Teaching about Thanksgiving

The Real Thanksgiving

What do you really want your students to know about Thanksgiving?  Should you focus on the folklore of that first Thanksgiving, The Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims, etc? Perhaps you may want your students to ponder about things they should be thankful for, having enough food and a safe place to live- thankful to live in a democracy. Then again you may wish to teach about the real events of 1620- the Mayflower Compact as an original document. Maybe you have students who, for one reason or another, don’t even celebrate Thanksgiving.

Somewhere out there is the current Americanized version of Thanksgiving- a few days off from school, football and the beginning of the holiday (read Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanza).How you wish to treat the occasions is very much a part of who you have sitting in your classroom.

Elementary school students enjoy getting dressed up in costume and acting out the Pilgrim Pageant. They like making those “Pilgrim” hats and cut out turkeys to fasten to the refrigerator.

High schoolers who are serious about American history may want to delve into events that occurred in 1620-21 and what the Massachusetts Bay Colony was truly all about.

http://www.plimoth.org/ One interesting web site is that of the Plymouth Plantation. Located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the living history museum boast replicas of what life was life in Plymouth in 1620. There is also a replica of the Mayflower for visitors.

Education World, an on-line magazine, has an interesting article about the “Real Story of the First Thanksgiving”. See http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr040.shtml.

Teachers, a web site  sponsored by Scholastic http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/collection/teaching-about-first-thanksgiving, offers  thematic lessons and teaching ideas for celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving.

The National Museum of the American Indian, a part of the Smithsonian complex, has an outstanding site entitled “The American Indian Perspective of Thanksgiving.” The web address is http://www.nmai.si.edu/education/files/thanksgiving_poster.pdf. Be sure to pay special notice to the information about the Wampanoag Tribe. This is the tribe from which 90 members celebrated the First Thanksgiving along with the 52 English settlers.

ABC Teach, another on line resource, has a number of printable worksheet for elementary students. Go to http://abcteach.com/directory/seasonalholidays/thanksgiving/.

No matter how you choose to present the material in the classroom, take the time to make your discussion of Thanksgiving a meaningful one. Remember, Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday and is a part of American culture and tradition.

Have a Happy and bountiful Thanksgiving.