I love this time of year. Really, I just love holidays. They are so festive, fun and provide an excellent learning opportunity for my boys!
In keeping with the spirit and because planning can be so helpful in preparing our children for any holiday, I thought I would post links to past Thanksgiving learning projects we’ve done! As you can tell, we love hands-on learning in these parts. Give them a costume and we’re golden!
What are you doing this month to celebrate or learn about Thanksgiving? If you have any ideas or have blogged about anything related to Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, religious persecution, native americans, etc feel free to leave a comment and/or link!
We did this child-friendly, eye appealing project last year and it was a huge hit. The boys loved playing with them and they doubled for beautiful decorations!
Our adventure mapping the journey of the Mayflower and reviewing why they left the Old World for the New World.
Two years ago we learned about what life was like on the Mayflower. Our favorite activity was dressing up as boys on the journey over. We ate food similar to what they ate (w/out the bugs, mold and extent of staleness) and slept in a replica we made of a family’s quarters on the Mayflower. The boys loved it. I for one am glad we don’t live at that time and that I have a nice king-sized bed!
This post also includes links to our favorite books on the Pilgrims!
Along with learning about the Mayflower, Xander was also learning about the story of Noah in Awana that year. To gain perspective, we went out to our street and measured the dimensions of both the Mayflower and Noah’s Ark. It was so helpful for my boys to visualize the sizes…
We also had a co-op day that year, learning all about pilgrim life. Our little group loved learning about planting corn, how instrumental Squanto’s help was, having a make-believe hunt, etc…
Several years ago, we made our first Turkey countdown. It was such a hit that we did it again last year. We incorporated learning about gratitude by writing down something we were thankful for each day. When all the feathers were filled in, we were ready to celebrate!
For more fun ideas check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board or these four ideas:
I’m just in love with this idea over at Rhythm of the Home. I definitely want to make a set for my kids! Giving kids the opportunity to use pretend play really reinforces what they have learned. The Wampanoag Indians didn’t actually live in tipi’s, but watu’s/wigwams. The tipi is so cute though, isn’t it!?!
I love this idea of having a ‘popcorn’ turkey. One Charming Party has excellent directions to assemble this visually appealing Thanksgiving treat! This would make a great addition to a Thanksgiving Feast re-enactment!
I love these Thanksgiving Story Beads idea at Little Page Turners. It is a darling way to help kids review the basics of the Pilgrim’s story…
Here is a cool Mayflower handprint project that could be fun too over at Almost Unschoolers.Finally here are a few free digital books that you can download. They are beautifully written and make for great read alouds.
Great ideas!!! The Mayflower is awesome. Here from HHH!
thanks for the great ideas! love the little mayflowers and countdown turkey!
God bless~
Heather! This is such a timely collection of hands-on projects! We’d love to have this post submitted to the Hands On Homeschool Blog Carnival and I personally love to see other KONOS families on the carnivals because we do hands-on so well! 🙂