This year, to wrap up a unit on the history and traditions of Thanksgiving, Pierson Middle/High School ENL teachers prepared a Thanksgiving feast for their students. Set with more traditional foods, such as turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie, the students got to enjoy foods they may have already loved or experience foods they may have been less familiar with.
The unit on Thanksgiving included a deep dive into the history of Thanksgiving, how it has evolved, traditions that have been passed on, and the values of being thankful. During class time, the students also wrote paragraphs on what they were thankful for and hung them around the classroom as decorations for the festivities.
Pierson ENL teachers, Yanina Cuesta, Lindamarie Kirby, Tara O'Malley, and Lauren Kacherski prepared the feast as an effort to gather the students in a fun and celebratory way that also showed their gratitude toward the students.
“Thanksgiving is a time we get together and celebrate what we are thankful for and our ENL department is thankful for the hard work of our students, so we wanted to celebrate that with a Thanksgiving feast in lieu of their regular lunch,” said Cuesta.