Pilgrims in the eyes of a child

Today I got a Thanksgiving letter from my bank which included excerpts of things school children had written about the pilgrims and the first thanksgiving for a class assignment. My ancestor William Brewster would be turning over in his toolbox if he could read these! The source these are attributed to is AOKteacherstuff.com. I looked there but didn't find this... I suspect it was downloaded at some point in the past and has been reproduced over and over. These are truly great.

Stories of the First Thanksgiving and Why We Have It:

STORY 1 (no name given) Once up on a time there was these bunch of people that came across the ocean. It took them a couple of days. They were getting away from someone and came here. After they got here it was a bad winter. They didn't have no idea why they came but knew they couldn't live without friends. They tried to make friends with the Indians. Not many of them liked them because they dressed funny. One Indian helped them learn how to grow food like turkeys and corn. He helped them plant them in the ground. After some of the Pilgrims lived through the cold winter they were glad. They invited some Indians to come eat. They thought it would be one or two but a whole bunch came to eat and they stayed forever. All the Indians scared the Pilgrims but finally they came out to eat because they stayed a long time. The end.

STORY 2 (by Maria) The Pilgrims came across the water. I think it was a big lake or something. After they got here they made friends with the Indians because there wasn't anyone else to make friends with. One day they wanted to have a big dinner. They asked the Indians to come too. A big bunch of them came. The Pilgrims had to fix a lot more food. The Indians didn't know they needed to go home right away. The Pilgrims didn't want to make them mad so the Indians stayed a long time. The Pilgrims went out and chased several turkeys and hams. They cooked corn and beans too. For dessert they cooked a pumpkin in a pie. I don't know why I am writing about the Pilgrims. I am from Mexico and don't think we have Thanksgiving with Pilgrims or Indians. The only thing I don't like about Thanksgiivng is we can't come to school. I like school. Mostly recess and lunch.

STORY 3 (by Joel) The Pilgrims came over on the Plumflower. They came a long way on the ocean. I think the ocean is a big piece of water. They left so they could get away from mean people. The Indians became friends and they asked them to come eat. One or two were suppose to come to eat but several more came with them. The Pilgrim mothers had to go to the store and get more turkeys and corn. They cooked it and the Indians ate it even though they didn't know what it was. We now have turkey every Thanksgiving because the store was out of ham. I wished they had ham instead because I don't like turkey or pumpkins. The End.