#2414. Thanksgiving Activity

Social Studies, level: Elementary
Posted Sun Oct 28 09:49:24 PST 2001 by Valeria de Albuquerque Mello (valmello@escola24horas.com.br).
CEI- Colégio Everest Internacional , Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
Materials Required: cardboard, pencil, pen, scissors
Activity Time: a week at least
Concepts Taught: Thanksgiving and Expressing Thankfulness

Start by familiarizing students with Thanksgiving vocabulary (especially for ESL students)

Build and display a large "turkey" and choose a spot in school where all students can see it and follow the results, such as on a corridor wall.

Provide all classrooms/teachers with strips in shape of feathers for the turkey in different colors.

Children should glue or write their "I am thankful for..." messages on a feather for the tail of the turkey.

Teacher and students can spend time each day reading and discussing the new messages. (For first graders is a good opportunity for reading practice, for other grades it can be a good subject to be discussed in class or outside while reading it. This is a good opportunity for a lot of different discussions and sharing opinions, and could even be done during a large group assembly program.