This is an ongoing series of harvest lesson plans created for a kindergarten classroom. In this installment,the class will be learning about Thanksgiving, specifically about the Pilgrims. The children will learn about facts through games, math and language skills and art projects.
In today’s lesson, the class will review facts learned so far about the ships, Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving. For today’s lesson plan, here is a list of the materials that you will need to present it in its fullest capacity:
Photos of ships
Photos of Pilgrims
A variety of seeds
Lima beans
Soil
Resealable plastic bags
Paper towels
Reproducible pictures of fruit
Cornucopias that were made in the Native American unit
Circle Time Discussion
Review facts about ships, show children ship photos, both old and modern. Discuss the differences and similarities.
Review facts about Pilgrims. Discuss how the Pilgrims must have felt when they came to a new land.
Discuss that the Pilgrims landed in the winter, but were not prepared for the cold temperatures and soon ran out of food. Many of the Pilgrims decided to return to England. A lot of people died during that first winter, because they were not prepared with food and for inclement weather.
The Indians helped the Pilgrims that remained. They taught them how to fish properly, how to hunt and how to grow a garden.
Show children a variety of seeds. Discuss with them how plants grow from seeds.
Activity
Planting Seeds
Provide each child with a plastic resealable bag.
Allow each child to scoop a small amount of dirt into the bag.
Place a wet paper towel inside of the bag.
Plant two lima beans in the soil of each child’s plastic bag.
Hang all bags in the window to be able to get as much sunlight as possible.
Have the students journal the procedure with words or pictures. Provide a guideline. First we _____. Next we _______, and so on.
The plastic bag will act as a green house and the lima been will begin to sprout. The children will be able to track the progress by viewing the roots in the plastic bag.
Teach the children about what the seeds need to sprout: Soil, sun, and water.
Have the students journal again, drawing and labeling the roots. Define root.
Transplant the seeds into cups when they have sprouted.
Art
Allow children to color pictures of fruits and vegetables.
Instruct children to cut out the pictures and adhere them to the cornucopia.
Math Skills
Larger or Smaller
Compare the sizes of a variety of seeds.
After the children have observed and discussed the sizes, on the board or a chart, create a graph to track the seed sizes from largest to smallest.
Language Skills
Rhyme Time
On a set of pre-cut ships, write rhyming words.
Instruct the children to match the words that rhyme.
Extend the concept by, asking for the children to verbally provide additional rhyming words from today’s lesson. The teacher gives the students a word to rhyme, like sun, ship, seed, and the students name a word that rhymes.
This post is part of the series: Pilgrim Unit
pilgrim unit
