The Black Pilgrims

Earlier this week I noticed student work on the walls at my school already showing evidence of preparation for Thanksgiving.

In a second grade display were turkeys with bodies made of construction paper on top of tail feathers made of painted paper plates. In the same case were Indian villages. Each student made a teepee by decorating a piece of brown construction paper with Indian-looking symbols and rolling it into a cone and setting it with the others in a fall scene.



A kindergarten display showed autumn-colored tissue paper leaves glued onto construction paper trees.





Just outside my office were colorful 3rd graders' scrarecrows painted on large pieces of white paper with short pieces of straight brown yarn for hair, and small square fabric patches glued onto painted pants.






Then, this morning I saw my first pilgrims... my first black pilgrims. Each student in this class created a mixed media mug shot of a pilgrim. Boys made boy pilgrims, and girls made girls. The girls used pearlescent wallpaper remnants for dresses and white paper doilies for collars or bonnets. Boys made black hats with gold buckles out of construction paper and put real buttons on their white paper shirts. Their scary smiles had pointed teeth and as a true reflection of themselves, the students cut their urban pilgrims out of brown paper.