Thanksgiving Lessons for Grades 6-8 Directions Voyage on the Mayflower: 5 Lessons Preparation Before discussing the voyage of the Mayflower, hand out the KWL graphic organizer and have students fill in any information they know about the ship, its voyage, and its crew and passengers. Then ask volunteers to share their knowledge with the class. Invite students to explore the Voyage on the Mayflower, including Tour the Ship and the Pilgrim timeline. To learn more about the travelers' experiences during the voyage, have students search and refer to additional online resources, as well as books in your class library (here is one list of recommended books). Lesson One: Of Plymouth Plantation Close Read Have students read excerpts from William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, a primary source text about the first Thanksgiving. For the first reading, have students read portions of the text that have to do with the Pilgrims lives in Europe and setting sail for America. Lesson Two: Notices and Wonders Lesson Three: Research Component
Christmas Traditions, Christmas History, Christmas Around the World, The Christmas Story and Christmas Fun and Games! - whychristmas?com Christmas Day in the UK December is here and many people are starting to think about Christmas. In some places preparations for Christmas such as displays in shops and lights in the streets start as early as October! I am living in Spain at the moment, last year I spent Christmas in Finland and this year I will be spending Christmas with my family in the UK. It is very interesting to experience the different traditions in different countries during Christmas time. In my family, we usually get up very early on Christmas day and open our presents. Some people go to church at Christmas and I go on my own because I am the only Christian in my family. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember the meaning of Christmas.
The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is coming-up in a few weeks, so I thought another “The Best…” list was in order (you might also be interested in The Best Resources On “Gratitude”). As with The Best Online Resources About Christopher Columbus, many of the online resources accessible to English Language Learners tell the usual and uncritical story of Europeans and Native Americans. So the first part of this post those accessible links, while the second part lists online resources that I’ve found helpful to me in developing classroom lessons that try to demonstrate a Native American perspective. Here are my picks for The Best Sites To Learn & Teach About Thanksgiving (not in a strict order of preference, but with the ones I think that are most accessible listed near the top): Brainpop and Brainpop Jr. have two good Thanksgiving movies that provide closed-captioning. Scholastic has a good feature on The First Thanksgiving that provides audio support to the text and is very engaging. How Thanksgiving Works.
Halloween | History of Halloween | Trick or Treating | Making Jack-o'-lanterns Halloween is a festival that takes place every year on October 31. It is a time when children and adults dress up in costumes, go trick or treating and make jack-o-lanterns from empty pumpkins . Halloween goes back to the customs and traditions of the Celts , who lived between Ireland and Northern France about 2000 years ago. In ancient Rome the festival of Pomona was held in honour of the Roman goddess of fruits and gardens. Today Halloween is celebrated mainly by children who dress up as ghosts, witches and other evil spirits . In 1950 a school class in a small American neighborhood started collecting money instead of asking for treats. In many European countries people visit the graves of their relatives on All Saints’ or All Souls’ Day . The jack-o’-lantern is closely connected with Halloween. According to an old Irish story jack -o’-lanterns were named after a man called Jack. A Jack-o'-lantern for Halloween Downloadable PDF Text- and Worksheets Words A.D
How Thanksgiving Works - HowStuffWorks Have you ever wondered why Americans gather around the table each year and prepare to eat food regarded as traditional, but rarely assembled as a meal the rest of the year? Turkey, gravy, corn, stuffing, cranberries and pies take center stage on Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving also stands out from other American holidays in the sense that it isn't tied to any specific religion, and you can pretty much celebrate it however you want. The only essential traditions are to enjoy a meal with friends or family and to give thanks for what you have. In the pantheon of holidays, Thanksgiving is about as simple as it gets. The holiday also honors American history, of course. Have you ever wondered where the particulars of this story and the other details of Thanksgiving actually come from?
Christmas quiz Check Out the Thanksgiving-themed Writing Lesson on WordWriter Last month BoomWriter published a Halloween writing lesson that you could have conducted through their free WordWriter service. This month BoomWriter is offering a similar lesson plan with a Thanksgiving theme. The lesson plan that is appropriate for students in grades three through eight. WordWriter allows you to create vocabulary lists that you want your students to incorporate into a writing assignment. If you haven't tried BoomWriter or WordWriter before, check out my demonstration videos embedded below. Disclosure: BoomWriter is an advertiser on FreeTech4Teachers.com
Best of Christmas 6-9 Background What’s Christmas Really About A mix of movie clips (Year 6-9)The History Of Christmas – Part 1, Over an hour long, old video about everything you ever need to know about the history of X-mas and Part 2 The History of Santa Claus Warm-up Santa’s Elves Dogs and Cats with Human Hands Making Toys2015 Johnson Family Dubstep Christmas Light Show (11:04) Beware of the music, not everybody’s cup of tea Songs and Carols Christmas Songs Collection Listen to 19 popular Christmas Carols of all time in this video with subtitles (Year 6-9)Disney Very Merry Christmas Songs A playlist from Disney, with subtitles (Year 6-9)Disney Very Merry Christmas Songs Another playlist from Disney, with subtitles (Year 6-9) Vocabulary English Words for Christmas (Year 6-7)Christmas Picture Dictionary Vocabulary with matching activities (Year 6-7)Christmas Shopping Vocabulary (Year 6-7)Christmas ESL Nice vocabulary worksheets to download (Year 6-7)Christmas Dictionary Words with definitions (Year 7-9) Worksheets