Thanksgiving Educational Resources

Thanksgiving is an exciting time to educate children. It is an interesting historical period and a wonderful holiday that families are excited about. There are lots of wonderful resource available to use for teaching Thanksgiving. Read more... and more...

Thanksgiving Coloring Sheets

Activity Village Coloring Pages

Apples for the Teacher

Cornucopia Coloring and Handwriting

Crayola's Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

DLK's Thanksgiving Color Pages

Plymouth Plantation coloring sheets

Printables for Kids Thanksgiving Color Pages





Thanksgiving Crafts

Apples for the Teacher Crafts

Enchanted Learning craft

KinderArt Thanksgiving Crafts

Pilgrim Clothespin Doll

DLK Pilgrim Native American and Other Thanksgiving Crafts

Idea Box Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving Bookmarks

Billy Bear4Kids Bookmarks

Holiday Zone

Kid's Turn Central Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving Crafts

Thanksgiving Day Crafts

Thanksgiving Paper Dolls

Thanksgiving Pilgrim Crafts

File Folder Games

Pie Matching Game

File Folder Thanksgiving Game

Thanksgiving Addition 1 Thanksgiving Addition 2

Thanksgiving Games, Puzzles, and Worksheets

Apples for the Teacher puzzles

Alphabet Soup Thanksgiving Puzzles

BlackDog's Thanksgiving Games and Puzzles

Crypto Thanksgiving Puzzle

Kid's Turn Central Thanksgiving Puzzles

Make Your Own Puzzles

Make Your Own Word Search

Thanksgiving Crossword

Thanksgiving Crossword with Picture Aids

Thanksgiving Games Family Fun

Thanksgiving Games Kaboose

Thanksgiving Mazes

Thanksgiving Mazes Kaboose

Thanksgiving Quiz and Word Search

Thanksgiving Jigsaws Activity Village

Thanksgiving Word Jumble

Thanksgiving Word Search Printables for Kids

Thanksgiving Word Search TLS

Thanksgiving Word Scramble Printables for Kids

Pilgrim Tic-Tac-Toe Billy Bear4Kids

Turkey Tic-Tac-Toe Printables4kids

Thanksgiving Language Arts Resources

Acrostic Poem Printable

Alphabet Matching Turkey Game abcteach

Alphabetizing Thanksgiving Words 10 Words TLS

Alphabetizing Thanksgiving Words 20 Words TLS

Big and Small Thanksgiving Coloring Activity TLS

Pilgrim Hat Alphabet from Activity Village

Early Readers from Enchanted Learning Cost to Join

Family Fun Mad Libs

Thanksgiving Activity Booklet to Print Free TLS

Five Senses Thanksgiving Writing Activity abc teach

I Am Thankful Multi-Level Stationary

Pilgrim Fact Recording Sheet abc teach

Poetry for Thanksgiving

Sorting Thanksgiving Nouns abc teach

Starfall Interactive Turkey Story Phonics

Thanksgiving Pattern Activity TLS

Thankful List Stationary

Thanksgiving Riddles Kaboose

Thanksgiving Songs DLTK

Thanksgiving Vocabulary and Spelling Activity abc teach

Thanksgiving Writing Paper Activity Village




Thanksgiving Math Resources

Addition with Pictures Basic

Addition with Pictures 2 Basic

Counting to Five

Early Math Readers from Enchanted Learning Cost to Join

Math Patterns

Subtraction with Pictures Basic TLS

Tinsnips Picture Addition

Thanksgiving word problems abc teach

Pilgrim and Native American Sites and Activities

First Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Activity with Questions abc teach

Research the Mayflower abc teach

Pilgrim Hall Museum

Investigating the First Thanksgiving

The Mayflower

Mayflower History Caleb Johnson

Mayflower Quiz Enchanted Learning

Scholastic First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Quiz

Wampanoag and Pilgrim Children's Games

Web Quest

Who are the Wampanoag?

Picture Credit Smart Destinations flickr.com

Teach Children Sequence Skills

Sequencing skills are important across the curriculum. The ability to organize data in order is important not only in reading but critical for math, science and social studies as well. Teaching children this skill in fun, age appropriate manners early on helps children not to see this as a “new” skill but like many other skills just one that gets more complicated as they continue to mature.

There are packaged programs to introduce sequencing skills but photographs are a simple way to start with sequencing activities. Take pictures of simple activities, laminate them, and then use them as a fun activity with your child. Try to have them figure out what order things should happen in. Choose natural activities that your child is familiar with and those you are trying to teach like shoe tying.

This can also be a fun way to introduce young scientists to observation. When growing plants or doing other fun science activities take pictures of the activities. Show the seed the day it was planted, the day it emerges and so forth. Now you have your own plant cycle sequence cards to have your young scientist practice with which makes the process even more connected to the learner. The same can be done during any other science experiment. After the experiment is done, the pictures can serve as a great review lesson on what happened during the experiment.

Comics can also be a fun way to work on sequencing. Comic strips generally have a clear progression and kids can have fun putting together the strips in order to tell the story. Again laminating or contact paper makes these activities work better.

