Five Fun Ways to Teach Thanksgiving in the Classroom

I love teaching my class about the history behind the holidays, and I have so many resources to help my class learn about this. I love getting it in the hands of classrooms around the country or even the world as well. Finding ways to get kids excited about social studies excites me and learning about holidays is a very good way to get this done. This year, I created a couple of resources to help. I want to immerse my students in experiences and activities during the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Here's how I plan to get it done. 

1. Reading Comprehension Passages

One way to get in a lot of learning and content is through the use of reading passages that can be used in small groups or Close reading. In this pack, students will learn about many different aspects of thanksgiving. They will learn about if and how people around the world celebrate this holiday. Also, students will learn about the woman who gave us Thanksgiving. She is amazing! One of my favorite topics in this set is turkey pardoning. When you dig a little deeper, there is much more to learn about this fun tradition. Students get to learn about how some of the Thanksgiving staples came to the table. Another topic is pies and how they came to be. And the last topic is thankfulness and your brain. This set also includes comprehension and activities for each of the short reading passages. There are four extension activities, two for math and two for writing. The math activities include a pie graph and equivalent fraction pie matching. For writing, students will write an opinion piece about which pie is the best pie for Thanksgiving as well as a persuasive essay for a new holiday each student would like to create. Using this pack will bring a lot of unusual knowledge, about Thanksgiving, to your students. 

2. Art Fun

What student doesn't love art? I have art teambuilding challenges for many different holidays and Thanksgiving is no exception. These art challenges are such fun! Groups of students receive a bag of art items. Each group receives the same supplies as well as a topic for their project. They must then evaluate the supplies they have in their bag and come up with a way to complete the themed challenge using what they have. After time to create, students present their projects to the class and are evaluated based on teamwork, creativity, and originality. Students compete in three rounds before a winning team is named. 

3. Simulations:

I love a great simulation and Thanksgiving is the perfect time to create one. One simulation that I have done with second graders, third graders, and fourth graders was a definite classroom hit. Each student created a costume for a turkey that was on its way to the Thanksgiving table. The purpose was to find a way for their turkey to escape being eaten. Along with the craft project, each student creates a persuasive essay about why their turkey should not be eaten. 

Once the groundwork is laid, students meet before a "judge" (me dressed in a black graduation gown with a gavel in hand). They each bring their cases and try to defend their turkeys from certain death. The students eat it up. They always take it very seriously as they nervously present their appeals for the lives of their turkeys. It is a fun and amazing experience for them all. 

4. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade:

I love watching the Thanksgiving parade each year, if I can. It is fun to see the balloons bouncing down the streets in NYC. I would love to be there in person some day. I ran across a book about the history behind the parade and it got me all excited! Tony Sarg, an immigrant  settled in NYC in the early 1900's. I love his passion for puppetry and how he turned that into something big...The Macy's Parade. Throughout the book Tony has to overcome obstacles and persevere. He sticks to his dreams and finds a way to reach them even when he has to tweak his ideas several times to make it happen. I decided to bring this story into my classroom and also his love of puppets. After reading his story, we work on our own puppets, parade balloons, and wonderland windows. It is really a lot of fun! 

  5. Books, Books, and more Books:

Can you ever have enough books? My husband seems to think so. In fact, he always teases me that I need to get rid of some, but parting with books is way too hard. Books are perfect for bringing history into the classroom and teaching students about many different topics. Thanksgiving is no different. There are so many great reads to learn from. Here are some of my Thanksgiving stand-bys. 

If you are interested in any of the resources for the activities I mentioned above, you can find the entire mega bundle here or you can purchase each set individually.