November is a busy month! With holiday excitement in the air, you probably want to incorporate both fun and meaningful Thanksgiving resources to keep your kids engaged in learning. Here are my Top Five Thanksgiving Themed Teaching Resources that your students will love.
Virtual Field Trips are a great way to celebrate the season while learning important social studies topics and practicing key skills. I have three different Virtual Field Trips that are perfect Thanksgiving teaching resources.
Students can go to the Thanksgiving Day Parade to learn about the history behind the parade and the science of balloons.
Take a historical trip to Plimoth Patuxet to learn about the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people. This virtual field trip uses historically accurate resources and presents a balanced approach to this time period. Students will also learn to correct common misconceptions about Thanksgiving.
In the Virtual Field Trip for Native American Heritage Month, students will learn about various Indigenous Peoples and their cultures, including topics such as the Sioux chef, “Molly of Denali,” the seed library, Dakota access pipeline, climate change, and more!
This reading comprehension escape room is a truly immersive experience and is the perfect Thanksgiving teaching resource. Students read passages and answer comprehension questions in order to escape the Thanksgiving Day Parade. In this escape room, students are asked to complete four unique challenges. Each challenge requires students to read passages and answer multiple choice questions. They come in three formats: printable, my new self-correcting Webscape™ format, and Google Slides.
Thanksgiving Feast is a project-based learning task that involves using 1st-5th grade math standards to plan for a Thanksgiving feast. Your students will be in charge of planning, preparing, and serving a magnificent and delicious Thanksgiving feast. This resource contains a standards-based unit in both printable PDF and Google Slides versions. Additional “challenge activities” engage students and develop further understanding of the concepts and skills. These PBL activities will engage your students in authentic learning situations.
Plimoth Patuxet created an online exploration that explores Wampanoag life before European settlement and leading up to the “First Thanksgiving.” The experience investigates the interactions between the Wampanoag people of Patuxet and the Pilgrims by investigating archaeological artifacts, primary source documents, and oral stories.
You can visit the site at https://plimoth.org/for-students/you-are-the-historian.
I have a few social studies units that are focused on Indigenous Peoples of North America, colonization, and colonists’ way of life. These units are researched based, incorporate original videos, and include critical thinking activities.
I hope you and your students enjoy these amazing resources!
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