Inside: Our Thanksgiving homeschool plans for November including lesson ideas, crafts and read aloud book ideas.
It’s November and I’m so excited for the holidays and the change in our homeschool.
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Each November for the last few years we’ve hit pause on our regular history and science curriculum for a week or two and focused on learning about Thanksgiving.
Last Years Thanksgiving Homeschool Unit Study
This week we are going to finish learning about the state of Massachusetts.
Next week we will push pause on our Story of the World study (we’ll pick it back up in January!) and started our Thanksgiving Unit Study and Thanksgiving read aloud.
The kids are doing cooking for science this fall so we will continue to cook and bake throughout November.
Thanksgiving Homeschool Plans
November is one of my favorite months to slow down, add in some meaningful seasonal lessons, and focus on gratitude as a family.
We start each day with Devotional as a family, and we will be continuing this with some fun Thanksgiving additions.
Thanksgiving Devotional
Our daily devotionals include:
- singing a hymn as well as a day of the week song and months of the year song (for the two youngest)
- prayer
- scripture study (we’re studying the Old Testament right now)
- listening to KidNuz
For November we are going to be adding a few things to our daily devotionals:
- adding leaves to our Thankful Tree
- Thanksgiving would you rather questions (we will be using these as conversation starters and writing prompts a 1-2 days a week)
Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
Over the years we’ve done several different things to learn about Thanksgiving throughout the Month of November.
When the kids were really young, we simply read Thanksgiving picture books and it’s grown from there. Last year I put together my own Thanksgiving unit study using Beautiful Feet Books for a few lessons.
The Story of Thanksgiving
This year I decided to use Playing Homeschool’s The Story of Thanksgiving Unit Study as our main resource for our Thanksgiving lessons.
The unit study includes picture books (many of them are Thanksgiving favorites) as well as some historical readings, crafts and a few recipes.
Thanksgiving Symbols
Along with the above unit study we are also going to take some time to learn a little bit about the symbols of Thanksgiving, their history and why we still use them today.
Recipe Book
I’m still going to have the younger kids work on reading and my older two will each do a little bit of spelling and grammar, but our big Language Arts focus for November is going to be writing a recipe book.
I remember creating a little book about how to make pumpkin roll when I was in 7th grade and thinking it was so fun. I’m hoping my kids feel the same way about this assignment.
The kids are each going to pick a favorite recipe and write an ingredients page, and step-by-step instructions with pictures for that recipe along with a little intro about the recipe and what makes it special.
My younger kids (preschooler and kindergartner) are not going to write recipe books instead they are going to do this How to Cook a Turkey writing activity.
Thanksgiving Read Aloud
Along with reading Thanksgiving picture books we are also going to be reading and listening to a Thanksgiving chapter book or two.
For the last 3 years we’ve listened to the audiobook Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims by Rush Limbaugh and it’s so well done I’m thinking about listening to it again. (After 3 years it’s a tradition, right?!)
Along with reading rush Revere I’m thinking of including one or two of these shorter chapter books:
- The Boxcar Children: The Great Turkey Heist
- Magic Tree House: Thanksgiving on Thursday
- The Mayflower Adventure
- Turkey Trouble on the National Mall
- What was the First Thanksgiving
I recently saw Home-Centered Learning share that The Ickabog is a fun read aloud for November. I’m debating about having it be a family read aloud at night or saving it for next year.
Thanksgiving Crafts
Our Family loves crafts so of course I’ve gathered some fun ones for November.
Handprint Turkey Craft
Every year the kids make a handprint turkey so I’m planning on it again this year at least for my preschooler and kindergartener.
We use this free printable turkey body and add handprint feathers.
Painted Ceramic Turkey
I picked up these ceramic turkeys from Hobby Lobby, and I know the kids are going to have so much fun painting them.
Thanksgiving Coloring
While we read the kids enjoy coloring so I’ll have some Thanksgiving coloring pages along with these Thanksgiving color by number worksheets and Thanksgiving I-spy coloring pages.
Thanksgiving Escape Room
Last year we did this Thanksgiving Escape Room and all the kids loved it. I know my little kids will love doing this one again.
It was easy for my older kids so I’m still trying to find a more challenging one for them to do this year.
Our Thanksgiving Lesson Plans
I’ve got the plan, the resources and the crafts now we will see what our Thanksgiving school ends up looking like. I know that things always change and that’s what makes this homeschoo life so beautiful.
I hope these ideas and resources are helpful as you figure out your Thanksgiving plans.
A few Free Thanksgiving Homeschool Resources
Here are a few free Thanksgiving printables and homeschool ideas we’ve done over the years you might want to check out: