Second grade students will enjoy reading about the first Thanksgiving during story time. The teacher or homeschooling parent can encourage them to write stories about being a child at that first gathering. Children will write and illustrate a book about their reactions to slide shows including Scholastic's "The First Thanksgiving" and/or historically accurate books and videos. A unit on the English settlers, Plimouth colony, Wampanoug natives and their way of life can culminate in a commemoration day in the classroom or school. Students can invite others in to share food and activities with them, just as the natives and pilgrims shared food and activities with one another on that first Thanksgiving.
Many activity-based lessons are available for students, including puzzles and printable coloring sheets about the first Thanksgiving. Teachers First "Plimouth for Kids Resources" offers suggestions for students and teachers. An instructor can encourage students to talk like a pilgrim, eat foods pilgrims ate that first Thanksgiving and study about life as a child in the 17th century.
The first Thanksgiving was centered around the successful harvest season. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag shared food with one another. This involved growing, harvesting and hunting food. A classroom demonstration on corn planting shows children how the Wampanoag taught the pilgrims how to prepare the land and plant the crop. A class can set up an appointment to visit a local orchard or farm to harvest vegetables and fruit that will be shared with others at a school Thanksgiving commemoration. Adult volunteers can be invited to the classroom to help children properly prepare recipes that reflect some of the foods supplied for the first Thanksgiving.
Simple items -- including twine, stones, marbles, paper and sticks -- provide students with materials to craft period games. Children can make the Wampanoag "Toss and Catch" or Pilgrim "Fox and Geese," or shoot marbles through a "knicker box" on a day set aside for such activities. When adults visit with the class, the entire group can set up a "nine pin game." Students decorate coloring pages or illustrations of the first Thanksgiving to be laminated for place mats to take home for their own holiday meal. Invitations are made with construction paper when the children invite another classroom or visitors to the classroom for the commemoration.