Obscure Thanksgiving Trivia

36 Little Known Facts About Thanksgiving

1. The famous pilgrim celebration at Plymouth Colony Massachusetts in 1621 is traditionally regarded as the first American Thanksgiving. However, there are actually 12 claims to where the “first” Thanksgiving took place: two in Texas, two in Florida, one in Maine, two in Virginia, and five in Massachusetts.^d
2. President Jefferson called a federal Thanksgiving proclamation “the most ridiculous idea ever conceived.”^d
3. The famous “Pilgrim and Indian” story featured in modern Thanksgiving narratives was not initially part of early Thanksgiving stories, largely due to tensions between Indians and colonists.^d
“Unthanksgiving Day“ commemorates the struggle for Native American rights
4. Held every year on the island of Alcatraz since 1975, “Unthanksgiving Day” commemorates the survival of Native Americans following the arrival and settlement of Europeans in the Americas.^a
5. The first Thanksgiving in America actually occurred in 1541, when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his expedition held a thanksgiving celebration in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle.^d
6. The turkeys typically depicted in Thanksgiving pictures are not the same as the domestic turkeys most people eat at Thanksgiving. Domestic turkeys usually weigh twice as much and are too large to fly.^d
7. The average long-distance Thanksgiving trip is 214 miles, compared with 275 miles over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.^c
8. Americans eat roughly 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving.ⁱ
9. One of the most popular first Thanksgiving stories recalls the three-day celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. Over 200 years later, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving, and in 1941 Congress established the fourth Thursday in November as a national holiday.^f
10. Every Thanksgiving, a group of Native Americans and their supporters gather on Cole’s Hill in Plymouth to commemorate a National Day of Mourning. The flyer for the event in 2006 reads, in part, “Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today.”^d
11. Thanksgiving is an amalgam of different traditions, including ancient harvest festivals, the religious New England Puritan Thanksgiving, the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England, and changing political and ideological assumptions of Native Americans.^d
12. Since Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving holiday in 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually. However, various earlier presidents--including George Washington, John Adams, and James Madison--all urged Americans to observe various periods of thanksgiving.^b
13. The Pilgrim’s thanksgiving feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 1. It lasted three days and included 50 surviving pilgrims and approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians, including Chief Massasoit. Their menu differed from modern Thanksgiving dinners and included berries, shellfish, boiled pumpkin, and deer.^d
14. Even though President Madison declared that Thanksgiving should be held twice in 1815, none of the celebrations occurred in the autumn.^f
Cranberries are only one of three fruits native to America
15. Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.^d
16. In 2007, George W. Bush granted a pardon to two turkeys named May and Flower. The tradition of pardoning Thanksgiving turkeys began in 1947, though Abraham Lincoln is said to have informally started the practice when he pardoned his son’s pet turkey.^g
17. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to the next-to-last Thursday in November to prolong the holiday shopping season, many Republicans rebelled. The holiday was temporarily celebrated on different dates: November 30 became the “Republican Thanksgiving” and November 23 was “Franksgiving” or “Democrat Thanksgiving.”^d
18. Not all states were eager to adopt Thanksgiving because some thought the national government was exercising too much power in declaring a national holiday. Additionally, southern states were hesitant to observe what was largely a New England practice.^d
19. In December 1620, the first Pilgrims landed and built their settlement site in the middle of the homeland of Wampanoag people. Several years earlier, a plague brought by Europeans had killed the inhabitants of the village.^b
Tisquantum (Squanto) was a former English slave
20. The pilgrims most likely would not have survived without the help of Tisquantum, or Squanto (c. 1580-1622). Squanto knew English and had already been back and forth across the ocean to England three times (most often as a captured slave). Some historians have suggested that he was later poisoned by the Wampanoag.^f
21. Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), who tirelessly worked to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday, also was the first person to advocate women as teachers in public schools, the first to advocate day nurseries to assist working mothers, and the first to propose public playgrounds. She was also the author of two dozen books and hundreds of poems, including “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”^b
22. Thanksgiving football games began with Yale versus Princeton in 1876.^d
23. In 1920, Gimbels department store in Philadelphia held a parade with about 50 people and Santa Claus bringing up the rear. The parade is now known as the 6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade and is the nation’s oldest Thanksgiving Day parade.^d
24. Established in 1924, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ties for second as the oldest Thanksgiving parade. The Snoopy balloon has appeared in the parade more often than any other character. More than 44 million people watch the parade on TV each year and 3 million attend in person.^h
25. The earliest Thanksgiving in Canada was held in 1578. Martin Frobisher (c. 1535-1594) in Newfoundland held a celebration for arriving safely in the new world. In 1879, Thanksgiving in Canada was set on November 6, though the date still varied considerably. Since 1957, Thanksgiving Day has been held on the second Monday in October.^d
In 1941, the U.S. Congress sanctioned Thanksgiving as national holiday
26. Considered the "Mother of Thanksgiving," Sara Hale (1788-1879) was an influential editor and writer who urged President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving. She selected the last Thursday in November because, as she said, harvests were done, elections were over, and summer travelers were home. She also believed a national thanksgiving holiday would unite Americans in the midst of dramatic social and industrial change and “awaken in Americans’ hearts the love of home and country, of thankfulness to God, and peace between brethren.”^d
27. Baby turkeys are called poults. Only male turkeys gobble and, therefore, are called gobblers.^d
28. In 2001, the U.S. Postal Service issued a Thanksgiving stamp to honor the tradition “of being thankful for the abundance of goods we enjoy in America.”^b
29. Long before the Pilgrims, native Hawaiians celebrated the longest thanksgiving in the world—Makahiki, which lasted four months, approximately from November through February. During this time, both work and war were forbidden.^d
30. In 2009, roughly 38.4 million Americans traveled more than 50 miles to be with family for Thanksgiving. More than four million flew home.^c
31. Thanksgiving Day is actually the busiest travel day, even more so than the day before Thanksgiving, as most people believe.^c
32. Forefather’s Day also celebrates the pilgrims, but it celebrates their landing at Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620 rather than the plentiful harvest in 1621. It is celebrated on December 21 and usually only in New England. Forefather’s Day was first celebrated in 1769 among a group of pilgrim descendents.^d
33. The people of the Virgin Islands, a United States territory in the Caribbean Sea, celebrate two thanksgivings, the national holiday and Hurricane Thanksgiving Day. Every Oct 19, if there have been no hurricanes, Hurricane Day is held and the islanders give thanks that they have been spared.^d
34. Thanksgiving can occur as early as November 22 and as late as November 28.^d
35. The Friday after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday largely because stores hope the busy shopping day will take them out of the red and into positive profits. Black Friday has been a tradition since the 1930s.^e
36. Thanksgiving is often considered the site of the first cultural war because it contains both a narrative of the birth of freedom and democracy as well as an account of racism, mistreatment of Native Americans, and conflict.

