Free Lesson Plan for Thanksgiving – Day 3
This year we are doing more in our homeschool classroom for Thanksgiving, and decided to share this Free 5 Day Thanksgiving Unit Study with you. With a few simple lessons focused around the book The Very First Thanksgiving, you'll find your kids learning, having fun and understanding what Thanksgiving is all about. Even though my husband may not be here for his years day of Thanks, our boys will be learning about why we should be thankful not just on this day, but every day.
Math Lesson Plan
Spend time helping your child learn about measurements in math by focusing on Thanksgiving themed items with this printable. Provide your child with a ruler and search the house and pantry for items that remind you of Thankstgiving. Beans, cranberry sauce, boxes of stuffing, pumpkins, corn stalks, hay bales, candles, etc. can all be great items to measure. If possible, give them a measuring tape as well to make this more accurate.
Demonstate how to use the ruler or measuring tape by sowing them how to read the 1″ increments. If they are able to write, have them record their findings on paper. For older children give them specific measurements to find. Send them on a hunt around your home to locate items that match the measurements given. (You can plan ahead by measuring a few items around the house and listing their measurements on the list they will hunt for.)
Language Arts Lesson Plan
Add again to your I Am Thankful prompt from day 1. Encourage your children to come up with new and different things they are thankful for, outside what has already been listed.
Use this attached writing paper to have your older child write our vocabulary words; turkey, pilgram, indian, corn, Thanksgiving, Mayflower. For a younger child, write the word with highlighter and have them trace over your highlighter words.
Art Lesson Plan
Create another lovely table decoration for your Thanksgiving table scape. Have your child create a custom tablecloth. Purchase a roll of brown craft wrapping/shipping paper from Dollar Tree. Provide the kids with Fall themed stamps, ink pads , stickers, markers and crayons. If there is room left after decorating you could also place markers and crayons out on the Thanksgiving table to give kids and adults a fun busy activity.
History/Geography Lesson Plan
Discuss with your child the type of food that the Pilgrims and Indians (the Wampanoag tribe) most likely ate for the first Thanksgiving. While of course there is no specific menu listed, there are several accounts written that outlined some of their fare. The Indian's contributed deer, and the colonists most likely provided ducks,geese, and wild turkeys. Since fish and shellfish were the main diet of the colonists, it was probably on the table as well. Indian corn (maze) was a primary crop of the time, and cabbage, beans, squash, and onions. It is believed that by this time the colonists were out or nearly out of sugar so it is not likely they had desserts on their table.
Sensory Bin Ideas
Continuewith the sensory bin daily, swapping out an item or two to keep it fresh. Perhaps today you could include some dried beans, or these fun Settlers Toobs by Safari or these Animal Toobs By Safari. These figures will be great for creative story telling, as well as simply telling different shapes and textures in the sensor bin. They are also very fun to use with the Apple Cider Playdough from Day 1.
Additional Resources
If You Were at the First Thanksgiving
This First Thanksgiving: Counting Book
