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The Thanksgiving holiday can be used in the classroom as a hook for many different topics. Thanksgiving has been traditionally considered a festival to give thanks for the harvest. While celebrated primarily in the United States, it is still a time that everyone can give thanks for the good things that have happened during the year. With this in mind, teachers will find that Thanksgiving is a holiday that can lead to many teachable moments.
With younger students, teachers can read, or have students read, books about being thankful. This will help students brainstorm, and come up a list of things they are thankful for. This list may take two or three days to complete. Teachers can also get students started by modeling their own lists. Once student lists are completed, teachers should have students choose several things from the list to include in a writing assignment. Teachers can have students complete a graphic organizer that models how the writing piece is to be built or structured. The first paragraph should introduce the topic "Things I Am Thankful For" or something similar. Students can describe the things they are thankful for from their list, and then tell why they are thankful for these things. The second paragraph should discuss each event from the list in detail, and why they are important to the student. This is where the graphic organizer will support the writing because it helps the student to practice organizing their ideas. The third paragraph should allow the student to again discuss why these things are important to them, and why they are thankful.
Students can also tell why Thanksgiving is an important holiday. For older students (in middle and high school), this can be their main topic. This age level can discuss and analyze the relevance of the Thanksgiving holiday to our contemporary lives. Students can also engage in history units that encourage research into the lives of the original Native Americans and their traditions. This research can lead into a study of the lives of the European settlers who immigrated to the new country. Using this research, students can develop presentations. The student presentations can focus on comparisons between the Native Americans and the European settlers, such as the differences in clothing, foods, traditions and cultural celebrations.
Teachers can also build units around the Thanksgiving holiday that require students to complete one or more projects to present to the class. Students can write a diary entry that comes from the perspective of a Native American child or a Pilgrim child. They can also build a compare and contrast organizer that shows the benefits that each culture provided to the other. In addition, students can create a visual presentation of two to three things they are grateful for in their own lives, and include a written description of the item and an explanation of the reason the item is considered a blessing.
The following lesson plans include these lesson suggestions. You can use them to start your own Thanksgiving unit.
Thanksgiving Lessons and Activities:
Students travel back in time to Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. Students discover how the Indians and the Pilgrims taught each other new skills so that their lives would be more plentiful. Each student becomes a character from this time period. Students research the character and then write a biography for the character they are assigned.
Why Did the Plymouth Settlers Celebrate Thanksgiving?
Students examine the reasons why settlers celebrated Thanksgiving. They describe how different families celebrate the holiday as well. They examine drawings from the first Thanksgiving to compare them to today.
American Thanksgiving Through Time
Students explore five web sites in order to identify the various ways Thanksgiving has been celebrated in the past, and how it is celebrated today. They consider the diversity of United States, and how this affects celebrations of this day.
Thanksgiving: Multiple Perspectives
Students examine the different perspectives on Thanksgiving celebrations in Plymouth. They create a landmark that shows both the Native American and European views on colonizing America. They present their landmarks to the class.
Thanksgiving: A Celebration of Gratitude
Students complete a unit about Thanksgiving that is centered on the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians. They read and discuss books, create a mural, complete a worksheet about five blessings in their life, prepare recipes from the first Thanksgiving, and construct and play a Native American game.
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