Day 3 of a Turkey-Themed Kindergarten Teaching Unit: Focus on the First Thanksgiving

Quick Take

This the third day’s lesson plan in a week-long unit on turkeys and Thanksgiving designed for the Pre-K or Kindergarten classroom. Today the class will be learning more about Thanksgiving traditions for the Pilgrims and how those compare to the modern holiday celebrations.

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Materials Needed

In today’s activities, the class will learn more about turkeys and the first Thanksgiving. Here is a list of things that you will need to present this lesson:

Construction paper
Crayons
Note cards
Book, The Thanksgiving Story , by Alice Dalgliesh
Pre-cut feathers

Circle Time Discussion

Read the book “The Thanksgiving Story” to the class.
Discuss the story.
Compare the first Thanksgiving celebration to how we celebrate it today.
What do we have for Thanksgiving that the Pilgrims didn’t have?
What did the Pilgrims eat that we do not eat today?

Art: Hand Print Turkeys

No Thanksgiving unit is complete without this basic hand print project.

Allow children to choose a color of construction paper.
Instruct them to trace their hand prints on the paper.
Decorate the hand prints as turkeys, by using crayons or markers.

Math Skills: Missing Feather

On pre-cut feathers, write numbers 1- 30.
Display the feathers in a numeric sequence, skipping a number.
Instruct the children to identify the missing number.
Example: 12,13,15,16…what’s missing?

Language Skills

On note cards, write each child’s recipe for cooking a turkey.

Instruct the children to give step-by-step directions of the cooking process. Give the cards to the parents so they can enjoy the children’s ideas.

Activity: Turkey Hunt

Seven children (these are the Pilgrims) stand up in a line, shoulder to shoulder, facing the other children.
The other children (the turkeys) cover their eyes with their hands so they cannot see.
Each of the seven tiptoe around the other children, taps one on the head and returns to the line.
When all seven children have tapped a child and returned to the line, instruct the children to open their eyes.
Each child is given a turn to guess which Pilgrim tapped him or her.
The first seven children who guess correctly will find a place in line and the game will start again.

This post is part of the series: Kindergarten Harvest Lesson Plans: Turkeys

This is a series of harvest lesson plans designed for the kindergarten classroom. In this portion of the series, the children will learn about turkeys. The lesson is presented by activites, math and language skills, as well as art projects.