HARVEST LESSONS

At left, teacher Jennifer Barnes works with Takota Beck-Murphy to slice potatoes for the soup. As Thanksgiving approaches, students in Trinity County are getting a varied menu from school to school and class to class as far as how the holiday is observed and what is taught.

Some schools have no Thanksgiving celebration, while others partner with parents to put on a spread with turkey and all the trimmings for their youngest students.

At Hayfork Elementary School, one of the teachers, Sunday Stanley, showed a short video to her fourth/ fifth grade class last week, "1621 Beyond the Myth of Thanksgiving."

It gave some insight as to how the natives and colonists interacted. There were tensions, Stanley noted, particularly after the English came across native storehouses of corn buried in the ground and thought it was a gift from God.

The video included a re-enactment and information about what scholars really think happened at the first harvest feast (it wasn't called Thanksgiving for many years).

"It really just talked about how a small group of natives and a small group of the English already trading and communicating had a feast together," she said. "The myth would have been that they sat down together, shared meals and enjoyed each others' company — and from here on out there was a truce."

From left, Robert Radecker, Hazel Davis, Miss Kiss, AnnDrea Collins and Takota Beck-Murphy help prepare a stone soup harvest feast in Jennifer Barnes' 5th/6th grade class at Hayfork Elementary School. The feast was part of a series of Thanksgiving themed lessons children through the county were learning over the past several weeks. Also at Hayfork Elementary, Jennifer Barnes' fifth/sixth grade class held a harvest feast. On Friday there was "stone soup" with everyone contributing. Students shared what they are thankful for and the class worked on proper etiquette for a Thanksgiving dinner, Barnes said.

The previous week the class made pumpkin pie, with the help of foster grandparent Claudia Bird. Barnes' class has a cooking day every week if they earn it with their behavior and work.

PHIL NELSON THE TRINITY JOURNAL Reannah Parent, above, pours stock into an empty pan in preparation of the class's stone soup. "We learned how to make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread from an actual pumpkin," Barnes said. "One student said, 'How are we going to make pumpkin pie? No one brought a can of pumpkin.'"

"They love cooking," Barnes said. "To me it's a life skill."

The Hayfork Elementary ASPIREAfter School Program coordinated by Mandy Leahy spent the month of November learning about the autumn harvest season through nutrition, reading, daily trivia and art. To wrap up November, they planned and prepared a harvest feast, and the students prepared a slide show and a meal for their parents. Activities included musical chairs, name that smell, pumpkin ring toss, relays, and find the bubble gum in the ice cream contest. Students made a meal of chili, cornbread, salad and pumpkin pie and served it to more than 80 people.

At Weaverville Elementary School, the kindergarten classes of Judy Fisk and Jean Yoho enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving Feast on Tuesday, including a turkey with trimmings, pumpkin pie — the works. The meal was provided by the parents, and children wore pilgrim and American Indian costumes.

"We've been building up to it all week," Fisk said, adding that there have been lessons on how the pilgrims ate and lived — under much more difficult conditions than today — and how the American Indians helped them to plant things.