A guide for using our resources

Children will identify diff erent traditions that families share on Thanksgiving.

Vocabulary: tradition, parade, trot, relatives

Social Studies Focus: Thanksgiving, traditions

  1. Watch the Videos:

    Traditions

    Being Thankful

     

  2. Read the Issue:

    Every Thanksgiving

     

  3. Play a Game:
    My Thanksgiving Dinner

    Skill: capitalization

     

  4. Complete Skill Sheets 

    Reading Checkpoint

    Skill: reading comprehension

     

    Traditions!

    Skill: writing

     

    Color by Vowel Sound

    Skill: long and short vowels

     

  5. Lesson Boosters 

  • Paired Text Suggestion: Around the Table That

    Grandad Built by Melanie Heuiser Hill

  • Phonics Focus: Blends and Digraphs

     

  • Hands-on Activity: We Are Thankful

CCSS (and states that have similar standards): RL.1.1 key details; RI.1.10 read first-grade texts; RF.1.1 capitalization; RF.1.3 digraphs; W.1.3 narrative writing; SL.1.2 ask and answer questions

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

Paired Text Suggestion: Around the Table That Grandad Built by Melanie Heuiser Hill

  • Follow one family as they get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Every member of the family, young and old, has a special contribution within their family tradition. The rhythmic and repetitive text will have your students joining along in the read-aloud in no time!

Phonics Focus: Blends and Digraphs

  • Review the headline with students. Underline Th in Thanksgiving. Say it aloud, emphasizing the th sound. Tell students to notice how the two letters together make one sound. That’s a digraph! Then underline Tr in Traditions. Now have students notice how the letters keep their sounds. That’s a blend!
  • Have students use two diff erent colored markers to find the digraphs and blends in the article. Then count them up. Did students find more digraphs or blends? Did they find any words that were diff erent from the words in the heading? (thankful, trot)

Hands-On Activity: We Are Thankful

Skill: self-awareness

Materials: I Am Thankful! skill sheets, pencils, crayons, construction paper, stapler

  • Make a class book fi lled with all the ways your class is thankful!
  • Provide each student an I Am Thankful! skill sheet. Review the fi rst section of the sheet and allow time for students to share something they love about themselves..
  • After a class discussion, give students time to write down their response and draw about it. Continue discussing and giving time for the following two prompts. Who are students thankful for? What is one activity they love to do?
  • As students fi nish up their sheets, get a sheet of construction paper. Write in big letters “We Are Thankful by (your class name)” on the cover. When students submit their work, place it under the construction paper. After getting the last sheet, staple the pages together for a beautiful class book.
  • On each day leading up to Thanksgiving, you can have a few volunteers read aloud their pages to the class. Keep the book in your classroom’s library for students to read over and over again.