Making Pilgrim Progress

The 17th century Pilgrims didn't have palm trees surrounding picnic tables for the first Thanksgiving dinner. And they definitely didn't dine off placemats woven from construction paper or sip from juice boxes.

But the 21st century Pilgrims and American Indians at Independent Day School's first feast felt like they understood the early settlers after two weeks of immersion into their lives. They started on the Mayflower and ended with turkey and pie.

"It's helping them live in it and really understand what it was like so many years ago," said prekindergarten teacher Lauren Bronson.

The "Living Thanksgiving" is a tradition at the private school that puts history into a context that prekindergarten and kindergarten classes could grasp. This year it took on a new twist when teachers decided to cap classroom lessons and outdoor re-enactments with a Thanksgiving luncheon.

"This year we are really doing it up," Bronson said.

The children arrived in costume and let out whoops and gasps as they saw the spread. The 3-year-olds dressed as American Indians, with headbands announcing their "native names," such as "Happy Feet," "Laughing Vacuum" and "Flying Peacock." The 4-year-olds and kindergartners came as Pilgrims, with paper hats and collars.

They ate deli turkey rolled into tubes, mashed potatoes, vegetable soup and pie.

Holly Ralph said her prekindergarten class studied the hardships Pilgrims endured but loved the chance to dress like Pilgrims and looked forward to the feast. The children got to "harvest" vegetables that teachers had planted, which teachers and volunteers then washed, peeled and cooked in a soup to serve at the dinner.

The classes' journeys started, appropriately, on the Mayflower, a wooden structure built like a ship that stays docked on the Carrollwood campus.

The children signed a ship's log with a quill pen and boarded the Mayflower, standing elbow-to-elbow in the small space. Kindergarten teacher Marla Vildostegui said the cramped quarters provided an authentic touch.

"It's good for them to see these were the types of conditions," Vildostegui said.

During the next days, classes took turns going outside to a makeshift Plymouth, where teachers had set up activities such as stuffing pillowcases with hay and pine needles and washing clothes in the river (kiddie pool).

"They didn't have laundry, so they had to wash them in the river," said Kacy Krig, 5. "We wash them, and then we hang them on the rack. It's easy."

"Squanto" arrived one day to show the children how to plant seeds and fertilize soil with fish. While the children were at home, teachers tucked full-grown vegetables into gardening beds to surprise them.

"Look what I found," 5-year-old Jay Forsythe said, running to his teacher with a dirt-covered object she identified as a radish. "Are they yummy?"

Raegan Maniecki, 5, said she found corn and carrots.

"I pulled that out with my arms," she said.

Kacy thought her class had figured out where the vegetables came from but insisted that the ones she found had roots.

"We thought people went to the grocery store and stuck them in there, but they didn't," Kacy said. "It grew, actually."