Thanksgiving Day - Book + Activities

Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell (Scholastic Inc., 1999)
Illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

Thanksgiving may be one of my most favorite holidays. The season has usually changed to winter, though winter does not officially start until December. We sometimes have snow. The food is delicious and abundant. We have friends and family visiting with us. We get to decorate for Christmas right after dinner. And watch our first Christmas DVD of the year.

And there are so many good, fun books about Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day is an adorable story about a classroom of children retelling the story of Thanksgiving - by putting on a play for family and friends. I love how the children act out the different parts for the drama. Thanksgiving Day is an easy to share recount of Thanksgiving, perfect for younger listeners and readers. Details, but not too many details.

Want to know what first captured my attention to this book?
The cover! I love it.

Here are a few Thanksgiving activities I like to do with my students (or my grands). Happy Thanksgiving!

~ Make a turkey. Let your child paint a paper plate brown. While it dries, trace big feather shapes on patterned scrapbook paper. Help your child cut them out. Trace basic shapes for the head and neck, eyes, beak, wattle, and feet on colored scrap paper. Help glue the feathers and body parts to the paper plate. Sometimes I have had to use a stapler to make them not fall off in transit. Hang your turkey where everyone can enjoy it.

~ Use thankful feathers to voice thankful thoughts. Let your child decorate a paper lunch sack. Fill it with several feathers. Take turns pulling out a feather and telling about one thing for which you are thankful. Give hints (grandma, your home, the garden, the car, snow, and so on) and expect some silly answers. But if your child says he/she is thankful for something very interesting, he/she probably really means it and gets great joy from that interesting thing. Pray and say thank you to God for all He has done and given.

~ Act like a turkey. Wear brown or gray clothes. Gather up all of your scarves - winter and dressy. Stick them in your child's collar and pretend they are feathers. Put on a long tube sock and make a beak with your hands. Walk around (with your child, of course) squawking like a turkey. Make your hand do the talking and wiggle your bottom and head to make the feathers dance. Be silly! It's Thanksgiving, after all!

Gobble, gobble.

The turkey is a funny bird.
His head goes wobble, wobble.
All he says is just one word -
Gobble, gobble, gobble.