There was a disagreement over how much food to bring.

“If we take too much, it could sink and we’d lose it,” said fifth-grader Alex Milicevic.

What would sink is one of his team’s three ships bound for the new world in a class project on colonization. It’s part of the Discovery project that Northridge Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Debbie Steffeck teaches around Thanksgiving.

Come November, school lessons tend to focus on colonists, turkey art and reflections on gratitude. Schools in Bismarck and Mandan are no different. What students learn is part of the lore surrounding Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday, the students in Steffeck’s class were calculating their ships’ cargo. Alex was concerned that the students purchased the cargo with “wealth points” that they earned for completing mapping assignments.

The class was divided into four groups and they decided how to spend their accumulated “wealth points.” The groups also had to choose why they wanted to go to the New World: government sponsored, company sponsored or religious freedom.

“It’s fun because you kinda get to make your own town,” said Jessica Braun.

Alex and Jessica were on the same team, along with Kirklan Korczak, Philip Walter and Shelby Herman. They called their colony Powder Puff Patriots. They had 3,110 “wealth points” to spend.

The teams in Steffeck’s class are competing with teams in the other fifth-grade classes. The team with the most wealth points left after founding its colony wins.

Earlier this fall, April Wahl’s third-graders at Shiloh Christian School learned about the pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving. Then, in November, she started talking with her students about the reasons the holiday is celebrated.

“We talk about what we are thankful for,” she said. “We are thankful to God for everything, but we don’t just do it one day a year.”

The class learns about the Mayflower, the first settlers and how the American Indians helped the settlers find food. Thanksgiving was thought to last three days.

“The first Thanksgiving, there was no Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” Wahl said.

On the front of each student’s desk is Psalm 100:4, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and enter his courts with praise.”

She also teaches her class about being thankful. They listed what they are thankful for on paper cutouts of their handprints.

“On my left hand, I wrote what I’m thankful for,” said Katelyn Saari. She’s thankful for Jesus, family, a home, food, classmates and Mrs. Wahl.

Her classmate, Olivia Martin, was thankful for similar things. Instead of her teacher, she wrote that she was thankful for her pets. She has a mixed breed dog named Cookie and a Chihuahua named Tuffy.

On the right hand, the students listed ways they can show they are thankful, including telling other people about Jesus, praying for other people and helping other people.

Some of her students will sit down to traditional Thanksgiving meals.

“We just eat turkey and pretty much that’s all,” Olivia said. “I like turkey.”

Brooke Meissel’s kindergarten classroom at Miller Elementary School is full of turkeys. They’re up on the walls, hanging from the ceiling and on the teacher’s desk.

“It’s all about turkeys,” Meissel said.

In November, Meissel starts teaching her students about Thanksgiving. She gives an historical perspective talking about pilgrims and American Indians, and also focuses on how the holiday is now celebrated.

The students figure that first Thanksgiving was kind of messy.

“They ate with their hands,” kindergartner Bristol Kelley said.

“We don’t eat with our fingers,” kindergartner Elizabeth Goldade said.

Then her teacher reminded her of things like French fries and breadsticks that people do eat with their fingers.

The students also figure they had a big table to eat at, along with large napkins.

“I asked them how they felt the first day of kindergarten and who helped them,” she said.

In this way, she was able to explain the relationship between the pilgrims and American Indians.

So, it’s no wonder that a small group of kindergartners have turkeys on the brain.

“It’s like chicken,” Elizabeth said.

“They have orange beaks,” added Bristol.

“Or they could be red,” kindergartner Anna Person said.

“Or brown,” Bristol said.

“They have feathers,” Anna said.

Bristol gobbled like a turkey. Then he and his friend Jayce Lauer started talking about the turkeys at the zoo.

“They’re big,” Jayce said.

A smile spreads across Anna’s face as she tells about seeing a wild turkey in town.

Eating turkey is popular among this group of kindergartners, so much so that pumpkin pie doesn’t come up until they’re asked what they like to eat at Thanksgiving besides turkey.

A holiday tradition in Jayce’s family is breaking the wish bone.

“We always do that,” he said. “My mom and me break it and I make a wish.”

So, what does he wish for?

“Money,” he said.

“I would wish for that,” Bristol added.

“I’m going to be super rich,” Jayce said.

The two boys are in agreement on many things, including being “super rich.” They also are thankful for each other. On one wall of the classroom are drawings and a sentence that the students used to write what makes them thankful. Friendship is a common theme.

“I’m thankful for being Jayce’s friend,” Bristol said.

Jayce points out his own drawing on the wall, and it reads, ”I’m thankful for being Bristol’s friend.”

Thanksgiving became a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It memorialized a feast between the first colonists and American Indians. In the fall of 1621, there was a three-day feast between the Plymouth Plantation colonists and the Wampanoag, according to the Plymouth Plantation Web site.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)