Thanksgiving

Objectives:

• Students will be able to explain the origin of Thanksgiving.

• Students will be able to describe how Thanksgiving is celebrated and how it was celebrated in the past.

Suggested Grades:

3rd Grade - 4th Grade - 5th Grade

Lesson Procedure:

Print the reading comprehension passage and questions (see below).

Students should read the passage silently, then answer the questions. Teachers may also use the text as part of a classroom lesson plan.

Lesson Excerpt:

In the United States, the fourth Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day. It is one of the most celebrated holidays of the year. Thanksgiving is a legal holiday observed by all Americans regardless of religion. It is a day centered on giving thanks for blessings, traditionally by gathering with family and friends for a feast of turkey and all the trimmings. In fact, Thanksgiving Day is often nicknamed "Turkey Day." America's tradition of setting aside a day for giving thanks began in the early 1600's when the Pilgrims gathered to give thanks for a plentiful harvest. It had long been a custom in Europe to set aside special days to give thanks for blessings. Though there are accounts of such celebrations earlier, we usually think of the first feast being held in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. That fall, the Pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony invited members of the Wampanoag tribe of Native Americans to join them in celebrating a successful harvest. The event is remembered as an important part of American history, though no one at the time called it Thanksgiving.

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