Thanksgiving Worksheets

Reading Comprehension – Holiday

Thanksgiving Worksheets

A reading lesson on the history of Thanksgiving – from the 1621 Pilgrims-and-Wampanoag harvest feast at Plymouth, to the 1789 national day of thanks called by George Washington, to FDR’s 1939 attempt to move the holiday a week earlier, and the 1941 law that fixed it permanently on the fourth Thursday of November. Comprehension questions follow the reading.

What This Lesson Teaches

Students read a multi-page informational passage on Thanksgiving Day. The reading begins with the modern legal holiday – the fourth Thursday of November, observed by all Americans regardless of religion – and traces it back to the early 1600s when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony invited the Wampanoag tribe to celebrate a successful 1621 harvest, even though no one at the time used the word “Thanksgiving.”

Additional sections cover the holiday’s national-level history: the 1777 Continental Congress thanksgiving for a Revolutionary War battle victory, George Washington’s 1789 day of thanks for the Constitution, and the 20th-century evolution into a city holiday with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (started 1934) and Thanksgiving football. The lesson closes with FDR’s 1939 attempt to move Thanksgiving a week earlier to lengthen the holiday shopping season – and the 1941 law that, after public objection, fixed Thanksgiving permanently on the fourth Thursday of November.

What Students Practice

• Reading informational text across multiple historical periods (1621, 1777, 1789, 20th century, 1939, 1941)
• Social-studies vocabulary – Pilgrim, Wampanoag, harvest, Continental Congress, proclamation, parade
• Tracking how a holiday becomes official – state-level customs in the 1800s, federal proclamation, FDR’s 1939 date change, the 1941 fix
• Connecting historical events to modern traditions – the Macy’s Parade (1934), Thanksgiving football (1920s-1930s), holiday shopping season
• 10 comprehension questions – 8 multiple-choice (Wampanoag, Washington 1789, FDR 1939, Macy’s, football) and 2 short-answer (including a personal-response question)
• Distinguishing the popular myth (the 1621 feast as “the first Thanksgiving”) from the historical record (Europeans had long celebrated harvest days; 1621 wasn’t called Thanksgiving)

How Teachers Use This Worksheet

This is the November anchor in our holiday cluster, and it works particularly well in social-studies blocks because the lesson covers the holiday across centuries of American history rather than only the 1621 feast.

• Use as the November anchor reading in a holidays unit; pair with Halloween in October and Christmas in December
• Pair with the Pilgrims lesson for a deeper Plymouth Colony unit, and with Turkeys for the food-theme tie-in
• Read aloud as a whole class for grade 3-4; assign as guided reading for grades 5-7
• Use the FDR-1939 section as a critical-thinking discussion: why would moving Thanksgiving earlier cause public objection?
• Use the personal-response question (#10 – how do you celebrate Thanksgiving?) as a written prompt or a class share-out
• Use the answer key page to score quickly, or hand it to students for self-check

Common Student Mistakes to Watch For

• Treating 1621 as “the first Thanksgiving” – the lesson is explicit that no one at the time called it Thanksgiving, and Europeans had been holding harvest-thanks days for centuries
• Confusing the Continental Congress (1777) thanks with the 1621 feast – they are 156 years apart and for different reasons (battle victory vs. harvest)
• Mixing up Washington (1789, Constitution) and Roosevelt (1939, shopping) – both proclaimed national days of thanks but for very different reasons
• Missing that Thanksgiving was not always on the fourth Thursday – it was made permanent only by the 1941 law, after FDR’s 1939 mistake
• Confusing the Wampanoag with other tribes – question 2 specifically tests this

Open the Lesson

The full lesson page has the printable PDF, comprehension questions, and answer key for Full Members.

Related Resources

• Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension Lesson – the full lesson page with PDF and answer key
• Halloween Worksheets
• Christmas Worksheets
• Pilgrims Worksheets – deeper context on Plymouth Colony
• Turkeys Worksheets – the Thanksgiving food tie-in
• Reading comprehension worksheets hub

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