source: http://facts.randomhistory.com/thanksgiving-facts.html

Life After Turkey Day....

We've all been waiting for this holiday (and we deserve it!) I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. However, we'll be hitting the ground running on December 2. We will be diving into deforestation, pollution, population, urbanization, desertification, population pyramids, and a few other topics that focus on our imprint on the environment. Look at this interesting video from the BBC:

Interesting?

Last Week's Recap & This Week's News

We had a great week last week. Our team finished up the Tennessee unit, and I'm happy to say that in all of the years I have taught this Tennessee unit, never have so many students made an "A" on the final test! I am continuously amazed by this group! 99.9 percent of our team walked away with an A+ on this comprehensive assessment, in addition to all of the perfect scores on the three quizzes prior to the final test. I just couldn't be prouder of this great group!

One of the primary contributing factors to our continued success over the past four weeks appears to be the cohesive manner in which our Peer Support Teams continue to work and grow together. I only wish our parents could witness the amazing way students are reaching out to help each other to ensure the success of their groups! It is truly a thing of beauty every single day, and has rejuvenated my love of teaching this year!

This week we will immerse ourselves in the issues of migration and immigration. There is a new blog I created this weekend to accommodate a more in-depth look at the topics that is now listed in my list of teaching blogs on the this gateway page to all the blogs. We will spend all day Monday and all day Friday with Mrs. Murphy's classes in the library, where Ms. Rummage will conduct immigration programs for our students. We will review and test on the most important points of this information on the Tuesday prior to Thanksgiving break next week.

When we return from Thanksgiving, our focus will be the unit we call the Human Imprint on the Environent. That unit covers such issues as urbanization, deforestation, pollution etc. It is always an interesting unit for the students and we have many great activities associated with the material.

I hope everyone has a great week coming up; I know the students and I will.

The History of Veterans' Day

Celebrate! Holidays In The U.S.A.

