Thanksgiving Lesson Ideas Plus A Freebie!

I don’t know about you, BUT I am looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving break. I will be off one whole week! I am also excited about the lessons I will be teaching my small groups. Let me share all the details plus a freebie!

Middle Grades

My students in the middle grades are all over the place in terms of what they are doing in their ELA classes. Some of them are writing compare and contrast essays and others are about to start a new unit about space. I want this week to be cohesive and stress free planning.

The students in the middle grades will be completing the Thanksgiving Close Reading Unit and then writing an “I Am Grateful” paragraph. The Thanksgiving Close Reading unit will provide the students to read, listen, speak, and write about Thanksgiving.

Click here to preview the unit.

Lower Grades

This week my kindergarten group will be taking a field trip to a pumpkin patch. To support and prepare them for the trip, we will go on a virtual tour of a pumpkin patch. I found some great virtual tours on Youtube. After we watch the video, the class will discuss everything we saw on their field trip to the pumpkin patch. I will record these answers on an anchor chart.

Then, the students will create an “I See at the Pumpkin Patch…” booklet using the vocabulary on the chart. I found these blank pumpkin books at Target dollar spot that the students can write in. Here is a picture I found of the pumpkin books just in case you decide to go look for some.

I Am Grateful Paragraph Builder Freebie

This week the students will be writing a paragraph that shares what they are grateful for in their lives. Since I will have some of those extra blank books left over, I will have them write their final drafts in the pumpkin books and add photos.

This FREE Writing Activity is available in my Teacher Pay Teacher Store My Adventures in ESL.