21 Amazing Facts About Thanksgiving to Share with Your Family and Friends

Thanksgiving is the second most popular holiday in the United States, according to a Harris poll (2015). People drive 50 miles or more to see family, eat too much, and watch lots of football. Millions also watch the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

What do you and your family do?

If you need something to talk about, these Thanksgiving facts will spark conversation.

Thanksgiving Turkey Trivia

• The Butterball Turkey hotline takes over 100,000 questions about cooking the holiday feast each year.
• Americans eat over 44 million turkeys (averaging 16 pounds apiece) on Thanksgiving. If you put all that meat on a scale, it would weigh 704 million pounds.
• TV dinners got their start after Swanson overbought 260 tons of turkey. A sales rep named Gerry Thomas suggested they package the turkey with peas, dressing, gravy, and sweet potatoes in tin trays like the airlines used. 10 million trays sold the first year and TV dinners won a permanent spot at the grocery store.
• Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be America’s national mascot.  In a letter to his daughter, he wrote “the Turkey is in Comparison (to the bald eagle) a much more respectable Bird.”
• Studies show it’s not the tryptophan in turkey that makes you sleepy.  It’s the 4500 calories of food you ate on Thanksgiving.
• 8 in 10 people say they prefer Thanksgiving leftovers.

These Turkey Accents will brighten up your classroom for Thanksgiving.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Trivia

• The first Macy’s Thanksgiving parade was in 1924.  It was so popular they got a TV contract with NBC a few years after.
• The first balloon character was Felix the Cat.  They hadn’t planned to deflate it, so it drifted up and popped shortly after the parade ended.
• The first parade featured animals from the Central Park Zoo, puppets on floats, and no        balloons.
• 3.5 million people go to New York City to watch, some arriving as early as 6:30 AM to grab a good spot. Over 50 million watch the parade on TV. 
• Macy’s parade is the largest float parade in the world. 
• Sonic the Hedgehog is the first video game character to get a balloon in the parade.
• Peanuts character Snoopy has the most balloons, with 8 featured in the parade since 1968.

Decorate your bulletin board with this Fall Winter Snoopy Pose Bb Set. 

Holiday Football Facts

• The first football game played on Thanksgiving was in 1876.  Yale took on Princeton.
• The Detroit Lions have played every Thanksgiving since 1934.  The only exception was when the players were called to fight in World War 2.
• The Dallas Cowboys have played all but 2 Thanksgivings since 1966.
• The Jacksonville Jaguars have never played on Thanksgiving Day.

Need a football to toss with family and friends on Thanksgiving?  We’ve got some:

Coated Foam Ball Football (softer for the kids)  Football Official Size

How Thanksgiving Became a National Holiday

• George Washington declared a National Day of Thanks on November 26, 1789. He wanted Americans to thank God for protecting them and helping them achieve independence.
• Thomas Jefferson didn’t want Thanksgiving to be a national holiday. He felt it would violate the First Amendment separation of church and state. 
• Sarah Josepha Hale lobbied to make Thanksgiving a holiday for decades. Finally, in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln granted her wish. She was also known for writing the childhood favorite Mary Had a Little Lamb.
• The first U.S. President to officially pardon a turkey was John F. Kennedy.

Welcome guests with this Thanksgiving Allinone Door Décor Kit.  

Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers

Turkey Dinner Collage

All you need is some glue, scissors, food clip art you can print out, and paper plates. Have the children cut out their favorite foods and glue them on the plates. (Thanks to PreKinders for this idea.)

Thankful Cards

One piece of construction paper should do. Have them write what they’re thankful for. Encourage them to add a picture they draw or paste on. Studies show that grateful people are happier, get better grades, and don’t get sick as often as ungrateful people.

Thanksgiving Countdown

Make a paper chain with enough links to count down the days until Thanksgiving. Each day a student tears off one link and everyone counts what’s left. (Thanks to Preschool Plan-it for this one.)

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration. If you’d like to share your Thanksgiving traditions with us, we’d love to hear about them!

3 Ways to Celebrate World Kindness Day in Your Classroom

 

Want to know how you can change the world?  Famous actor Morgan Freeman says you do it with “one random act of kindness at a time.”

We hear a lot of people talk about “random” acts of kindness.  What does that mean?  The Oxford Dictionary says anything random is “done without method or conscious decision.”  Perhaps a better word to describe these acts of kindness is “unexpected.” To recipients these acts seem random.  But for those practicing kindness, their acts are planned and intentional.

If you want something to happen, you must be conscious about it and make plans.  That’s why celebrating World Kindness Day is a great way to build the kindness habit. 

How Did World Kindness Day Get Started?

On November 13, 1997, a group of humanitarians came together and decided it was time for a change.  They marked their decision with a “Declaration of Kindness.”  Their purpose became “spreading joy, happiness, and peace by being considerate, compassionate and empathetic towards people and living beings.” 

If you wrote your own Declaration of Kindness, what would you put in it?  How would you spread joy, happiness, and peace to the people around you? 

Your students have lots of ideas on how to be kind to each other.  Make a list and write your own class declaration.  Print it out and hang it on the wall.  Take one act each week and focus on practicing it.  Praise students when you catch them being kind. Have them share their stories of what happened when they were kind to someone else.  Talk about how every act of kindness is an investment in a better future for everyone. 

We’d love to see your declaration and hear your stories!

Play the Compliment Game

A compliment is defined by Oxford as “a polite expression of praise or admiration.”  Abraham Lincoln said everyone likes compliments.  Comedy writer Robert Orben said compliments are “verbal sunshine.” Mark Twain said he could “live for two months on a good compliment.” 

A single compliment can affect the rest of someone’s life.

Since compliments are so powerful, children should learn to master them. 

You can play the compliment game in a variety of ways.  Here are a few ground rules:

·         Everyone must compliment someone else.

·         No one should be left out.

·         The compliment should be sincere.

One way to play is to pass a ball.  When someone catches the ball, they must compliment someone.  When they’re done, they pass the ball to someone else.  Play continues until all students are complimented.

You can also hand out blank cards and assign each student another person to compliment.  Write some sample sentences on the board that they can copy if they wish.  Once the cards are filled out, have the writers deliver them.

Here are some balls for your Compliment Game from Champion Sports.

These framed index cards provide the perfect place to write a short, sincere compliment.

Play Empathy Charades

It’s easier to give sincere compliments when you know people well. 

In this game, have each student come to the front of the class and pick a card.  Written on these cards will be feeling words.  The student then acts out the feeling nonverbally until someone guesses the emotion.

The point of this is to help students understand what others are feeling by reading their faces and behavior.  When you can relate, you can connect.

Donate Toys to Kids Who Need Them

Many kids have more toys than they can play with.  If your students have some they’ve outgrown or don’t play with anymore, another child can give that toy a new life.

Set up a box in your classroom to collect gently used toys.  If possible, take a field trip so your students can see the kids’ faces as they receive the toys.  

Want to donate some new toys to kids who need them?  Check out our selection from Melissa and Doug.

How Kindness Makes You Better

Science tells us that kindness creates:

·         Stronger relationships

·         More satisfaction with life

·         Healthy self-esteem

Each act of kindness is an investment in a better life for you, your community, and the world.   What will you do today to make a better tomorrow for the people around you?