Tag: thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving Word Activities

Turkey Day is just a couple of weeks away, and I can hardly believe it! The days leading up to holiday breaks are often filled with excitement— which is fun, but also sometimes translates into extra energy for the kids and extra exhaustion for the teachers (and parents!). Holiday themed activities are always a fun way to engage your students and attempt to wrangle the chaos a bit during those days. 

I’ve created a couple of fun word activities you’re welcome to use. These are geared more for upper elementary, but can definitely be used for kids of other ages if they are able to do them! Below you will find a downloadable word scramble as well as a Thanksgiving word making activity. 

Print them off and use as a sanity saver on those crazy days, as an activity for the car ride to Thanksgiving dinner, or print them off for the kids to work on while the turkey cooks on Thanksgiving Day! However you choose to use them, have fun!

**Printables are free to download, but may not be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own. For classroom and personal home use only.**

Thanksgiving Word ActivitiesDownload
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Create A Space for Gratitude

November is here, and that means Thanksgiving is coming! I’ve always loved this month for several reasons— the cooler weather, the yummy Thanksgiving meal, and time with friends and family. While all of those things are awesome in and of themselves, I think my favorite thing about November is the extra focus on gratitude. Sure, I am thankful all year round, but I love the extra emphasis on it during the days leading up to Thanksgiving. 

I know not all families celebrate Thanksgiving, and that’s okay! But regardless of how or if you celebrate Turkey Day, I think we all can agree that it is good to be grateful. As teachers, we can help students understand what it means to be grateful and how to show our gratitude for someone or something. When we teach young children to acknowledge the things they are thankful for, they begin to more easily see the good things in their lives, which leads to better attitudes and more optimistic outlooks. 

So as we begin this month of giving thanks, I encourage you to find ways to work mini gratitude lessons into your curriculum. It’s helpful for students to write down the things they are grateful for and to post them in the room for all to see. This helps create a sense of community as students begin to see that others in the room are grateful for similar things as they are, and also to help others find gratitude in things they may not have previously thought of. One way to do this is to create a “gratitude space” in your classroom. You can do this by devoting a wall or bulletin board to thankful thoughts, creating a large tree trunk that students can add leaves to, or by making a line of gratitude thoughts that follows the perimeter of your room. I’ve included a free resource you can print out and use in your classroom. Print the page on different “fall” colors and cut out the leaves. Each day leading up to Thanksgiving break, have students write something they are thankful for that day and hang it up in the designated spot in your classroom. 

Everyone will love watching the gratitude space fill up with positive things, and students will begin to recognize things in their lives that they are thankful for. Happy November!

**This free printable resource is intended for personal or classroom use only. It is not to be sold, reposted, or claimed as your own.**

Thankful Leaves-2Download
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I Spy: Thanksgiving

Can you believe that Thanksgiving Day is less than two weeks away?! It’s hard to believe that the holiday season is already upon us. I’ve created a free printable activity for you to use in your classrooms or homes. Simply have your children or students write on the lines at the bottom of the page the amount of each item they find. Click on the “download” button below to save and print a copy (or two!) for the kids in your life. You can print one off and laminate it, then have your kids use dry erase markers to write the number of items they find. You can also print off several copies and use them as a counting activity in your classrooms. Whatever way you choose to use it, have fun! Please only use for personal or classroom use, and do not sell the file. Happy I-Spying!

Thanksgiving I SpyDownload
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The Importance of Being Thankful- Ideas for the Classroom

Thanksgiving can be a tricky topic in school to learn about and celebrate, especially when we want to be respectful of those who may not celebrate the holiday.

At its very core, Thanksgiving is about being thankful, which is always a great topic and value to teach to all ages of children in schools. You don’t have to explicitly celebrate Thanksgiving in your classroom to celebrate and learn about being thankful.

We can start off by having a simple conversation about being thankful and what it means to us. We can talk about the different things we can be thankful for from everyday necessities like water, food, and shelter, to the bigger things like our gaming systems at home, bikes, etc. There are also things to be thankful for like friends, family, and teachers.

Ways we can incorporate thankfulness in the classroom-

A thankful tree art project- an empty tree trunk that eventually is filled with leaves that are written with what the students are thankful for.

A thankful turkey art project- similar to the thankful tree, but a more “Thanksgiving” approach if you’re wanting to head that way.

Write thank-you notes to teachers, janitors, administration, cafeteria workers, and more.

Take a few minutes of class each day to have the students tell everyone what they are thankful for.

Create thankful journals in class and write in them when possible.

Have students write what they are thankful for on a strip of paper and draw a few each day to read to the class.

Let the students highlight each other when they see the kindness their peers are showing.

When we are looking at the good, positive aspects of our lives, the good only gets better. That’s why promoting and talking about being thankful in our classrooms is only a net positive for everyone. It’s eye-opening for everyone to see what others value and are thankful for in their lives, and can remind us more about what we are thankful for in our lives.

Do you talk about being thankful with your students? What does this look like in your classroom?

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The Season for Giving Thanks and Reading Books

Thanksgiving is only two weeks away, so do you know what that means? Thanksgiving picture books! There is no better way to celebrate a holiday than with picture books in the classroom, I am a huge advocate for picture books at any age. Here are four books you need to keep on your radar this holiday season. 

A Turkey For Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting A fun story about woodland animals that get together to eat Thanksgiving dinner together, just to realize that their friend, Turkey, is missing! 

Thanksgiving in the Woods by Phyllis Alsdurf This book is based on a true story of a New York family who celebrates Thanksgiving in the woods with family. Not only is it a great book, but the pictures are also beautiful as well. 

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano A story that will have your students laughing out loud seeing Thanksgiving from the perspective of the turkey. 

If You Were At The First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma This isn’t a picture book per se. However, it is a great book to keep around the classroom for the month of November. It answers common questions and some misconceptions you or your students may have about the first Thanksgiving. 

What fun books are you reading in your classrooms this Thanksgiving? 

Featured Image: deathtothestockphoto.com