Thanksgiving Lessons

Are you looking for some clever ways to teach your students about Thanksgiving this year? This major American holiday is only two weeks away. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to plan out a lesson! There are many methods you may choose to use when it comes to teaching about this holiday. Read on for some ideas you may not have considered before.

One:  Separate the myth from reality when it comes to Thanksgiving. There are a lot of common “facts” about Thanksgiving that are not true, such as the “First Thanksgiving” being the first feast of its kind. Use this opportunity to teach about similar harvest feasts around the world, and teach students what types of food were actually served at this celebration. Make sure to emphasize how Native Americans were the ones who helped the pilgrims to survive. Perpetuating myths only leads to your students being ignorant.  

Two: Give an unbiased lesson on Thanksgiving. There is contention about the holiday of Thanksgiving and many Native Americans have come forward to speak out against the holiday. The traditional Thanksgiving history taught in schools is accurate in the sense that the pilgrims and Native Americans (Wampanoag) had a feast together. However, the lesson usually ends there. What is not often taught is that within the next fifty years, the Wampanoag ceased to be free. How you approach this depends on the age group, as with older students you may assign readings, but with younger students you’ll want a more delicate approach. There are many resources out there that detail how colonists damaged Native American’s way of life to help guide you.

Three: Give a lesson on Native Americans in the USA, today. Younger children may not realize that the Native American population is still in modern-day America. This is a great time to combat negative Native American stereotypes. Teach students about modern customs and Indian reservations. There are millions of Native Americans in the USA today, some on reservations and some not. Take time to give your students some perspective.

Four: Give back to the community. Thanksgiving is a time of giving thanks and being grateful for what you

have. It is also a time to reflect on what others in the community do not have. Poverty is a big problem in the United States. There are many people who must choose between having a home and having a meal, and people who do not have a home at all. Encourage students to help out by volunteering their time to the community. Another great idea is to hold a food drive. Your donation can go to a larger organization, or to a smaller, local one. Teaching students about helping those in need is important as it will give them a new perspective and help them understand problems in our society more easily.

Five: Do some fun activities as well! Give students a balanced day of educational and fun, particularly for younger students. In addition to teaching them about Thanksgiving, complete a Thanksgiving craft! Maybe give a creative writing assignment. A great example is to have students write from the point of view of a turkey, trying not to be eaten. Don’t be afraid to add a bit of silliness to your lesson plan.

We hope that some of these tips have given you some ideas for giving a well-rounded lesson about Thanksgiving. Enjoy the upcoming holiday, and never forget to be thankful for everything that you have. 

Fall Fun

Fall will officially be here next week, but for all intensive purposes the season is already underway. As temperatures start to drop and leaves begin to change, students will grow more and more excited about the new season. This presents you with a great opportunity. Take the new season that students are excited about and use it to teach. This can include everything from lessons plans to fun activities. Below we’ve listed ten great ideas for using fall to your advantage as an educator.

1.       Track the leaves as they change color. There are multiple ways you can implement this in your classroom. You could make this an individual activity, and have students record the color of the leaves they see at school or at home. You can also make it a classroom activity, and take students out every day to observe a tree outside of the school, then record the color in your class. While you do this, you can focus on topics such as what makes leaves change color, different types of trees, and more.

2.       Do some fall crafts with your students. There’s tons of fall crafts out there for you to make with students. Do a simple Google search, or invest in a craft book for some fun, creative ideas. You can create these crafts in one of two ways. First, you could make a craft based off the theme of fall. This means make some sort of fall craft using traditional arts and crafts materials, such as paint, construction paper, etc. Another way you can handle that is to use actual fall items, such as leaves, pumpkin seeds, etc, to make the craft. Students will have a blast.

3.       Another great way to celebrate fall with your students is to take them on a field trip. Field trips have great educational value, and are very exciting for students. One very fun and educational trip you can do is to go to a pumpkin patch, or go apple picking. Students can pick a pumpkin to take home or pick a batch of apples. It gives them a chance to see where these items come from. Plus, these areas often have other activities such as apple cider, corn mazes, and more! If you’re looking for a different idea, maybe try a local farm. This will show students in greater detail where their food comes from and meet the people who produce this food on a daily basis.

4.       Since the weather will be changing, fall is a great time to start tracking weather changes. Every day you can have students come in to a set up “weather station” to record different aspects of the weather. This will give them a hands on experience with weather while giving you an opportunity to teach them about different types of weather, and why different types of weather happen. Focus on something easier, such as temperature and rain VS sunshine for younger students, while for older you can focus on items such as humidity, wind speed, rainfall amount, and more. Some of this can be manually done, and some may require you to check official sources.

5.       A great lesson you can do could be on autumn fruits and vegetables. You can explain what it means for an item to be in season, and give a lesson on the specifics of each piece of produce. Some common produce it could be good to focus on includes apples, broccoli, carrots, celery, cranberries, mushrooms, onions, pears, potatoes, and pumpkins. You can use activities to drive the point home as well. Have a food festival, where each student brings in samples of foods using fall produce. You can also make a cookbook, with each student bringing in a fall recipe!

6.       Since pumpkins are so common for fall, why not have a lesson about the pumpkin life cycle? While students are likely to know what a pumpkin is and how to decorate it, they aren’t as likely to know other things about a pumpkin, such as how it grows, what it weighs, how big it can get, and how to cook with it besides a pumpkin pie.

