Sharing My Thanksgiving Lesson Plans

Originally I'd planned on detailing my Thanksgiving lesson plans with my readers, but given all the many distractions I've had lately, I'm not as organized as I'd hoped to be! So, instead of giving everyone an exact breakdown of what I'll be doing on Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm just going to throw it all out there! Hopefully, you'll find some great ideas for your own Thanksgiving lesson plans. ;)

Ok, so here we go!

Thanksgiving Lesson: Why We're to be Thankful:
I found a great Sunday School Thanksgiving lesson that I've decided to use for our homeschooling tomorrow. It comes from Annie's "Thanksgiving Lesson for Kids" Page and is packed full of Bible verses and lessons on what the Lord has done for us, and why we should give thanks.

This lesson uses 5 feathers as visuals... you could either use feathers from a craft store or cut them from construction paper. The lesson doesn't have you do anything crafty with the feathers afterwords, but maybe with a little imagination you could think of something! One idea is to use the pinecone craft idea at Enchanted Learning and substitute the construction paper feathers for real ones! Your kids would probably get a kick out of this.

History Lesson:
Scholastic takes you on a wonderful walk through of the first Thanksgiving... the voyage of the Mayflower, and the daily life of the pilgrims, including their friendship with the native Wampanoag tribe. This lesson includes an audio option, so you can sit and listen with your children. There are also many photos to navigate through... giving your kids an idea of what life might have been like back in that day.

One thing you might do is talk about how the Pilgrims had no organized schools, but were often taught by thier parents! Some of their most important lessons, came straight from the Bible.

Geography:
Show your kids a map of the route from Plymouth, England to Plymouth Rock, in Massachusetts at Enchanted Learning. Note, you'll have to be a member of the site to print this, but you could still use it as a tutorial. If you have a globe, you could also have them track the route that way.

Coloring Activity:
I found some cute coloring pages that can be printed for free at: FamilyFun. We're going to be coloring the Fall, Leaf-Diving Fun page.

Math Worksheets:
You'll find story problems with a Thanksgiving theme at Kidzone. If you click on "generate new worksheet" you'll find different problems for you first grader to work on. If you're not looking for story problems, or if you're teaching children in grades 1-5, there are a wide variety of other math printables, with a Thanksgiving theme.

You'll also find Thanksgiving themed worksheets for addition, ordering numbers, and comparing numbers at Math-Drills.com. Some of these pages are great for first and second grade, others are more suited for 3rd grade.

Writing Assignments:
The Thanksgiving Tree art project at Enchanted Learning is a great way to get your kids into the fun of Thanksgiving. They'll get to trace, cut, and glue... as well as consider and write out what they're thankful for. In the end, they'll have a complete tree filled with their blessings of choice!

Another option for a writing assignment, is located at teacher.scholastic.com. I like this little printable booklet because the kids can draw pictures of what they're thankful for. You could do this in addition to the Thanksgiving Tree, just maybe on a different day.

Thanksgiving Poetry:
Fun poetry that is! Just right for young kids in the early years of elementary school. I found a great number of cute poems at CanTeach.ca.

Science & Nature:
Study the turkey itself at this page labeled Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! This site even allows you to hear the gobble of a real turkey! lol

Just for Fun:
Thanksgiving Tongue-Twisters

Ok, I'm going to stop there! You might also have fun baking a pumpkin pie with your kids, something that isn't too much work, but fun with tasty results!

If I think of other activities or lesson ideas, I'll let you know. ; )

Have fun and Happy Thanksgiving!