks, followed by slices of pumpkin pie topped with a dollop of whipped cream. And the 13-pound bird that Elliott cooked for the class vanished in less than 15 minutes.

Jessica’s mother, Cathy McDonald, noted that, “during the meal, there were a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ about what they did like and what they didn’t like. They didn’t like the peas. They liked the pie.”