This First Thanksgiving unit is sure to make your lessons on long ago and today engaging and memorable for your students. Take a peek as you see how we learned about the daily life of the pilgrim children with these eight hands-on stations.
We've been learning all about Thanksgiving and what life was like for the Pilgrims. We decided to spend one day comparing our life to theirs, so we stepped into the shoes of a Pilgrim and tried out some of their daily chores with these pilgrim activities.
I set up 8 different stations and the students rotated around to each one, doing a different activity that the Pilgrim children would have done in their daily life. Take a look at everything we did!
Station 1 – The pilgrims wrote with a feather quill.
In this area, students tried writing with a feather quill. They quickly found out that using a pencil was much easier! The students wrote their names with a large feather dipped in black paint. They used this writing template and tried to write in fancy letters like the pilgrims.
Station 2 – The pilgrims made quilts.
At this station, the students created their own paper quilt square using pre-cut triangles. They glued them on a quilt square template and then we mounted all of our quilt pieces together to make a class friendship quilt!
Station 3 – The pilgrims cooked.
Now it was time for the students to try a little cooking! We worked together to make no bake pumpkin pie and then the kids did a sequencing page when they were finished.
Station 4 – The pilgrims planted gardens.
At this station, each child planted a seed. The students will spend the next few weeks watering their plants and watching them grow.
Station 5 – The pilgrims hunted.
The students loved hunting for animals in this write-the-room activity. At this station, students put on their pilgrim hats and searched for different animals hidden around the room. As they found the animals they wrote them down on this worksheet.
Station 6 – The pilgrims fished.
Students learned that the pilgrims had to hunt and fish for their food. At this station, the students went fishing for addition facts. Each time they caught a fish they had to find the correct answer on their worksheet and color it in.
Station 7 – The pilgrims built houses.
During our unit on the first Thanksgiving, we learned that the pilgrims had to build their homes. We used mini pretzel sticks and this cute worksheet to build our own pilgrim houses.
Station 8 – The pilgrims made clothing.
Finally, at our last station, the children practiced sewing using lacing cards of pilgrim dresses and shirts.
If you’re ready to get started on your First Thanksgiving lessons, head on over to my TPT store where you can take a closer look at everything included in the First thanksgiving bundle. UPDATED TO INCLUDE A GOOGLE SLIDES VERSION.
Need more ideas for Thanksgiving in your classroom? Take a peek at how I use this interactive craft bookto teach the students all about the life of the pilgrims.
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How do I purchase this?
Hi Aimee,
You can purchase this resource in my TPT store here: http://bit.ly/2KdwJQe Thanks so much and I hope you love it!
I am a first year teacher and love this! But I wanted to know about how long you expect each station to take? I teach first grade.
Hi Morgan,
Most of these stations take between 10-15 minutes to complete. If you’re planning on doing them all at the same time as rotations, I suggest giving yourself about 1.5 – 2 hours of time. If you don’t have that much time in your schedule, you can break them up and do them on different days or just choose a few of the stations to do during your rotations. Have fun!
Molly