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Thanksgiving is a great holiday to include in your lesson plans. Although the history of Thanksgiving may be a little dubious, you can still instill the values for which Thanksgiving is well-known. For example, teaching your students about the value of sharing and the value of community is a great idea. Here are a few Thanksgiving-themed activities that you can integrate into your lesson plan this Thanksgiving.

Teaching values can be a difficult task, especially since for this lesson you have to integrate Thanksgiving as a holiday in itself. However, many of your students will be familiar with the basic foundations of Thanksgiving and will give you plenty of ideas for activities that have a Thanksgiving theme.

Often, Thanksgiving has much to do with the harvest of the season and with the sharing of that harvest. Encourage your students to talk about what the first Thanksgiving may have been like, and how it may have been different from the way that we celebrate Thanksgiving today. What kind of differences exist, and why do they think these differences do exist? What kinds of traditions (done during Thanksgiving) are important to this holiday? Is Thanksgiving a special holiday that only designates one day, or can it happen throughout the year?

You may also plan for your students to write a short play about Thanksgiving. First, they will have to research the holiday and who participated in the first celebration. Then, you will have to ask them to write drafts. You can do this together as a class, or you can divide your class into two or three groups. Each group will come up with a short play. Then, they will create their own "costumes" or props. They can use puppets or they can dress up. Finally, they will be able to practice the play and then perform the plays in front of each other.

Thanksgiving is also about the spirit of being with family and friends. It has a close relationship to the many holidays that are celebrated by many different cultures during the end of the year. In order to teach this value of "community" to your students, you may encourage more activities that involve sharing or group work. For instance, they can help you decorate and put up a Thanksgiving-themed bulletin board.

As you can see, these activities are supposed to encourage your students to take the meanings of Thanksgiving and put them to good use.

Learn more about this author, Joan Inong.
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