Golden Apple: Harrison Elementary Celebrates Thanksgiving With Family

Kindergartners at Harrison Elementary School in Brainerd celebrated Thanksgiving in a unique way yesterday by inviting their parents to join them in a Thanksgiving feast.

“We’ve invited their parents or grandparents or their special guest to come for the day and enjoy Thanksgiving together. They work so hard all year long and our school’s just like a great family, so we wanted to invite their parents to come for this special day,” explained Deedee Vagts, Kindergarten Teacher at Harrison Elementary.

The tradition started around 10 years ago when two teachers, Ms. Vagts and Ms. Roberts, started working at Harrison together.

“As long as we’re doing teaching together, I’m sure we’ll do this every year,” said Lisa Roberts, who also teaches kindergarten at Harrison. “It’s great fun.”

The turkeys for the feast are donated by the school, and then each child is asked to bring a side dish or something to contribute to the meal.

“Pickles and olives and cheese and stuff, and it’s just an opportunity for the kindergarten kids to feast with their families. It’s just a great thing every year,” added Roberts. “We love it. It’s one of our favorite days.”

Leading up to the feast, the students decorate the gym and get it ready for their parents.

“They made all these great turkeys. They made a bag turkey. They made a little table-topper turkey and a little pattern turkey, their little poster of their whole family and what they’re thankful for,” added Vagts.

The staff at Harrison look forward to the tradition every year.

“We’re a family here at Harrison, so [we try to get] as many opportunities as we can to get families in to do these things. We do all these academics and all these other things, but we just have to take care of our families here, so we just love that this makes us feel like a family,” added Roberts. “Come on in and you feast with your family and you enjoy your family.”

The kindergarten teachers believe it is important to step outside of the usual routine to celebrate Thanksgiving.

“This is just a great way to show that school’s about celebrating our family and our friends, and when we work hard, we also get to have a little play time, too,” said Vagts. “So this is just a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving break.”