7.       A good nature walk isn’t just for spring! There’s tons of different things to discover during a nature walk in the fall. Good items to have students hunt for include different types of leaves, nuts, animals such as squirrels, birds, etc, pinecones, mushrooms, and much more!

8.       You can have themed writing activities for any occasion, including fall. You can approach this in multiple ways. First, you can have students write about fall specifically, such as what they like to do during fall, popular fall activities, and more. Another option is to have fall be the central point of a creative writing activity. Students can create a fictional story based around the season and season activities. This will get them to stop and think a bit more critically about the season!

9.       One easy way to celebrate fall is of course, to decorate your classroom! You can do this by hanging student crafts, making fall bulletin boards, hanging other fall decorations, and more.

10.   The last example we have for you is to plan themed subject lessons around fall. For language arts, have writing and reading activities focused on fall. For science, do experiments using items such as leaves and apples. For math, make problems using fall items, such as counting pumpkin seeds. For history, focus on fall in different cultures and in different time periods. There’s tons you can do with this tip!

Those are our tips for using fall in your lesson plans. We hope you use a couple of them with your students! 

Back to School Activities

Pretty soon all teachers and students will be back in classes again. Are you still looking for an activity or two to round out your first day? The first day of a new school year is very important. It establishes you as an authority figure in your classroom and gives students their first impression of you. It is very important that you begin to get to know your students from day one, and that your students get to know each other as well!

There’s all sorts of things you can do to accomplish this. You can try activities, writing prompts, crafts…there’s a myriad of options, and so one is sure to work for you! If you’re stuck, try out one or more of the ideas we’ve come up with!

Activities

A fun activity to encourage students to speak to one another is to have them become detectives. Students will become their own version of Sherlock Holmes as they investigate clues about their classmates. Each student gets a card and writes down clues about themselves. Give some examples of the types of clues students should use. Remind your students they cannot use the words on the index cards! They must engage their brain to try and ask their fellow students questions related to the clues on the cards without using the word. This activity will make students think and interact with others as well!

If you’re looking for a classic activity, a time capsule is the way to go. There are many ways to handle an activity like this, but here’s what we recommend. Give each of your students a brown paper bag and tell them to decorate it however they want. They can draw on it, glue pictures of their favorite shows, books, sport players…whatever they want! Inside the bag they should place several items they feel represent them. Make your own bag as an example. They should also fill out a sheet of paper with answers to questions you come up with. Some great ideas are favorite school subject, school subject they struggle with, favorite TV show, hobbies, etc. Later that week every student explains their bag and chooses several questions on their sheet to share with the class. At the end of the year they get their bags back and can see how they’ve progressed and what has changed!

An active social life at school is almost as important as an active academic life at school. Some students struggle with making friends. Maybe it’s because they are shy. Maybe because they have a difficult time finding people with the same interests as them. Well that’s what this activity is for. Line your students up and instruct them to step forward if the answer is “yes” to any of the questions you ask. At this point, ask questions related to student’s interests. Some examples: “Have you ever been to a baseball game?” “Do you enjoy reading?” “Do you play an instrument?” Invite students who step forward to share details if they wish. Once the activity is complete, encourage students to seek out others that answered yes to some of the questions they answered yes to. This allows them to discover what students they have things in common with, and allows you to get to know them better.  

Writing Prompts

Instead of simply asking students to write an essay about what they did over the summer, focus on a writing prompt that is going to help you get to know them better. Here’s some options!

·         What are your hobbies? Write an essay describing them, why you love them, and a personal anecdote about you doing each one.

·         What goals do you have going into school this year? What goals do you have for the years beyond this one?

·         What was an important event in your life, and how has it changed you?

·         What do you enjoy about school? What do you not enjoy about school?

·         The science project that went wrong (fiction)

·         The class that had no rules (fiction)

Of course, that’s just a small list of the many activities and writing prompts you may use. We hope that some of them will be useful! 

Write About Winter

We’re right in the middle of January, and for much of the country that means snow has fallen or soon will. Encourage your young students to think creatively about winter with this fun printable! Instruct students to write about winter in the lines of this seasonal snowflake.

For your students who might be stumped, here are some prompts you can offer for inspiration!

~ What is your favorite part of winter?

~ What type of clothes do you only wear in winter?

~ What is your favorite thing to do in the snow?

~ What are some fun things to do inside during winter?

~ What is your favorite winter memory?

Write one yourself to use as an example for the class. This simple printable makes for a great language arts lesson. You can keep the lesson simple or add extra guidelines yourself to make the lesson more challenging, such as a winter vocabulary list. The choice is up to you.

We hope you enjoy the winter season. Stay warm!

Thanksgiving Printables

Thanksgiving will be here in several days. Are you looking for a quick and fun themed activity for your
students to do? Well you’re in luck! We have a great Thanksgiving word search for your students to enjoy. Put that restless energy into a themed activity and help build excitement for the long weekend in the process!

Our Thanksgiving word search includes many common words associated with Thanksgiving. Either give it to students as a fun activity, or use it in your lessons to teach more about the meaning of Thanksgiving! It is a holiday revolving around being grateful, family, and friends. Emphasize this before students leave for the holidays.

Holidays are very important, and it is essential that students understand the meaning of holidays, not just that

they get days off from school. Share this in lesson plans while your students enjoy the end of a short school week.

All of us here hop you enjoy your holiday weekend as well. Enjoy the break, you’ve earned it, and don’t forget to take a little time to be thankful for all you have.