Interactive Whiteboard Activities
The First Thanksgiving
Experience the First Thanksgiving with this interactive, immersive online activity and multimedia resources used in thousands of classrooms across the country every year.
- Grades: PreK–K, 1–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–12
“The First Thanksgiving” student activity offers books, lessons, media and resources to teach students the story behind our national holiday.
- Students will get an up close and personal look into 17th-century life in Colonial America through three video virtual field trips to Plimoth Plantation:
- Tour the Pilgrim Village
- Tour the Wampanoag Homesite
- Go on a virtual field trip to Plimoth Plantation that includes interviews with interpreters
- Coming soon: A virtual field trip aboard the Mayflower
- In Voyage of the Mayflower, students can explore a timeline of the ship's voyage in 1620, “tour” the ship, and follow their journey on a map. Along the way, students learn why the Pilgrims risked their lives to move to the New World.
- Daily Life offers students a glimpse into what it was like for Pilgrims in the New World as compared to the native Wampanoag people. Plus, they'll learn how the Wampanoags helped the colonists survive.
- Students can browse a slideshow of what the first Thanksgiving Feast consisted of, and take a quiz to test their knowledge.
- Students can read historical fiction letters from the Mayflower and Wampanoag tribe.
Plus:
- Choose from 22 Thanksgiving crafts and ideas to further engage students.
- Get free Printables and Bulletin Board designs and Clip Art to dress up your classroom.
- Find specific Thanksgiving lesson plans for K–2, Grades 3–5, and Grades 6–12.
Learning Objectives
Scholastic's online activities are designed to support the teaching of standards-based skills. While participating in "The First Thanksgiving," students learn to:
- Use technology tools to access, explore, and synthesize information about the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Plymouth colony, Wampanoags, and the first Thanksgiving
- Develop an understanding of why Pilgrims moved to the New World
- Develop an understanding of the colonial and Wampanoag cultures of the early 1600s
- Compare and contrast lifestyles of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags
- Interpret information from timelines
- Create a timeline
- Read for detail
- Participate in a variety of active writing activities
- Demonstrate comprehension through experiential response
- Reflect on what has been learned after reading by formulating ideas, opinions, and personal responses
Go to The First Thanksgiving activity.
- Part of Collection:
- Everything You Need:
- Subjects:Native American History, Early Exploration and Settlements, Ceremony and Tradition, Pilgrims, United States, Indigenous Peoples, Native American, Historic Figures, Thanksgiving, Native American Heritage Month, Autumn Themes, Communication and the Internet
