The Story of the First Thanksgiving

Every year we make necklaces using colored beads to tell the story of the very first Thanksgiving.  Each colored bead represents a piece of history leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  Grace made a Thanksgiving story bead necklace for all of her classmates and teachers at school last week and this morning Jack made a necklace for everyone in our family to wear on Thursday.

• 1 tan bead to represent the Pilgrims leaving England
• 1 white bead to represent the sails on the Mayflower
• 3 blue beads to represent the 66 days it took for the Mayflower to cross the Atlantic Ocean
• 1 green bead to represent when Pilgrims spotted land, which they later named Plymouth
• 3 white beads to represent the first cold and long winter that the Pilgrims endured 
• 1 white bead to represent the arrival of spring
• 1 tan bead to represent the Native American named Squanto who greatly helped the Pilgrims
• A red, yellow, orange and tan bead to represent the foods at the first Thanksgiving (cranberries, corn, squash, pumpkins and turkey).  The first Thanksgiving was a great feast, which lasted three days!

 Jack hung the necklaces on the back of our dining room chairs, which we will all be wearing this Thanksgiving!