The First Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I am not only making pilgrims and writing about what we are thankful for, but also teaching the history behind the holiday. 

Scholastic's First Thanksgiving Virual Field Trip

  Scholastic has put together a fantastic virtual field trip to the Plymouth Plantation.  Students can explore a pilgrim village, native american village, and learn about the events leading up to the first Thanksgiving.  It is probably geared more towards third grade, but my second graders are understanding most of it since we have been learning about this topic for the last week.  Another interesting book to read aloud to students in small snippets is Eating the Plates by Lucille Recht Penner.                      

  Penner makes the pilgrims and their struggles come alive as she vividly yet simply describes daily life on the Mayflower and in the Plymouth Plantation.  It is a must read to get the kids "hooked" on the interesting small facts so what they can imagine what it would have been like to be a stranger in the New World so long ago. 
{Did you know that while on the Mayflower the Pligrims often ate in the pitch dark so that they could not see the bugs crawling on their food? }