Veterans' Day
(Second Monday in November)

In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, the world rejoiced and
celebrated. After four years of bitter war, an armistice was signed. The "war to end all wars" was over.

November 11, 1919 was set aside as Armistice Day in the United States, to remember the sacrifices
that men and women made during World War I in order to ensure a lasting peace. On Armistice Day,
soldiers who survived the war marched in a parade through their home towns. Politicians and veteran
officers gave speeches and held ceremonies of thanks for the peace they had won.

Soldiers of the 353rd Infantry near a church at Stenay, Meuse in France, wait for the end of hostilities.  This photo was taken at 10:58 a.m., on November 11, 1918, two minutes before the armistice ending World War I went into effect.

Congress voted Armistice Day a federal holiday in 1938, 20 years after the war ended. But Americans realized that the previous war would not be the last one. World War II began the following year and nations great and small again participated in a bloody struggle. After the Second World War,
Armistice Day continued to be observed on November 11.

In 1953 townspeople in Emporia, Kansas called the holiday Veterans' Day in gratitude to the veterans
in their town. Soon after, Congress passed a bill introduced by a Kansas congressman renaming the
federal holiday to Veterans' Day. 1971 President Nixon declared it a federal holiday on the second
Monday in November.

President Eisenhower signing HR7786, changing Armistice Day to Veterans Day. From left: Alvin J. King, Wayne Richards, Arthur J. Connell, John T. Nation, Edward Rees, Richard L. Trombla, Howard W. Watts.

Americans still give thanks for peace on Veterans' Day. There are ceremonies and speeches and at
11:00 in the morning, most Americans observe a moment of silence, remembering those who fought
for peace.

After the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, the emphasis on holiday activities has
shifted. There are fewer military parades and ceremonies. Veterans gather at the Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in Washington, D.C. to place gifts and stand quiet vigil at the names of their friends and
relatives who fell in the Vietnam War. Families who have lost sons and daughters in wars turn their
thoughts more toward peace and the avoidance of future wars.

Veterans of military service have organized support groups such as the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. On Veterans' Day and Memorial Day, these groups raise funds for their charitable activities by selling paper poppies made by disabled veterans. This bright red wildflower became a symbol of World War I after a bloody battle in a field of poppies called Flanders Field in Belgium.

Embassy of the United States of America
Dag Hammarskjölds Väg 31, SE-115 89 Stockholm
Celebrate! Holidays in the U.S.A.
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2013 Memorial Day Stories of WWII Veterans

Cool Geography Craft Project

Love this! Look at what students created out of small pie pumpkins! These are cool seasonal projects.

Great Archived Time Magazine Cover Article on How to Be A Better Student (This one is for parents & students!)

It's every parent's hope. One that is nourished by that first toothless grin of recognition, by the infant gaze of almost uncanny alertness and then by the stunning acquisition of words, of ABCs and 1-2-3s. "My child is bright. My child will excel in school. My child will make me proud." Industries are built on such aspirations. There are black-and-white mobiles to stimulate the senses and tapes of Mozart for Your Mind. Later come investments in Reader Rabbit software, encyclopedias and lessons to train every facet of body, brain and soul. But a child's success cannot be purchased, nor, to the frustration of parents everywhere, can it be wished into being.
What does it take to make an excellent student? The student who not only sits at the head of the class (and the horn section, the swim team, the debate society and yearbook) but also enjoys the respect and friendship of teachers and peers? The encouragement of a parent or two certainly provides a foundation. But to find out more, TIME interviewed dozens of superb students from across the country, along with their parents, teachers, mentors and friends. What emerged is some clear patterns and some lessons well worth studying.

