Thanksgiving Unit Study Resources & Printables for All Ages
The week of Thanksgiving just begs for low-prep and fun schoolwork. Make up your own Thanksgiving Unit Study by just clicking on these resources and printables!
Thanksgiving week is always such a crunch time for homeschool families and it’s easy to let school fall by the wayside and just take a “not really planned” break as we try to juggle big dinners, travel to see family & friends, Black Friday shopping, trying to button our jeans after all that pie, and putting up the Christmas decorations in just a few days’ time. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to add in school to that list! LOL
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English Language Arts
Library List for Your Thanksgiving Unit Study
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Landmark Books) by James Daughterty
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern
If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern
Squanto’s Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving by Joseph Bruchac
People of the Breaking Day by Marcia Sewall
The First Thanksgiving (Step into Reading) by Linda Haywood
The First Thanksgiving (Puffin Picture Books) by Jean Craighead George
The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
The Story of Thanksgiving by Nancy J. Skaermas
An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott
A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting (picture book)
Read Mark Twain’s short story, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey
Writing
Add in some work on the parts of speech with these Thanksgiving Mad Libs from Happiness is Homemade.
Use these Thanksgiving writing prompts from Homeschool Helper Online that come in 3 levels for early elementary, upper elementary, and middle school students. Or print out the free Traditional Thanksgiving and Turkeys Notebooking Pages for your kids to show what they’ve learned about traditional North American Thanksgiving family dinners.
Thanksgiving Unit Study, Morning Baskets, and Lapbooks
Homeschool Helper Online has a great Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving Lapbook for Elementary students
Learn about the song, Over the River and Through the Woods, that was originally written as a Thanksgiving song, not a Christmas song with this mini unit study for families.
Get lots of ideas from this Thanksgiving Homeschool Activities + Unit Studies from Homeschool with Moxie that includes working on your own family history and nature walks.
Suggestions and ideas for filling your Thanksgiving Morning Basket with books, toys, and games from Heart and Soul Homeschooling, along with Sarah’s favorite Thankgiving books.
Thanksgiving is typically a holiday we spend with family and those we love, eating more food than necessary, and laughing ’til our sides hurt. So how does that translate to learning? Check out these 4 ways to teach Thanksgiving in your homeschool from In All You Do.
Check out this sampler of a Charlotte-Mason style Thanksgiving unit study from Homeschool On the Range: Students will learn about the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving. Activities include reading, video, hands-on projects, vocabulary, writing, using primary documents, and a virtual field trip.
History of Thanksgiving
Numerous Presidents have made Thanksgiving Proclamation throughout the decades, and some of them are noteworthy. Your students may want to read Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation, or George Washington’s.
William Bradford was not a president, but he was the first to make such a proclamation for giving Thanks to the Lord for His provisions for the Colonists. Read it below:
William Bradford’s Thanksgiving Proclamation
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience. Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford Ye Governor of Ye Colony
Take Virtual Field Trips through time and place with these videos:
17th Century English Village Virtual Field Trip – Plimoth Plantation
A quick history and tour of Plymouth, Plimouth Plantation and Plymouth Rock
Let your younger kids record what they’ve learned about the first Thanksgiving with these free elementary Thanksgiving notebooking pages, and your older kids can use the Traditional Thanksgiving printables from our sister site, Homeschool Helper Online.
Watch An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving 2008 G based upon the book of the same name by Louisa May Alcott. Check out our other recommended Thanksgiving Movies here.
My husband recently discovered that he is a direct descendant of one of the Mayflower passengers. Can you trace your family tree back to the Mayflower? Use our Family Tree Resources on our sister site to help. And here’s a list (video) of some of the more famous people who are descended from the Mayflower.
Learn more about the 500 Nations of Indigenous Peoples with this fun Native American Unit Study for Homeschoolers. The full unit is 5 weeks long, but you can pick and choose a few activities to do this week.
Thanksgiving STEAM
Science, Technology, & Engineering
Perfect for preschool and early elementary kiddos: a STEM lesson and printable that coordinates with the classic book, A Turkey for Thanksgiving over at JDaniel4sMOM.
