Children

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Etiquette Class

Nov 25, 2024

$51-100

Byline

Kelsey Brooks, Assistant Librarian, Powell Memorial Library, Troy, Mo.

Kids in kindergarten through fifth grade prepared for Thanksgiving dinner by practicing dinner table etiquette with familiar Charlie Brown characters. Participants worked on washing hands, setting the table, passing and scooping food, knife and fork skills and sitting at the table together.

Advanced Planning

This program was planned one to two months ahead of time.

Marketing

This was a registered event, so we had sign up two weeks in advance. The room was big enough for 20, but only ten signed up.

Budgeting

The purchased items were cutlery, plates, napkins and the Charlie Brown snacks totaling less than $50.

Day-of-event Activity

I set up in the conference room downstairs in the library ran the program by myself. Tables were arranged as stations for each activity and the projector displayed slides of the presentation walking through each step.

Program Execution

It was a fast-paced program, and the kids were able to go through all the planned activities. See the full program outline and directions for each activity.

Activities were as follows:

On the carpet, we went over handwashing and watched handwashing videos. Each child put lotion on their hands to show how, like lotion, germs are also invisible but they can still be all over your hands. We used a UV light to show them the "germs lighting up" and followed up by allowing each child to wash their hands for a full 20 seconds and re-did the UV light to show clean hands. We then proceed to going through each table activity.
Table one: Placemat races. Kids play head to head to set a table correctly the quickest.
Table two/ three (depending on your space): Cutting food practice with plastic utensils and playdoh.
Table four: "Please pass the...." scooping pom poms game.
Main dinner table: Kids demonstrate all they have learned by setting their table place, passing and scooping foods, cutting food, and using their manners.