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Photo by Andy Atkinson Tyler Spano plays with a paper turkey puppet Wednesday at Medford's Lone Pine School. Spano and his classmates wrote about things they were thankful for as they learned about Thanksgiving. Dogs, dad, home -- many reasons to be thankful By Bill Kettler He's only 8 years old, but Tyler Spano knows he has plenty to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. There's his mom, who makes him cookies "and chicken and steak and stuff"; and his dad, who "pretends like he's a bull sometimes and I ride on him and he tries to buck me off." And two family dogs that always try to lick him, and his big sister, Shauna, "because she plays with me." Tyler and his second- and third-grade classmates at Medford's Lone Pine Elementary School wrote about things they were grateful for in the days just before Thanksgiving. Their teacher, Jolene Meager, asked them to think about what they could be thankful for that didn't cost money, and the kids' minds started spinning. Tyler's classmate, Kayla Johnson, was thankful for her home, "because some people don't have one. "A home keeps you safe and sound," the 9-year-old third-grader wrote. "I can imagine if I didn't have a home and it was raining and thundering I would be scared. "Maybe the next day I would get so sick I would feel like dying right then and there," she wrote. Guy Muchmore said he was grateful for reading, "because it brings you somewhere else." The 9-year-old third-grader likes scary stories best, and R.L. Stine's popular "Goosebumps" series is at the top of his list of favorites. He plans to take several Stine books with him to pass the time on a 12-hour holiday drive to visit his grandma in Idaho. "But my dad only wants me to bring three of them," he said. Shawn Webber was thankful for "the best mom and dad in the world." "My daddy plays lots of sports with me and stuff," the second-grader said. "One time he kicked a ball so high it went across the street." "My mom's a good cook," said Shawn. "She cooks turkeys and she slices apples with a really neat apple slicer. And she fixes noodles and stuff I like mostly." Meager said her students write every week and keep a notebook of their work. When Thanksgiving came around, she talked with them about the original Pilgrim harvest feast and tried to explain how different life was for people 300 years ago. "We talked about how (the Pilgrims) didn't have their own plates," she said, and explained how the first European settlers shared their food on heavy wooden platters called trenchers. Meager led her students through several projects this month to focus their minds on the season. Each made a brown construction-paper cornucopia, and cut out magazine pictures of things they could be thankful for. Second-grader Aubrie Irons covered her cornucopia with pictures of eyes and teeth and babies. "All the physical things," her teacher said. In one lesson designed to show children the value of cooperation, Meager explained how American Indians showed the first European settlers how to grow food and helped the colonists survive the bitter New England winter. And on Wednesday, she asked the students to cut out wishbones and write wishes for someone else. Madeline Bergen, a second-grader who turns 8 Friday, wished "that people that don't have homes get homes." Mark Osterhout wished "that people should be free." "That means the people shouldn't have to be slaves for others and work for them," said the 8-year-old third grader. Meager herself said she was thankful for "a good class that wants to learn." "I tell them to do the best you can in the moment you're in," she said. "Life's good." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA