Teachers are Thankful for a Day Off

I always struggled with what to teach for Thanksgiving. It’s such an American holiday. I want my students to learn the history behind the holiday, as well as the cultural significance. I searched far an wide for resources that would accomplish these learning goals. However, as you have probably already guessed, I couldn’t find anything. So, as usual, I decided to create my own.

I carefully researched the topic and found much of the information for students was historically inaccurate. I carefully wrote the informational text included in this resource to reflect accurate events.

Thanksgiving Past & Present is chock full of no prep activities that can easily take you through the entire month of November. It is a timeless addition to my classroom.

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Thanksgiving Past & Present comes in print and google drive versions.

Following are some student samples and tips about how I incorporated this with my last year’s virtual classroom.

Begin with the K-W-L chart. Students complete the first two columns. Students complete the last column at the end of the unit.

Front-load Vocabulary. These are the focus words to be used throughout the unit.

After a shared or independent reading of the text, students engage in the comparison activity.

Incorporate a grammar in context lesson using the unit vocabulary focus words.

Differentiated writing organizers help students plan their final paragraphs.

This is an intermediate student’s final paragraph.