Tag: thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip

Kelly Tenkely7 Comments on Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip4571 views

What it is: Scholastic has a wonderful site and interactive for students to investigate the first Thanksgiving.  Tomorrow, November 16th (2010), your class can participate in a Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip.  In this 30 minute online field trip your students will get to meet a Pilgrim and a Wampanoag—straight from Plimoth Plantation.  This Virtual Field Trip brings the Plimoth Plantation Museum to your students. This is sure to be a fun trip where your students can experience the first Thanksgiving in a new way.  In addition to the field trip, your students will receive “letters” (emails) from the Pilgrims and Wampanoags making the experience even more memorable.   The site has the original interactive activities for your students to explore before or after the field trip.  Download the free classroom guide and sign up today!

How to integrate Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Filed Trip to your curriculum: This virtual field trip is a fun way for your students to “experience” the first Thanksgiving.  Students will begin to understand what life was like for the Pilgrims and Wampanoags that first Thanksgiving and hear first hand what struggles they faced.   The virtual field trip brings the actors from the Plimoth Museum into your classroom.  Watch the field trip from your classroom using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer or bring several classes together in a larger space like the library.  After the field trip, set up classroom computers with the rest of the Scholastic Thanksgiving activities. Here students can explore the Mayflower, learn about daily life of the pilgrims and the Wampanoags, and check out the first Thanksgiving feast.  Scholastic provides a wonderful teaching guide that will help you use this site to its fullest.

Tips: Here are some of my other tried and true favorite sites for Thanksgiving:

Black Dog’s Thanksgiving fun and games

Scholastic’s First Thanksgiving

Investigating the First Thanksgiving

Free Rice and see how we used it as a Thanksgiving activity here

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Thanksgiving: Plimoth Plantation Virtual Field Trip in your classroom!

A Thanksgiving Story

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on A Thanksgiving Story1870 views

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What it is: A Thanksgiving Story is a site that lets your students star in a story all about Thanksgiving.  Students fill in some blanks (Mad Libs style) and a Thanksgiving story is generated with students as the stars of the story.  This is a quick but fun Thanksgiving activity for your students.


How to integrate A Thanksgiving Story into the classroom: Set up your classroom computers as a Thanksgiving publishing center where your students can quickly fill in the blanks and create a unique Thanksgiving story that stars them.  Make sure that you have a way for students to print or email the story home when they are finished.  The story would be a fun one for students to share at Thanksgiving dinner.  If you have access to a computer lab, students could work on these independently in about 10 minutes.


Tips: I learned about A Thanksgiving Story from @cindybrock on Twitter.  My PLN is the best!

Leave a comment and share how you are using A Thanksgiving Story  in your classroom.

BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving2886 views

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What it is: BrainPop is usually a paid service.  This week, BrainPop Jr. is offering their Thanksgiving with Annie and Mobi for free.  The video teaches students about the first Thanksgiving and includes plenty of facts about the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and the famous harvest feast.  The video includes several discussion and dig-deeper questions throughout.  The questions appear on a notebook next to the video.  You can pause the video when the questions appear for a class discussion or for independent reflection in a journal.  You can print out an accompanying notebook page that lists all of the questions from the video.  At the end of the video, you can choose to “learn more” about the first Thanksgiving with additional activities, crafts, games, suggested reading, drawing, writing, interactive word wall, and quizzes.


How to integrate BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving into the classroom: The BrainPop Jr. Thanksgiving video is a fun way to teach about the history of Thanksgiving to younger students.  The video is about 4 minutes long and includes multiple opportunities for discussion and check points for understanding.  There are also additional follow up activities.  Some of the activities are for print (a Thanksgiving “what I’m thankful for” turkey), and some are to be completed on the computer.  Watch the video as a class with an interactive whiteboard or projector.  Set up your classroom computer with the “learn more” activities for students to complete as a center activity.  Alternatively, students could watch and complete the activities independently in the computer lab setting.  The interactive word wall is a great way for students to learn some of the vocabulary associated with Thanksgiving.


Tips: Print out the Thanksgiving Notebook for your students to fill out as they watch the video.  Thank you to @mrscoggin for sharing this freebie on Twitter!

Leave a comment and share how you are using BrainPop Jr.: Thanksgiving  in your classroom.

