A Thanksgiving Study

I have so much to catch up on here, but tonight I thought I'd layout what we're doing right now...learning all about Thanksgiving!   This is one of my favorite holidays, and as much as I adore Christmas, I refuse to skip over such an important day in our country's history. So...no Christmas carols around here quite yet! :) 
We've done a couple of Thanksgiving units in past years, one based on Cranberry Thanksgiving and another focusing on the Native Americans, so this year we'll be spending a lot of time on the pilgrims, their journey, and their life at Plymouth.

Resources:

Amanda Bennett's Thanksgiving Unit - I'm using this as a sort of guide for the topics I want to cover. It's a 4-week study and quite in depth, so we're just using bits and pieces of it. Her reading list is excellent, as well as her ideas for hands-on projects. I just love this lady!


Homeschool Share - An incredibly awesome go-to site for unit studies, printables, and rounding out just about anything we're studying around here! You've heard me sing its praises before. And did I mention that the oodles of amazing resources on their site are free? I try to love on the generous HSS team when I can by shopping through their Amazon links. :) Here are some of their Thanksgiving goodies:

• Lapbook for A. Bennett's Thanksgiving Unit (Scroll to bottom for link to the PDF. Lots of great notebooking/lapbooking printables even if you don't have the unit study.)
• Mini-books and other lapbook resources for the book Cranberry Thanksgiving (Lots of good stuff here even if you can't get your hands on the book.)
• Main index of Thanksgiving books and printables
• Unit Study and Lapbook for Goody O'Grumpity (Again, lots of good info. and printables even if you don't have the book.)

Free Thanksgiving Notebooking Pages from HomeschoolNotebooking.com

Scholastic:

• First Person video interviews with Miles Standish and others at Plimoth Colony
• Sign up here to go on a virtual field trip of Plimoth Plantation via a live webcast on Tuesday, Nov. 16th. If you sign up, you'll also receive free historical fiction letters from characters of Plimoth Colony. I print them out, put in an envelope, address to my children, and place in our mailbox for them to receive - lots of fun and informative too.
• Make a mini-Mayflower with a walnut shell. These look easy to make and fun to sail!
• Sail on The Mayflower printable board game

Plimoth Plantation's site:

• Two recipes for authentic Wampanoag and Pilgrim dishes
• Directions for two Wampanoag and Pilgrim games. (We made Fox and Geese two years ago and still enjoy playing it.)
• Learn (and hear) how to talk like a pilgrim. 

And of course, some Turkey Fun:

• Two cute turkey crafts using items from nature. Not sure if we'll do this one or this one. :)
• Styrofoam Ball Turkey Sculptures - lots of room for individual creativity in these.
• Gobble pancakes...these are too cute!
• How to Draw A Turkey from Art Projects for Kids. These look fairly easy and make a nice finished piece of art.

We'll also be making a Thanksgiving/Blessing Tree. (There are tons of cute variations on this - just Google it.)

Tomorrow I'll post our book list in my right sidebar.

Hope you're enjoying this season!