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The Thanksgiving holiday in the United States teaches children the history of America while giving thanks for our freedom. You can use a Thanksgiving theme and cover all subjects of study from social studies to language arts. Incorporate the children with the following activities for a festive holiday this season.

DOOR DECORATION

Decorating your door will set the mood as the students file into class, especially if the door was decorated by the students themselves. Cover the door from top to bottom with black paper from the paper roll for the background. The black paper will make the other colors really pop. Use orange pre-cut letters to spell out "Happy Thanksgiving!" and tape to the center of the door.

Pass out construction paper in these colors: yellow, red, brown, and orange to the students. Ask each student to trace their hand onto the construction paper. Tell them to decorate their traced hand as a turkey with legs, wings, eyes and whatever else they would like to add. Cut each of the turkeys out and set them to the side.

While they are decorating and coloring, tell the students some interesting turkey facts. Kids find these interesting: wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour; the Native American version name of the bird was "firkee;" and turkeys can drown by looking up.

Let the kids tape their turkeys to the door. If you have too many turkeys, keep some of them for inside the classroom. Hang some from the ceiling with string. Decorate the bulletins board or even their own desks.

BULLETIN BOARD

Use the brown paper from the paper roll for the background and orange border. Take a long rectangle of black paper from the paper roll or use several pieces of black construction paper and make a long table and staple it on the bulletin board. Print out pictures of pilgrims and Native Americans and staple them around the table. Pass out different colors of construction paper, white paper, pencils, crayons, markers, and scissors to the students. Ask the students to draw and color the different kinds of foods that are shared on Thanksgiving and have them staple or tape the food to the table. Here is a link to the History Channel's Pilgrim's Menu : http://www.history.com/minisit e.do?content_type=Minisite_Gen eric&content_type_id=873&a mp;display_order=1&sub_dis play_order=2&mini_id=1083.

If you have plenty of bulletin board space, make a large cornucopia. Allow the students to draw and cut out different kinds of autumn foods to be flowing out of the "horn of

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