With Thanksgiving only one week away, we wanted to share some great resources for kids to check out and learn more about the national holiday!
PBS LearningMedia has quick and fun videos, word searches, and more all focused on Thanksgiving. Even author John Green (The Fault in our Stars, Paper Towns) has a special “Crash Course” video about Thanksgiving and colonizing America.
The PBS LearningMedia resources include:
Throughout history, people have given thanks – sometimes in joyful celebration, often in solemn, even prayerful, ceremony. The United States, over hundreds of years, has come to observe a national holiday for giving thanks: Thanksgiving. This set of primary resources containing images and documents provides a window into this time period, as well as a Teacher’s Guide with historical context and teaching suggestions.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is a time for tradition and sharing. People gather with family and friends on the fourth Thursday in November to enjoy a traditional meal and to give thanks for life’s many blessings.
Chris, Martin, and the gang check out a wild turkey close up and learn about its special characteristics. Aviva programs a new creature power disk with turkey powers, and the Wild Kratts kids encourage Martin and Chris to activate their new creature powers!
Thanksgiving is a day for us to remember what we’re thankful for. Uncover the history behind this holiday!
Learn the vocabulary of Thanksgiving with this fun word search from All About the Holidays.
John Green teaches you about the (English) colonies in what is now the United States. He covers the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the various theocracies in Massachusetts, the feudal kingdom in Maryland, and even a bit about the spooky lost colony at Roanoke Island. What were the English doing in America, anyway? Lots of stuff. In Virginia, the colonists were largely there to make money. In Maryland, the idea was to create a colony for Catholics who wanted to be serfs of the Lords Baltimore. In Massachusetts, the Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to find a place where they could freely persecute those who didn’t share their beliefs. But there was a healthy profit motive in Massachusetts as well. Profits were thin at first, and so were the colonists. Trouble growing food and trouble with the natives kept the early colonies from success.
