4 Ways to Teach Thanksgiving in Your Homeschool

Like most holidays, you’re most likely wondering how to add the thanksgiving holiday to your homeschool lesson plan. I’ve tested and tried many great ideas over the years and have finally learned how to incorporate Thanksgiving in a fun way. From Native Americans to the story of the first Thanksgiving, this post will give you several practical ideas to implement in your homeschool.

4 Ways to Teach Thanksgiving in Your Homeschool

Use the holiday season to plan Thanksgiving unit studies.

Unit studies have become one of my favorite ways to teach about a particular topic or concept. You can easily add a mix of fun activities, art projects, books, videos, and more. This homeschooling style is also perfect for getting the whole family involved in learning. The easiest way to plan a unit study is to first decide how long you’d like to study a topic. In this case, we would be planning for the upcoming holiday.

Some parents like to use an entire month when there is a holiday involved while others may go for one or two weeks. Once you’ve picked how long you’d like to study a topic, it’s time to gather resources. I’m going to give you a nice roundup below, but first, you’ll want to keep in mind the ages and developmental levels of your kids. If you have hands-on learners, go for the activity pages. For older students, you could probably throw in some Thanksgiving recipes. Don’t be afraid to think and plan outside the box!

Use bible studies.

Thanksgiving is typically a time where we focus on being grateful, thankful, and blessed so what better way than to include the Word of God? These offer some of the best opportunities for learning more about the Word and how it can come alive in our lives. I like to use a gratitude journal during this time to help my kids learn how to focus on being grateful. It also makes for a great family-wide activity. Journals are perfect for any grade level and is a great way for adding versatility to your homeschool schedule, especially around the holidays.

Plan Thanksgiving activities.

One of the coolest activities a family could do is plan and cook the Thanksgiving dinner together. You could also put together a reenactment play or skit about the history of Thanksgiving. Younger children would most likely enjoy coloring pages and counting activities while older kids may enjoy a few Thanksgiving-themed writing prompts. Another unique activity is to make a family tree together. If your family is like mine, we seemed to add a new child fairly close together so each holiday our family seemed to get bigger. Tracking this with a family tree would make for a good keepsake.

This is also a great time of year for a telling of the Thanksgiving story. There are lots of books you can get on Amazon or documentaries to watch. Speaking of books…

Read some of your favorite books.

If you haven’t started putting together a homeschool library, now is a good time to start. You don’t need tons of books but it’s always a good idea to have a few on hand that are holiday-specific. We like to teach our children the real story of Thanksgiving so it helps to have some good books on hand. Young children particularly like books that have lots of pictures and easy-to-understand words. Older children can handle books that are wordier, but don’t let their age fool you – they also like picture books too!

T is for Turkey: A True Thanksgiving StoryThanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks! (Reading Railroad)There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey!Little Critter: Just a Special ThanksgivingThe Night Before ThanksgivingLlama Llama Gives ThanksThe Berenstain Bears Give ThanksGod Gave Us Thankful Hearts

Best Products for Teaching Thanksgiving in Your Homeschool

Over the years I’ve created lots of Thanksgiving-themed products that will help you have a great activity on hand. From writing ideas to fun counting activities, these simple resources can help add a cute twist to your homeschool lesson plans.

• Thanksgiving Gnomes Writing Prompts
• Gnome Thanksgiving Preschool Counting Book
• Thanksgiving Scripture pack

Thanksgiving MEGA Activity Pack

This Thanksgiving MEGA Activity Pack was one of the first unit studies I created back in 2012. Over the years, I have updated and expanded it from the original 12 pages to what it is now! It includes Language Arts, Science, Math, Social Studies/Geography, Visual Arts and much more! It is geared toward PreK-5th grade, but can be used with kids older and younger with some simple adjustments. Work on this unit study leading up to Thanksgiving day! It’s something your kiddos can do in their free time and it’s a great option in replacement of other work to do throughout your homeschool day.

For my older child, I would simply ask him to do more with the notebooking pages and research the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians or Squanto, while my younger ones get to do some fun sensory bins as well as sit with us as we read through the Emergent Readers. Easily tweak it to include studying the indigenous people, wild turkeys, or even the first Thanksgiving feast. And don’t forget to include virtual field trips!

More Thanksgiving Themed Resources

Turn the holidays into fun learning with these Thanksgiving and Pilgrim themed resources.

I’ve teamed up with some of my fellow homeschool bloggers to bring you some fantastic tips, resources, and even a few FREEBIES to help you celebrate and learn together this Thanksgiving season. Be sure to check them out below!

4 Ways to Teach Thanksgiving in Your Homeschool	We Were There With the Mayflower Pilgrims	Thanksgiving Unit Study
Thanksgiving Writing Prompts	The Best Thankgiving Books for Kids	Hosted by Blogger Newsletter Hops

Final Thoughts

There are lots of good things you can do around the Thanksgiving holiday that involve the entire family. Start a few traditions of your own by cooking yummy food together, watching documentaries on the history channel, or using some of the Thanksgiving homeschool activities mentioned above! Let me know what you and your family do together for this season and holiday.