Title – Thanksgiving Placemats
Primary Subject – Social Studies
Secondary Subjects – Art, Language Arts
Grade Level – 2-4
Thankful Placemats

Objective: The students will reflect on what they are thankful for, and visually present it by creating a placemat to use on their Thanksgiving table.

Materials
Pencil
Paper
Construction paper with leaves
Construction paper with lines
Large construction paper in various colors
Glue
Scissors
Butcher paper
Procedure:
Beginning
Teacher will instruct students to write a list of things they are thankful for.
Once the list is written, the students will be handed a sheet of construction paper with the outlines of four different shapes of leaves on it.
The students will cut out the leaves, and choose four things they are thankful for to copy down onto the leaves.
Middle
Once the leaves are finished, the students will be given three more sheets of construction paper; one large sheet, and two with lines on it to cut into strips.
Students will be instructed to fold the long sheet in half, and cut from the fold to one inch away from the edge. The teacher will model this so there are few errors.
Students will cut the other sheets of paper into strips along the drawn lines.
Students will weave the strips of paper into the large sheet of paper, creating a placemat
Once all strips are woven in, the students will glue the four leaves with what they are thankful for on them.
End
The students will place their placemats on a sheet of butcher paper in the back of the room to dry
Once all students have finished, teacher will lead a discussion with the students to talk about what they are thankful for
Teacher will have placemats laminated so the students may use them on their Thanksgiving table.
Assessment
Completion of project
Active participation in discussion
How well the student follows directions
Modifications
Safety scissors will be available
Lines and outlines on paper will be drawn thickly so all students can see them
Modeling of the project will be done

Title – Thanksgiving Cinquain
Primary Subject – Language Arts
Secondary Subjects – Social Studies
Grade Level – 1-3
Goal:

The students will be able to describe Thanksgiving through their senses.
Objective:

At the end of the lesson, the students will be able to: describe the sounds, smells, tastes, feelings and activities associated with Thanksgiving. write a cinquain poem about Thanksgiving.
Materials:

Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes
Cinquain template
Thanksgiving word web
Teaching the Lesson:

Read Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes to set the tone for the students. They should start thinking about things we associate with Thanksgiving as well as things we can be thankful for.
Write students’ responses on the board.
Show a Thanksgiving word web on the overhead. Each bubble will contain words that pertain to what students see, hear, smell, taste and do at Thanksgiving.
Tell students that they will write a special poem about Thanksgiving using the words they generated on their word web. Hand out the cinquain template, write the title and use words from word web to write the cinquain.
To close the activity, pair up students and have them read their cinquain poetry to each other.
Cinquain Template

One word (title)

Two words (describe title)
Three words (action)
Four words (feeling)
One word (refer back to title)
Note from LessonPlansPage:

This looked like fun, so we tried it. These are bad examples because we didn’t use a word map or our senses, but we did have fun!
Thanksgiving
Stuffing Turkeys
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble
We All Get Stuffed
Thankfully Thanksgiving
Turkey’s Nightmare
Chopping, Plucking, Stuffing
Please Don’t Pick Me
Thanks! Thanksgiving
Pilgrims, Indians
Peacefully Feasting Together
Wish The World Celebrated
Giving

Make thanksgiving bookmarks.