THE SWEAT FACTOR
The brick house on a treelined street in Newark, N.J., is impeccable: the iron fence gleams with fresh black paint; the emerald grass looks newly mowed. Inside, the carefully arranged furnishings glow as if purchased yesterday. Everything in the Paliz family home is a reflection of hard work and pride in accomplishment, especially the Palizes themselves.
Bismarck Jonathan Paliz, 17, has watched his immigrant parents struggle and sacrifice to make a life for the family. His father, born in Ecuador, slowly built up a real estate business. His Puerto Rican-born mother Wadette, an administrative assistant, began working at 18 as an office clerk, taking courses to improve her skills and minimal time off for the birth of each of her three children. The family suffered major setbacks when their home was badly damaged twice by fire. Watching his parents rebuild, Bismarck, the eldest child, learned the value of persistence. "My parents have always been fighters," he says. "They are my mentors. They've led by example. They've kept me on track."
The honors track, that is. Bismarck, aptly called Bizzy by friends, was valedictorian at his middle school, and is contending for that honor next June at Science High School, one of Newark's "magnet" schools. He is a star player on the school's math and chemistry teams, and is so computer-savvy that the union pension and benefit fund where his mother works pays him $15 an hour after school to solve technical problems. He may not need the money for college, though. Even before he had thought about applying, he won a $40,000 scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Teachers call Bismarck one of the best students they have ever seen. "He's in the top 1%, not just in terms of ability but in terms of positive attitude, initiative and motivation," says Susan Rocco, who has been teaching math for 24 years. More surprising is that Bismarck is not regarded by schoolmates as a hopeless nerd who hangs only with fellow brainiacs. "He's not a teacher's pet," attests his buddy Ruben Ramirez, a self-described jock. "You'd think with all that work, he'd be boring and uptight, but he's loose and he's real funny." Bismarck, for his part, says he just likes to work hard: "I'm happier knowing I'm doing the most I can and achieving the highest I can."
What Bismarck has in abundance is a quality found in all top students: he takes pleasure not merely in the achievement but in the effort. "Students like Bismarck are not expecting things just to happen for them," notes his chemistry teacher, Bruce Karpe. "They're not expecting to be geniuses. They know they have to do it on their own."
A willingness to work flat-out is a trait found almost universally in the best students, says Karen Arnold, a Boston College associate professor of higher education. Arnold has spent 17 years following the lives of 81 Illinois students who graduated at the top of their class. These valedictorians, she found, relied less on native intelligence than on effort. "They were hardworking. They were persistent. School was at the center of their lives."
How do kids learn this? Usually, it's the same way Bismarck learned: having parents who show through their own behavior that persistence pays. A new book by Judith Rich Harris, The Nurture Assumption, has caused a sensation by claiming that parents matter less than peers in shaping a child. Educators tend to disagree. Parents of good students play an essential part as role models, says Janet Won, acting principal at P.S. 124, an elementary school in New York City's Chinatown that runs a "gifted and talented" program. They've taught their kids to "persevere and ask questions, and shown them that hard work will pay off. When the kids make mistakes, it's looked upon as a chance to learn to do something better, rather than as something punitive." The best students, adds Won, "have parents who have responded to their curiosity, nourished and supported things they're interested in and opened up their world."

THE JOY OF LEARNING
Enjolique Aytch of Atlanta was not fated to be a good student. When she was 10 months old, she suffered a seizure and fell into a coma for 24 hours. Doctors warned her mother Cheryl that Enjolique would probably be mentally disabled. Cheryl didn't buy that prognosis. She was convinced that both Enjolique and her older brother Richard were "naturally intelligent" and that all she had to do was offer the right stimulation. "Babies have such a thirst for knowledge! If you can capture their imagination right then, it seems to last forever, but if you let that window close, it's lost forever."

Enjolique, now 17, has emerged a luminous, perceptive teenager who excels at debate, ranks in the top 15% of her class and served last year as class vice president and co-captain of the majorettes. She radiates enthusiasm for school and is one of a small number of African-American students in the advanced-placement classes at Grady High School. "There are others that could do it," she says, "but they get caught up in the stereotypical, 'AP, that's nerdy.'" Physics teacher Delphia Bryant admires Enjolique's can-do spirit: "She's one of those people who will rule the world."
Her mother, a divorced truck driver, was herself a good student before dropping out of all-black Spelman College. She took to "opening the window" with gusto. When teaching her kids the difference between hot and cold, for instance, she made learning fun by steaming up the sink with hot water, rather than waiting to scold a child for venturing too near a hot stove. "It's all in the presentation," she says with a twinkle.
What Cheryl Aytch did for her daughter--what the best preschool teachers all do--was to incorporate learning into everyday life and make it lively. "This means that instead of telling a five-year-old about apples or reading about them in a book, you go pick apples, you peel apples and make apple sauce and apple pies," says Wendy Derrow, a family therapist in Orlando, Fla. "It's that pure, healthy, aren't-we-lucky-to-be-together environment that grows great learners."
Good students tend to have what teachers call a broad "fund of knowledge." They've been taken places; they've seen a bit of the world. If the family resources are slim, it might only be to the city park, a train yard or the kitchen of a restaurant. But the experience has been brought to life for them. "I find the students I love will often say to me, 'My mom took me here' or 'My dad and I did this.' You know these parents are in their lives," says Carol Klavins, who's been teaching middle-school science in central Florida for 31 years. "So many kids never mention their parents!"