There are Five STEM activities for the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims in this Thanksgiving STEM challenge that will keep your elementary kiddos occupied all day.
Thanksgiving Art
Let your kids express their thankfulness with this cute I‘m Thankful Paper Bag Turkey or Handprint Tree. Get the free printables from the Thankfulness Activities with Turkeys & Fall Trees post.
Art Appreciation
Here are 8 classic art paintings about Thanksgiving to warm your heart from Daily Art Magazine.
Love the classic Norman Rockwell art? Here’s one of his best Thanksgiving glimpses of American life: Thanksgiving Mother and Son Peeling Potatoes.
Practical Arts
Hasty Pudding is a breakfast dish that originated in England, but when the colonists came to America, they began to use what they called Indian Meal, which was what we call cornmeal for their pudding. (The Colonists also often called corn Turkey Wheat!)
You can learn more about the history of Hasty Pudding (sometimes termed Indian Pudding) in this post from Edible Nutmeg.
Make your own Hasty Pudding with these easy directions from All Recipes or the slightly more advanced recipe from Preservation Maryland.
Preschool Math
Thanksgiving Plastic Brick Challenge from Proverbial Homemaker: Can you build all of these Thanksgiving-themed items with your Legos? Includes memory verses and copywork as well.
My youngest LOVES, LOVES, LOVES pattern block mats! And I love them too because it means that he’ll play with them quietly while I help one of his older siblings. (And he almost never plays quietly. 😊)
This Reading Mama has some nice Thanksgiving pattern mats that’ll boost your young one’s math reasoning skills. Usually, when I print out pattern block mats, I slip them into a page protector just to help them last a little bit longer. This is the set of pattern blocks we have.
Thanksgiving Sensory Bins
These 4 Thanksgiving sensory bins only take a minute or two to set up and will keep your toddlers and preschoolers out of your hair while you clean for your in-laws.
4 Fall Traditions and A Sensory Look at the Season from Inside Our Normal can help you manage the stressful transitions and new food and sensory experiences for your “out of the box” kiddos.
Thanksgiving Music
For your youngest kiddos, listen to the Gray Squirrel Song by The Learning Station, a catchy tune from my teens’ 4-H Camp days that they sometimes still sing. Little ones will also love Jack Hartmann’s Thanksgiving Song (Get Funky with Tommy the Turkey) or another classic from the Learning Station, Little Pilgrim.
Older kids will enjoy this new song from Ben Rector, The Thanksgiving Song, which incorporates the lyrics in a clever and imaginative way. And if you haven’t already heard Matthew West’s song Gobble Gobble, don’t wait any longer. It will be stuck in your head for days, but your upper elementary & middle school-age kids are sure to love it! LOL
If you need some background music for your Thanksgiving Day celebrations, this 70-minute Thanksgiving Playlist from Timeless Music will be perfect.
Bible & Character Education
Are you looking for a way to help your kids to be more grateful? Try this sweet and simple Thankfulness Character Study from Homeschool Helper Online.
Help your kids to Praise His Name while learning how to be grateful, plus get a printable Thanksgiving Scripture Printable Pack with this guide to Teaching Gratitude and Thanksgiving through Praise and Worship from In All You Do
Showing your kids how to use this Gratitude Journal for Kids from Homeschooling 4 Him is sure to help them be more mindful of all the things for which to be thankful.
Just for Fun at Thanksgiving
Games
Learn how to play a game from the book, An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving Story, called Nine Mens Morris. This game dates back at least 2000 years. You can play an online version here or get a real edition of the game (which is also sometimes called Mills or Ninepenny Marl).
Learn how to play the classic variation of Tag called Blind Man’s Bluff probably named for the original word “buffe” which meant a small push. If you don’t have room for a rowdy game of Tag, try the card game version of Blind Man’s Bluff with these rules from GameRules.
Fun Thanksgiving Printables
Let your kids work on their vocabulary and spelling with these fun printable Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle and Thanksgiving Word Search.
You can download a bunch of super cute Free Thanksgiving Coloring Pages and Activity Printables from Blessed Homeschool
The free printable games and activities set is simply print-and-go educational fun for those crazy days of Thanksgiving week to help your family have a Fun Family Thanksgiving from The WOLFe Pack
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