Voa education report - Pilgrims Face Competition in Thanksgiving Lessons

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is the VOA Special English Education Report. The fourth in November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. says early English settlers known as the Pilgrims held first celebration in sixteen twenty-one in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They local Indians to a feast to thank them for in surviving their first year in America. Yet the Plantation along the James River in Virginia calls itself site of the first official Thanksgiving in America. In nineteen an English ship arrived with directions for the to observe their arrival date as a yearly day thanksgiving to God. But now comes a book called "' REAL First Thanksgiving." A Florida schoolteacher, Robyn Gioia, tells story of Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez who founded Saint , Florida. He celebrated with a thanksgiving feast with the Timucua Indians. That was in fifteen sixty-five-. So what schoolchildren learning these days about Thanksgiving? Sharon Biros is first-grade teacher in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Her students learn about holiday as they discuss being good citizens. They read about the Indians and the Pilgrims. And the children what they are each thankful for. Many of the are poor. The school organizes a project in which bring food and money to share with those in . Brook Levin heads a preschool in Broomall, Pennsylvania. She the kids learn about native culture and the Pilgrims how people at that time grew their own food. , she says, is a good time to teach about importance of sharing. The children make bread and other and invite their parents to school to enjoy them. Burrell is curriculum director for the public schools on reservation of the Winnebago Indian tribe in Nebraska. She not American Indian, and she says there is only native teacher. But she says all the teachers are in native culture and history. Students learn about the , she says, but not at Thanksgiving time. They learn them when they study American history. Thanksgiving is used a time to strengthen a sense of community. She most of the families in the tribe celebrate Thanksgiving like other Americans do. But in addition the students part in a traditional Indian harvest festival in October. that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.

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