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.
Related Resources
These activities and printables make the perfect accompaniments for students reading the Milly and the Macy's Parade holiday picture book.
- 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