Scholastic’s The First Thanksgiving

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Scholastic’s The First Thanksgiving3555 views

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What it is: Scholastic has amazing resources all year long but the interactive on The First Thanksgiving is topnotch!  Students learn about how the Pilgrims reached America, and what daily life was before the First Thanksgiving.  Students can take a tour of the Mayflower, take the virtual journey to America, compare and contrast modern life with when the Pilgrims lived (housing, clothes, food, chores, school, games), and the Thanksgiving feast.  There is a great slideshow and play a webquest feature where kids can learn more about the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag and the famous harvest feast.  The site includes audio for every page and activity.  This is great for younger students.


How to integrate Scholastic’s The First Thanksgiving into the classroom: The First Thanksgiving is a collection of great activities for students to learn about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims.  Students can use this site independently as young as first grade because of the audio features on The First Thanksgiving.  The site can be used as a center activity that a few students can explore together, independently in the computer lab setting, or as a whole class with a projector or interactive whiteboard.  The webquest at the end of the activity checks for student understanding with a quiz.  Increase students participation further with some The First Thanksgiving bonus features and extras.  Print out a Thanksgiving Readers theater, door signs, a fact hunt, a vocabulary quiz, and some letters from historical figures.  There are also research and historical fiction journals that students can continue learning with.  These range from a Plymoth Colony research starter to Our America: Colonial period.


Tips: Check out Scholastic’s Teaching resources for The First Thanksgiving as well as the literature connections that are available.

Leave a comment and share how you are using The First Thanksgiving  in your classroom.

Investigating the First Thanksgiving

Kelly Tenkely1 Comment on Investigating the First Thanksgiving2571 views

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What it is: Investigating the First Thanksgiving is a fun interactive where kids are the historians.  Students explore all the clues to learn about the first thanksgiving (really a harvest festival).  This site provides great primary source material for kids to sort through.  First they explore a section called Fact vs. Myth where they match pictures and descriptions.  Each section includes an expert video that talks students through the section and explains a little about the first Thanksgiving.  In the next section, students explore the Wampanoag people and learn about their different celebrations and traditions throughout the year.  Then, students visit an English Colonist village and learn more about life for the pilgrims.  Students can then learn about the events that happened prior to 1621 and what led up to the harvest celebration.  The timeline in this section clearly shows what events were happening from the colonists point of view and what events were happening from the Wampanoag point of view. Finally, students can share what they have learned on a virtual informational poster where they can type the text of the poster.  Students can print their completed poster at the end.


How to integrate Investigating the First Thanksgiving into the classroom: Investigating the first Thanksgiving is an outstanding activity that involves students and makes them the historian.  Use this site to teach students the history of Thanksgiving but also how history changes.  This site does a great job of teaching students the difference between “the past” and “history”.  It makes the distinction that the past is always true but history (the way we interpret the past) can change based on additional information and resources.  You can go through the Investigating the First Thanksgiving interactive as a class on the interactive whiteboard, inviting student “historians” to come up and help guide the class through the activities.  Or as a center or individually on classroom or lab computers.  Finish the posters together as a class, filling in information, or each students can complete the final project.  If you do complete as a class, give a copy of the final to each student.


Tips: There is a great teacher guide that accompanies this site and offers great ideas for using the interactive in the classroom.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Investigating the First Thanksgiving  in your classroom.

Let’s Say Thanks

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Let’s Say Thanks1876 views

What it is: Let’s Say Thanks is a website that allows students, parents, teachers, and everyone to write messages to our troops serving around the world. By submitting a message through this site you have the opportunity to send a free personalized postcard greeting to deployed servicemen and women. Students select a student created image from the site and then type in a personal message of thanks. Let’s Say Thanks prints the messages and sends them around the world to our troops.

How to integrate Let’s Say Thanks into the classroom: Let’s Say Thanks is a wonderful activity to do around Thanksgiving as an activity in being thankful. What a perfect way to teach students gratitude while making an impact on those serving around the world. You could also integrate this activity into social studies learning about our troops, or current events. We live in a global world and this activity could open up discussions about where our troops are serving and what the culture is like where they are stationed.

Tips: Encourage your students to read the messages on Let’s Say Thanks “From the Troops”.