Teaching About the First Thanksgiving
Help Students Gain a Clearer Understanding of What We Commemorate Each November
Discover the many meanings of Thanksgiving by exploring life in 17th-century America and the experiences of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags. This rich collection of ready-to-go lessons and activities are the perfect tools to help you enrich your First Thanksgiving unit.
Articles
Colonial Customs
by Mackie Rhodes
Instructor Magazine |
November ,2003
Experience Colonial life by exploring the customs of the 17th century.
Internet Field Trip: Before the Pilgrims
Provides Web sites with information on the peoples before the pilgrims. The Vikings, the Pueblo Indians, and the Wampanoag are featured.Â
Holiday Math Crafts
by Janet Reed
Instructor Magazine |
November
Celebrate this festive season with hands-on creations that build essential math skills
Activities
Explore the First Thanksgiving of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag, through audio and visual slideshows. Plus find out about their daily lives and the voyage on the Mayflower.
Lesson Plans
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades K-2
Give younger students an in-depth look into the First Thanksgiving with this lesson that helps them understand the experiences of the Pilgrims on their voyage to the New World.
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades 3-5
Take a closer look at the historical significance of the Pilgrims' voyage, settlement, and first harvest celebration.
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades 6-12
Focus on the relationships between the PilgrimsÂ? and Wampanoags that First Thanksgiving, and explore their experiences, actions, and decisions as they relate to the settlement of Plimoth colony.
Tracing Our Own Family Pilgrimages
Students track their ancestors' voyages to America in this Thanksgiving lesson plan focused on diverse cultural heritages.
Make an "I'm Thankful For..." Placemat
by Marci Ruiz
Present a lesson plan for Thanksgiving including teaching students the Thanksgiving story through poetry and helping them make placemats with their pictures and lines from the poem on them.
Gift for the Indians
by Marci Ruiz
Teach students the true meaning of Thanksgiving with this lesson plan involving discussion and the making of a miniature model of the Mayflower.
Native American Cultures for Grades 4-5
Offers a lesson plan focused on the values, lifestyles and cultures of Native American tribes through reading, writing, and note taking.
Native American Cultures for Grades 6-8
Students identify the method through which culture is preserved and transmitted and the challenges faced by those cultures over time.
Books
Giving Thanks
by Kate Waters and Russ Kendall
Filled with color photographs, this unique interpretation of the first Thanksgiving tells the story through two points of view Â? a Pilgrim boy and a Wampanoag Indian boy. From the award-winning creators of Sarah Morton's Day.
Guests
by Michael Dorris
A story about Thanksgiving from the point of view of the hosts: the Native Americans who were kind enough to share what they had with the Pilgrims.