THE BEST SAT PREP
Teachers lucky enough to be part of the pre-International Baccalaureate program at Robinson Middle School in Wichita, Kans., are used to classes full of bright, motivated kids. But even in this heady environment, Tyler Emerson stands out. Tyler's 12-year-old mind runs deep, notes one of his sixth-grade teachers, Lura Atherly. "He questions things, but not with surface questions. He asks extending questions: Why? What if...?" When the class studied the Russian Revolution, Tyler wanted to discuss what would have happened if the Romanovs had escaped: What if they had come back after the fall of communism? His writing also reflects an uncommon mix of the imaginative and the methodical. He prefers to write on deadline: "It feels like a deadline unlocks a chest where all my creativity is locked," he explains.

Tyler's thirsty, questing mind was forged in a house full of books. His parents, both lawyers, and his grandmother, who lives with them in Wichita's affluent College Hill, are passionate readers. They began reading to him nightly when he was a baby. By 15 months, he was turning the pages of his Dr. Seuss books, already aware that something wonderful was going on. Tyler's parents still read to his brother John, 8. With Ty, they discuss the Tolkien and Asimov books that are his current favorites. "This house could collapse from the weight of books," says his dad Jeff.
As director of admissions at highly selective Williams College in Massachusetts, Tom Parker is often asked by parents, "What should I do to increase my child's scores on the Scholastic Assessment Tests or make him a better college candidate?" Start early, Parker tells them. "The best SAT-preparation course in the world is to read to your children in bed when they're little. Eventually, if that's a wonderful experience for them, they'll start to read for themselves." Parker says he has never met a kid with high scores on the verbal section of the sat who wasn't a passionate reader. "At the breakfast table, these kids read the cereal boxes. That's what readers do!"
The benefits of reading to kids may seem obvious, but parents tend to stop just when the child's own ability to get through a book is taking flight. Don't quit then! says Regie Routman, a nationally recognized expert on literacy and author of several books for teachers. "Some of the best readers and writers--even in middle school and high school--have parents who are still reading to them. They'll be reading Beowulf and Macbeth and just enjoying the love of language with them."

GRADES AREN'T EVERYTHING
Stephen George Jr. moves through the hallways at Brookline High, near Boston, with the loping grace of a fine athlete. Girls smile at him and are rewarded with his big, Denzel Washington dazzler. Boys reach out to slap his palm. Stephen, 17, is irresistible. Kids are impressed that he's snagged one of the world's coolest after-school jobs: ball boy for the Boston Celtics. Teachers adore his diligence and willingness to stretch beyond what is required. And everyone is amazed that despite his achievements as a student (3.4 average), an athlete (baseball, track and golf), a musician (honors choir) and volunteer (Big Brother, among others), he remains, as headmaster Robert Weintraub puts it, "the nicest guy on the planet, the most decent guy in the school."
Academic competition can get pretty ugly, especially in the home stretch of high school, when valedictory honors and college applications loom. "We have students who would cut off somebody's feet to get ahead," says chemistry teacher Bob Cunningham. "Stephen's not like that. He's actually helpful to others in the lab, which would be anticompetitive." English teacher Denise Bacote agrees, "Some kids say, 'Give me an A.' Stephen asks what he can do to earn an A." Bacote recalls when Stephen insisted on revising an article he wrote for a journalism class, even though it was already graded. "He did another version just to see how to do it better. I think that's the key to student success--working not just for a grade but to improve skills."

Read more: How To Make A Better Student: Their Eight Secrets of Success - TIME http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,989334,00.html#ixzz2jsox69fI

Click on this link to view the entire article 

Tennessee Study Guide

Tennessee Products

By

Grand Divisions

West	Middle	East
Soybeans	Cattle	Tobacco
Cotton	Limestone	Copper
Corn	Corn	Minerals
Tomatoes	AUTOMOBILES	COAL

Three Grand Divisions of Tennessee 

Six Physical Regions of Tennessee

Three Major Rivers of Tennessee

1. The Mississippi River (flows into the Gulf of Mexico)

2. The Tennessee River (flows into the Ohio River)

3. The Cumberland River (flows into the Ohio River)