Thanksgiving {Cranberry Day}

• Read “Cranberry Thanksgiving” by Wende & Harry Devlin
1. This is the story of Grandma, Maggie, Mr. Whiskers and Mr. Horace. Grandma’s famous cranberry bread recipe is kept secret and hidden safely behind a brick in the fireplace. When he comes to Thanksgiving dinner, Grandma thinks Mr. Whiskers is trying to steal her recipe, but the night ends up a little differently than she had planned.

• Preschool Journal Page
  1. Practice writing “Cranberry” with a red crayon or pencil
  2. Draw a cranberry
  3. Stick cranberry stickers all over page. I just cut circles out of red sticky back felt and called them cranberries.

• Cranberry Taste Test
  1. Show the kids whole cranberries & let them describe them.
  2. Let the taste dried cranberries and drink of cranberry juice.
  3. NOTE: the video below is great. We tasted our treats when they showed how to make cranberry juice & when they showed how dried cranberries are made. The kids loved it.

• Watch “How It’s Made: Cranberries” … a fun, informative video on youtube.

• Recipe Hunt
  1. In Cranberry Thanksgiving, Grandmother hides her secret recipe behind a brick in the fireplace.
  2. Hide each of the ingredients from the recipe around the room.
  3. I had the kids find the recipe first (hiding by the fireplace, of course) 
  4. Let the kids go on a hunt to find everything they’ll need to make Grandma’s secret recipe! They found a bag of flour and sugar, the salt shaker, the baking powder, an egg (careful!), a can of OJ, a cube of butter, chocolate chips and cranberries.
  5. NOTE: Don’t forget to hide a mixing bowl and the measuring cups and spoons

 

• Cranberries in a Cup
1. Michelle at Delightful Learning suggested putting the cranberries in the bottom of the muffin tins first when making the cranberry bread recipe (so they don’t float to the top and burn).
2. So, I had the kids use kid-friendly chopsticks to put the cranberries one-by-one into the muffin tins.
3. NOTE: we made mini muffins, so we put 3 cranberries in each cup.

• Make Cranberry Bread or Muffins
1. I have to admit, I’ve never made cranberry anything, but these turned out really yummy. We used the recipe from the back of the book and added chocolate chips Delicious.
2. My 1, 3, and 5-year-old all loved them. They ate them so fast, I didn’t get a picture of the finished muffins!

 

• Cranberry Float … my kids love this! We alternate … one of the kids plays in the water while the other helps mom with one of the ingredients for the muffins. Then they switch. Works great. 
1. Add a couple packages of fresh cranberries to a large tub filled with water.
2. TIP: put a big towel or two under the tub of water. Just trust me
3. Add slotted spoons, small measuring spoons and tin bowls with holes punched in the bottom. 
4. TIP: we learned last year that it’s better to have bowls and spoons with holes to let the water drain, otherwise water gets everywhere!
5. My 1-year-old was especially thrilled to play in the water when she woke up from her nap!

Have fun & Happy Thanksgiving!