12 Days of Thanksgiving - Day 2

Days of Thanksgiving

I've always loved these ideas that extend through multiple days to celebrate the holiday seasons (did you catch my 13 Days of Halloween posts?). This year I found ideas for the 12 Days of Thanksgiving and I couldn't resist sharing them with you. The ideas in this post came from a very vintage magazine called Copycat Press from 1990 (which just doesn't feel like it should be labeled very vintage, but I suppose that's because I am very vintage myself!) 

The ideas are centered around using the poetry from It's Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky. I didn't have this book in our Club library, but I did find a few versions of read alouds online. Here's the one that includes the entire book (which is helpful since you'll use different poems each day).

Second Day of Thanksgiving
Make a transparency of the poem "The First Thanksgiving" and display it on the board. [Since few of our sites have the old transparency projectors, I have created an image of this poem for you to use for display. You could use a projector or print it in poster format and display it that way or you could print it as a coloring page for each of your kids.]
 Read the poem and discuss the historical significance of Thanksgiving. Talk about the hardships the Pilgrims faced in coming to America...the the Wompanoag Indians helped the Pilgrims...and how they shared a feast of Thanksgiving after a plentiful fall harvest. Inform your group that the Pilgrims did not hold a feast every year but only when the harvest was bountiful. It is an interesting note that since the days of Abraham Lincoln (1863), Americans have celebrated Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Bonus math question for your kiddos - how many years has that been?

Click on the image above to be taken to a larger image of the poem. I created this printable with graphics purchased from EduClips (<-- and there's the link in case you want to purchase some of her awesome work). You're welcome to use this in your Clubs, classrooms, or any kind of after school program. If you share it with others, please share my blog as well. Thank you!