No-Prep Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
Looking for a no-prep Thanksgiving lesson plan that you can use today or tomorrow? I’m with you.
I know sometimes Thanksgiving can really come out of nowhere, leaving little prep time. Retailers and advertisers seemingly jump straight from spider webs and pumpkins on October 31st to cedar garland and snowmen on November 1st. Thanksgiving isn’t even here yet, and most of my neighborhood has Christmas lights up already.
I’ve got you covered with this zero-prep Thanksgiving lesson plan that you can use TODAY (or tomorrow). There are ideas for extending the lesson included at the end. This lesson plan is perfect for your Social Studies block or really any other time that you have during this short holiday week.
Your No-Prep Thanksgiving Lesson Plan:
1. Ask students to share what they know about Thanksgiving. Keep a running list of what they share on the board as a visual.
2. Share the true story of what happened.
→ Show this video from the Smithsonian.
→ Show this video from PBS.
→ Share this free differentiated reading passage.
→ Share this book if you can grab a copy.
3. As a class, read back through the list you created in step 1. Let students take turns revising the list based on what they learned from the sources explored in step 2. Allow them to come up to the board and revise the list.
4. Discuss as a class why knowing the true story matters. (You could say something like... Knowing the true story of Thanksgiving better honors the Native people living today, their heritage, and their ancestors. The inaccurate narrative of Thanksgiving that is perpetuated every year isn't just about Thanksgiving for Native people. It represents a much larger scale misrepresentation and misunderstanding of their heritage and how they are treated and understood today.)
Want to go further?
→ Learn about the Native American people of today who live in your area through exploring this map.
→ Dive into this Native American unit to learn about the First People.
→ Share a book (or more) from this list or this list.
→ Read through this list of tips for teaching about Native American heritage and this amazing roundup of resources.
→ Celebrate some of the many amazing Native people of today with this resource.