Students celebrate Thanksgiving with pie, turkey, and butter

Intermountain Catholic

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The Madeleine Choir School celebrated Thanksgiving Day Nov. 25. Kindergarten students dressed as Native Americans and first-graders dressed as pilgrims to enact the ?coming together? of both cultures. Students were thankful for their health, their parents, their pets, and even for turkey. ?They aren't materialistic,? said Megan McGill, Madeleine Choir first grade teacher.IC photo by Priscilla Cabral

SALT LAKE CITY — Kindergarteners and first graders of The Madeleine Choir School enacted the first Thanksgiving feast Nov. 25 at the Madeleine Choir School.

"I enjoyed seeing them talk about the things for which they are thankful, for example: being healthy, their parents, or being in this school," said Megan McGill, first grade teacher. "They aren’t materialistic," she said.

The kindergarten students worked on different projects such as painting their own turkey and churning butter in preparation for their Thanksgiving celebration. "You’ve made butter!" said Jamie Kmetzsch to her students, who looked at the butter container in awe.

The kindergarteners then walked outside in their Native American costumes to meet their fellow first-grade "pilgrims." In a gesture of unity defying differences, each Native American held hands with a pilgrim and strolled toward the little gym, where a feast of turkey, cranberries, and pumpkin pie was waiting.

Parents were also part of the celebration and were taking pictures, setting up, and cleaning. Jody Gross, a parent volunteer, said she sent an e-mail asking for help "and within an hour all the slots were filled."

"The kids were working on this all week. They’ve been talking about the history of Thanksgiving Day and about the songs they’ve learned," said Laura Murphy, who took the day off work to help with the activities of her daughters’ classroom. "I just did not want to miss it," she said.