ESTEVAN — It’s become a popular annual tradition for the Mercury: the participation of the Mary’s Little Lambs preschool students in the Estevan Mercury’s Thanksgiving Kids promotion.
Thirty-four students in the four-year-old class submitted answers for the question of what they’re thankful for.
Mary’s Little Lambs owner Mary Lawrence said this ties in with what teacher Patty Ksenych does at the beginning of the school year. The preschool has monthly themes, and the one for September is I am special.
“There’s a lot of talk about their families, who they love, who’s important and also the things that are important to them,” said Lawrence.
It helps them be ready for the October talk about being thankful.
As part of her daily routine, Ksenych has a puppet named George the Mouse. He helps the children say hello to shapes and numbers on the board and to the picture of Jesus on the wall.
“That leads into the discussion about the important people in the children’s lives,” said Lawrence.
It helps them think about family and friends, and they say a brief prayer for people they love.
“It gets them thinking about being thankful and understanding what it is,” said Lawrence.
They also learn special songs this month like the Gobbler Turkey Song. Ksenych plays the guitar and teaches them the song, and demonstrates turkeys running away so they won’t get eaten for supper. They also play a game in which they’re turkeys while talking about the special time they have with their families.
And they talk about what they’re doing for Thanksgiving and where they’ll have Thanksgiving supper.
The classroom is brightly decorated for October with autumn colours and turkeys around the room.
“Patty does balloon turkeys with them, so they all have a balloon, and they glue a turkey head to it with feathers, and they do hand-painted turkeys, so their hands get put on a piece of paper and eyes get put on, and they make little turkeys out of it,” said Ksenych.
Each child also makes and takes home a special bookmark that says “Give thanks to the Lord.”
This year’s participating children provided some great answers. One little girl said she was thankful for guitars and music, which Lawrence said is a new answer. Another was grateful for Kraft Dinner.
“We’re grateful for their insight into what they find is important in their lives. It’s always interesting to read them,” said Lawrence.
Each answer will be sponsored by a local business.
Students are always eager to be part of the promotion, because the kids love seeing their photos in the paper.
“As a business, we’re very thankful to the Mercury and to all of the other businesses in town that support this special Thanksgiving edition and make it possible for the children to be put in the paper.”
The ads can be found throughout this week’s edition of the paper and will be available on our provincial news hub, www.sasktoday.ca. The Mercury thanks Mary’s Little Lambs for their involvement and the businesses for supporting this promotion.
