At Arlington's Taylor Elementary School, first- and second-graders gathered Monday for an annual Thanksgiving feast, complete with handmade Pilgrim and Indian costumes.
At Oyster Bilingual Elementary School in the District, 27 fifth-graders traveled, all expenses paid by a local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, to Plymouth, Mass., where New England's first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621.
At Laurel Elementary School in Prince George's County, kindergartners, with the help of their parents, made teepees and other types of miniature shelters modeled on the homes of American Indians.
Most public elementary schools contacted in the area took time this month to teach students about Thanksgiving and its history.
Of the 30 schools surveyed in Virginia, the District, and Montgomery and Prince George's counties, 26 were teaching students about the history of Thanksgiving in classes or with special events such as Thanksgiving meals. The remaining classes were emphasizing the "giving" aspect of the holiday by collecting items for those in need of food, clothing or both.
"I think it's just such a fabulous opportunity to see what our country is all about," said Lorraine Nasiatka, a retired second-grade teacher who began the program for first- and second-graders at Taylor Elementary in 1982.
"I really think it teaches them the values of our country: cooperation, sacrifice and appreciation," she said as both grades gathered in the school gymnasium to feast on turkey and corn pudding.
At Laurel Elementary School, fifth-graders are studying the Pilgrim culture, said Gale Filler, the school's acting principal.
Today they'll dress up like the Pilgrims and have Colonial-era activities, including a cornhusking party.
At Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda, learning about the Pilgrims has landed some students on the Internet.
As part of a Scholastic Network activity on the World Wide Web, students got to converse live with re-enactors of the Mayflower's voyage to America.
One of the Pilgrims being portrayed was a Burning Tree student's ancestor.
Marion Richter, a reading specialist at the school, said the students are taught to separate fact from fiction about the holiday, which includes a lesson about the Pilgrims' escape from religious persecution in Europe.
"This is part of the Colonial culture," she said. "You can't split Colonial America from religion."
But those lessons are reserved for history classes. School officials, who said they are trying to preserve the separation of church and state, don't allow religion to be part of modern celebrations.
"We don't tie it into a specific religion, so we talk about the commonalities like joining for the feast, getting together with family and friends, being thankful for blessings, but we keep away from any religious doctrine," said Cathy David, the principal of Charles Barrett Elementary School in Alexandria.
That way of celebrating the holiday has drawn criticism from several groups, including the Southern California-based Gateways to Better Education.
"For good education's sake, let's teach the holiday the way it was meant to be," said Kim Buehrer, vice president of Gateways. "It makes for better education to teach about the holidays accurately. It is perfectly legal."
Organizations such as the National Education Association try to encourage schools to promote diversity in their curriculums, said Ron Houston, an NEA program and training specialist.
But inclusion and diversity shouldn't replace the holiday's history, he said.
Diversity is an aspect being taught at Belvedere Elementary School in the Annandale area, where preschoolers and Head Start children gathered yesterday to have what school officials called an international Thanksgiving feast.
"We call it that because we have so many diverse cultures in our school," said Melissa Murray, a preschool teacher.
"Although Thanksgiving was traditionally an American holiday," she said, the school tries to teach that people from every culture can "come together and be thankful for what we have and learn from one another."
More than 75 students, teachers, parents and friends participated by singing and eating. Many of the parents brought foods representative of their cultures.
"We provided the turkey," Ms. Murray said.
Some schools focus on giving.
Students at Takoma Educational Center in the District put on a Thanksgiving dance to gather food to donate last week.
"Admission was two cans of vegetables," Assistant Principal Thomas Simpson said.
Students decorated and assembled food baskets for needy students and their parents, Mr. Simpson said. They plan to show their handiwork today at a student assembly before school officials distribute the baskets to families.
At Arlington's Taylor Elementary, first-graders dressed as Indians wore vests made of grocery bags covered with colorful crayon drawings and necklaces strung with uncooked pasta, cereal and bits of paper.
The Pilgrims wore crepe-paper collars and construction-paper hats.
After almost a week of making costumes and learning the customs of both cultures, little Pilgrims and Indians sitting side-by-side erupted into activity when Principal Ralph Stone made a pronouncement after allowing a moment of silence to give thanks.
Little Indian Jimmy Ingram, 6, got the message: "The Pilgrims share with the Indians, and the Indians share with the Pilgrims."
* Karyn Spellman contributed to this report.
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