Turkey day comes early for McGuffey pupils

Photo

By Jon Moffett

Special education classes learned about dining in a family setting and sharing in Thanksgiving spirit.

YOUNGSTOWN — Some pupils at McGuffey Elementary School were treated to an early turkey dinner with all the trimmings this week.

Cindy Roussos, a special-education teacher at the school, entertained her seven-pupil class with a Thanksgiving feast Tuesday. The idea, she said, was to prepare the pupils for the real dinner with their families.

“We’ve been working on social skills for the past week,” Roussos said. “They’ve been learning how to set a table, manners, learning how to pass the different entrees of food and just getting together.”

The children each brought in a food dish, and Roussos prepared a turkey for the meal. The meal consisted of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

To prepare for the meal, the pupils all had specific tasks assigned to them to set the table. Once the places were set — including colorful turkey place mats the children had made — the class said a brief blessing and began to eat.

Some pupils were skeptical of some of the foods, and each had their own favorite.

“My favorite part is the whole plate,” said Tyraile Phillips, 10.

The concept behind the meal was to give the children an example of how to behave at a dinner setting, like a family meal, Roussos said.

“I hope it provides a nice atmosphere and some nice role models of seeing the way it should be done,” she said. “Hopefully, this will carry over to what goes on in their own homes. Hopefully some of these skills can be passed on to a younger sibling as well.”

In addition to the meal, the pupils spent time learning about the holiday and making crafts. Colored pictures of American Indian canoes adorned each desk and were accompanied by colorful clay turkeys.

Down the hall, a special-education preschool class was busy making crafts of its own.

The class, made up of 10 pupils, spent the morning making pumpkin pies out of paper plates and paint, said Deborah Duffy, an educational assistant.

The children painted the plates bright orange and then glued cotton balls on them to look like whipped cream.

“It’s for my [older] brother Randy,” said Cameron Smith, 3.

“Throughout the last month the children have been learning about giving and sharing,” she said. “And our traditional students have been very helpful with the special-needs students. That’s what we’ve been working on is being helpful to others and giving to others. And that’s the majority of what our part of Thanksgiving is.

“It’s hard to explain to a 3-year-old about a pilgrim; they don’t understand that. That’s why we did more with giving, sharing, being kind and helping others.”

jmoffett@vindy.com