Getting that Pilgrim hat just right

MOSES LAKE - Listen, making that Pilgrim hat is tricky. Fold the black construction paper in half, draw the pattern of a big capital L, and cut. . .OK, got to review that part. Cut the fold? Or don't cut the fold?

The first graders in Regina Darlington's class at Peninsula Elementary were working to figure that out. They had already cut the turkey body, and the turkey feathers, and then that darn hat. Later they cut eyes, and a little red piece of construction paper to go under the turkey's chin, and a little yellow chunk of construction paper for his beak.

That's a lot of cutting. And a lot of gluing. But when the first graders were done they had a nice big turkey with a Pilgrim hat. He went with the class's other Thanksgiving projects, including their own depiction of the Mayflower, and a list of what they'd take on the journey.

The fourth graders in Layne Bezzo's class were working on memory books for their parents, complete with a turkey pin (with real feathers) and a Thanksgiving poem. If making a Pilgrim hat is tricky, writing a Thanksgiving poem is just as tricky. Fourth graders pulled out their dictionaries, and thought, and wrote, and sometimes erased and thought some more. When they were done the fourth graders transferred the poem to a new and nicer piece of paper, colored the turkeys in the corners, and pasted it in the memory book. The memory books were started before Halloween, and the fourth graders will be adding to them until Christmas.