Everyone knows that teachers come up with really good ideas all the time, right? I'll be the first to admit that half the time, our good ideas are stolen from someone else. And, the other half of the time, we are flying by the seat of our pants. I'm sure you are wondering what the hell any of this has to do with Thanksgiving or with dishes, right? Well, I wanted to write about this really ugly Turkey dish my grandma used to pull out every November (sorry, Grandma, with all due respect, that turkey dish was almost as creepy as that ceramic rabbit with the red eyes)...and I was going to pull a Matilda and describe it....but I think this question is really referring to food...so, I tried super hard to think of the worst Thanksgiving dinner food I have ever eaten. The problem is, I like corn pudding even though it looks like vomit. And, I like green bean casserole even though it looks like alien brains being eaten by worms. I even like the green pudding jello pistachio stuff my Grandma makes every year. So, I had to think even harder and I came up with this.
The first year I taught first grade, I had pretty much no clue what I was doing with those cute little boogars. So, I did what every teacher new to a school or grade or both does....I copied the other teachers. They told me about this really amazing activity they did every year as a Thanksgiving tradition. So, I copied their notes and sent them home to my students' families. The school Thanksgiving day arrived. We had told the cafeteria we wouldn't be joining the rest of the school for Thanksgiving lunch because we were doing "our own thing." Boy, was that a mistake. Who knew that our school cooks were so amazing? The meal they crafted looked and smelled so good!!!!! But, not to worry, we had our awesome and amazing plan underfoot. Each of the students in class brought in one item. We had carrots, celery, corn, potatoes and all kinds of other Thanksgivingy sounding foods. Each student brought their ingredient to a big pot and put it in. We added water and put it on to boil. Then, we read books about big boats and pilgrims and friendly natives and watched Charlie Brown and made headresses and pilgrim hats and waited....and waited. Finally, after the rest of the school had eaten their "oh-so-good-smelling-turkey dinner" we gathered all the kids together and something to this effect.
This soup we have made is Friendship Soup. Each one of you did your part and provided something for the pot. Now, we know that it is very important to work together and that when everyone works together as friends then everyone gets to enjoy good things. So, let's enjoy our Friendship soup and be thankful for the good friends we have around us.
We pulled out the flimsy bowls and started passing soup out to all those little kids. It was at that moment that I remembered two things that I should have thought of sooner.....kids don't like vegetables....AND.....kids don't like soup.
I grabbed a bowl for myself and, in an effort to lead by example, I took my first bite. Hmm, crunchy carrot. I took my second bite. Weird...crunchy potato.
Our stupid friendship soup was still crunchy. And, let me tell you, crunchy friendship soup did not taste great.
If that's all you're gonna get out of the friendships in your life, then you may as well not even bother making friends. No wonder kids are such bullies. It's got to be all this friendship soup crap that says EVERYONE has to be friends with EVERYONE for the soup to work out. I know one thing for sure. I would rather eat alien brains and vomit off of a freaky turkey plate with my family than crunchy
friendship soup with strangers.
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