Collection
Teaching About the First Thanksgiving
Help students gain a clearer understanding of what we commemorate each November
- Grades:PreK–K, Grades 1–2, Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8
Discover the many meanings of Thanksgiving by exploring life in 17th-century America and the experiences of the Pilgrims and Wampanoags. This rich collection of ready-to-go lessons and activities are the perfect tools to help you enrich your First Thanksgiving unit.
Articles
A Feast of Thanksgiving Ideas and Crafts
Twenty-two tips on how to teach the history of Thanksgiving responsibly, as well as activities that go beyond Pilgrim hats and hand turkeys to help you navigate that tricky no-man’s land known as the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving break!
Student Activities
The First Thanksgiving
Interactive activities, timelines, lesson plans, extension activities, and multimedia resources will bring the history of Thanksgiving to life for your students. Explore Plimoth Plantation by webcast, and bring your class on a virtual field trip with video tours of the Pilgrim and Wampanoag settlements.
Lesson Plans
Tracing Our Own Family Pilgrimages
Make an "I'm Thankful For..." Placemat
Present a lesson plan for Thanksgiving including teaching students the Thanksgiving story through poetry and helping them make placemats with their pictures and lines from the poem on them.
Make a Mini Mayflower
Teach students the true meaning of Thanksgiving with this lesson plan involving discussion and the making of a miniature model of the Mayflower.
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades PreK-2
Give younger students an in-depth look into the First Thanksgiving with this lesson that helps them understand the experiences of the Pilgrims on their voyage to the New World, how two very different groups of people in the New World lived, and the aspects of Plimoth's first harvest feast.
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades 3-5
Take a closer look at the historical significance of the Pilgrims' voyage, settlement, and first harvest celebration.
Thanksgiving Lessons Grades 6-8
Focus on the relationships between the Pilgrims and Wampanoags that First Thanksgiving, and explore their experiences, actions, and decisions as they relate to the settlement of Plimoth colony.
Books
Guests
Moss and Trouble, an Algonquin boy and girl, struggle with the problems of growing up in the Massachusetts area during the time of the first Thanksgiving.
The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving
Full-color illustrations bring to life this historically accurate account of how the children of Plymouth Colony helped make the first Thanksgiving possible.
Giving Thanks
Filled with color photographs, this unique interpretation of the first Thanksgiving tells the story through two points of view a Pilgrim boy and a Wampanoag Indian boy. From the award-winning creators of Sarah Morton's Day.
- Subjects:Thanksgiving