For those looking for commercial products there are plenty available. I have some listed below. There are plenty of other products available.

Need Help Finding Resources?

At the present time I have no plans to evaluate specific home school programs. There are many websites and blogs far more qualified to handle that task than I. From time I will discuss specific curriculum materials and you will see advertisement for products. However, if you have specific questions or interests in curriculum materials or strategies that you can not find answers to please feel free to leave a comment in the curriculum section you are searching or on this blog entry and I will do my best to help you find answers.

I make the same offer to teachers and parents who do not home school. If you do not find the materials you are searching for please leave me a note in the comment section describing what you are looking to find. I make no promises but I will do my best to help.

In conjunction with my other writing projects I am continuing to find new resources and material for articles. You will see this in updated links on the curriculum pages and new articles that appear. It is always helpful to know what people want and need as well.

File Folder Games and Activities

Parents and educators are looking for easy inexpensive ways to promote alternate learning styles. Independent learning is another value and frankly required element of learning. Neither parent nor teacher can be with a child at all times assisting and monitoring. Activities that provide solid educational learning and independent structure are valuable for child and teacher. Computers do provide many with these activities but there still are some old but good strategies out there that work.
As I was researching links for the blog the other day, I came across links for file folder games and activities which I added to the blog under Early Childhood and Math sites. I thought this would be an ideal candidate for article for a content site I write for as well as a chance to encourage people to try the strategy. It really isn’t complicated to do. File folders are cheap methods to make game boards and independent learning activities. You can create your own resources or use the pre-made options advertised here.

Want to find the file folder links on this site?

Early Childhood File Folder Links

Math File Folders

Fall File Folder Links

Halloween File Folder Links

Thanksgiving File Folder Games

Christmas, Hanukkah,and Winter Games

Visit Place Value With Software

In a previous post I discussed using manipulatives to help students construct a physical understanding of place value. Today I came across a free site on a publisher's website that demonstrates the concept better to parents who may want to try this. You can use the website or still use this concept with physical manipulatives but this gives you a visual representation of what I was discussing in the previous article.

I want to give full credit to the website and publisher Harcourt Publishing. I encourage you to check out their free resources.

Harcourt E Lab Understanding 1,000

The first picture shows the place value chart blank. When making my own I do draw lines.

I start with having the children build to ten to work in the ones column. Using this software you may want to choose problems that help you to reach ten first. (Just a note about the pictures, if you want to get a better look, click on the picture.) Those of you using blocks following this column process works just as well with physical manipulatives as it does on the computer.

Now you move to explaining what happens when you reach ten and all the blocks can no longer remain in the one's column. I suggest not having a problem that stops at ten. It is easier to start by leaving some amount in the one's column.

This program demonstrates that there are too many blocks in the ones column and asks the child to select regrouping. There is a benefit to using actual blocks in the beginning for many children to make the connection. However, this is the best method I have until I dig out my manipulatives and start taking digital photos to demonstrate the process.

The group of ten is now moved into the ten’s column and the one remains in the one’s column. I actually prefer the method of moving ten ones into the ten’s column, not substituting a different symbol for the ten’s and hundred’s as it decreases the connection for the kids. However, this is not my program. When using manipulatives, you can take your stack of ten connected cubes or Lego’s and just move the whole group into the ten’s column. There is no need for a new ten’s symbol.

This now moves us into the hundred’s column. This level was sometimes challenging with this software. I was having trouble getting the software to leave no values in the ten's column after regrouping if there were 0 tens. It worked sometimes and it failed sometimes. This was one area where having more control over your environment is useful. I chose a problem to demonstrate where I avoided the problem.

I did need to regroup more than once while experimenting with problems. If doing this myself, I am not sure I would use different symbols for different place value groups. It is one of the reasons I do not tend to use the traditional place value blocks that come with many math kits. They often do not accomplish what they are marketed to do. That was just the way I was trained and my experience from working with students. Do what works best for your child.

This software is free and available for your use.

Explore Your City or Town's History This Summer

This summer make local history sites your classroom. They say people are often most ignorant about the history right in their own backyards. While we drag children to field trips on a yearly basis we miss so much of what our local areas have to offer that will never make it to the pages of a history book. Summer is a time to explore the delights of your local area. Don’t know much about your local history and where to start? This is a great time to find out. Check out your City or Town’s website. Writing some local content articles I came across a detailed web map my home town created for locals and tourists to explore the local historical sites. While your town may not have gone that far yet, many websites do list sites of interest. Check with your local library. Many libraries even often discounted or free tickets to local museums of interest to explore this summer. They are also good sources of sites that are free to explore in your area. Many content sites are hiring writers to write articles on areas of local interest. Open up Google or your favorite search engine and start plugging in key words regarding your local area and see what you can discover about places to see and visit. This is a way to take history off the dusty pages of a book and bring it to life for kids and yourself. You may be surprised what local gems are waiting for you to discover.

I have listed the link to my home town site. Perhaps this would be a fun project to start for a home schooling or scouts group in your area. It is great for students and tourists in the area.

Sudbury MA Trail