THANKSGIVING
(From http://pickettsmill.typepad.com/pritchard/classroom_materials/)
Here are some fun activities related to Thanksgiving. Many of them are geared to elementary level - so be sure they are age appropriate for your students. There are several activities within each pdf.
Download Thanksgiving1.pdf
Download Thanksgiving2.pdf
Download Thanksgiving3.pdf
Download Thanksgiving4.pdf
This is an interactive booklet where students can place the turkey in the correct position - over, under, on, beside, etc. Download positional_works_for_turkey.pdf
Download indians.ppt A simple powerpoint on American Indians just in time for Thanksgiving
Check out www.schoolexpress.com and register to receive via email a thematic unit each month. This month is a unit on Thanksgiving. Download thanksgiving_from_schoolexpress.pdf
http://www.slatersoftware.com/document.html - Monthly Freebies on themes from Slater Software
The First Thanksgiving from Scholastic
The guys over at TeqSMART have two great elementary Notebook lessons available with a Thanksgiving theme. The first was created by Lindsey Angelo teaching parts of speechand the second was created by Emily Peterson and it is Translating Word Problems into Algebraic Equations. I also hear rumblings that a Mayflower Math lesson will be available soon???????
Caleb Johnson’s MayflowerHistory.com offers extensive resources about the Mayflower/Pilgrims. There is a page dedicated to helping teachers navigate the site. The site is geared for older students, but there is information that would be helpful to elementary teachers. This would be a great link for a webquest since it has a plethera of historical information. Mr. Johnson even includes the Mayflower passenger list, complete with biographical information about each of the passengers. All information would present well in the SMARTBoard.
The History Channel offers 5 videos with a Thanksgiving theme. I particulary like the History of Thanksgiving since it is a little over 3 minutes long and gives a nice overview of the origins of Thanksgiving. It presents well on the SMARTBoard and is a great short video to embed into a Notebook lesson on Thanksgiving.
Turkeys Anagram game- students unscramble letters to discover a phrase about turkeys. Students would simply drag the letters on the SMARTBoard to the correct position. A fun game!
BillyBear4Kids has a fun animated turkey puzzle. Students would move the puzzle pieces on the SMARTBoard to create the puzzle. When a piece is placed in the correct position the connection flashes in white.The fact that the puzzle is animated just adds to the fun!!
Plimoth Plantation’s You are the Historian is a great resource, filled with some very good interactive activities as students discover clues about what really happened in 1621 at the “First Thanksgiving”. It works and presents well using the SMARTBoard. The site does indicate that during the Thanksgiving season you might experience a slow response so they do give you the option of downloading the file to your hard drive.
The folks over at Lookybook.com have some very nice Thanksgiving books available on their website. Typically the book present well on the SMARTboard, but just preview before using any book with your class.
National Geographic offers a great ativity for practicing part of speech with a Thanksgiving twist called “Wild & Wacky”.It is a fill in the blank activity for students to generate their own Thanksgiving story. Using the SMARTBoard the teacher could demonstrate/explain the activity and then students could use the lab to create their own stories. It does give you the option of printing the story so that students can read their stories to the class and/or take them home.
The Cartoon Factory (also from National Geographic) offers a Thanksgiving themed cartoon for students to narrate. They present well on the SMARTBoards- students love to see their work bigger than life on the SMARTBoard! Last year a 5th grade teacher used this activity with her students and when each student had completed their cartoon she “published” it so they all had a Thanksgiving comic book. It was a great way for the students to share their creativity!
Pete’s Powerpoint Station has a plethera of premade Thanksgiving themed powerpoint lessons.
Pilgrim Village is a simple E-Book, also from Scholastic, that provides audio support for the text.
EL Civics has an ESL Thanksgiving Lesson that provides a good overview of the holiday in an accessible way.
What Really Happened At Thanksgiving? is an interactive from Plimoth Village where players become investigative “historians.”
This is a nice listening exercise where students have to pick the words from a drop-down menu while listening to the text (about Thanksgiving) being read. The same site has a series of shorter Thanksgiving listening exercises.
The History Channel has a ton of online videos and other resources on The History of Thanksgiving, plus excerpts from their special presentation on the Crossing of the Mayflower.
Students can send Thanksgiving E-Cards and have links to them posted on teacher or student websites/blogs. The best ones are from Blue Mountain or American Greetings because they appear to host the card indefinitely on their sites. A “talking” card is great, too.
The Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving is a very accessible “web adventure” where students have to answer questions along the way.
Here’s an online Thanksgiving crossword puzzle from the Internet TESL Journal.
