MULTIMEDIA AND INTERNET

Hernán Cashabamba

5th Level “U”

Thanksgiving Lesson Plan

Lesson topic
Thanksgiving; the Mayflower

Proficiency/Grade level
Beginner, advanced beginners, grades 1-4

Content Concepts and Skills

Vocabulary development for the holiday of Thanksgiving; social studies concept of
the settling of the New World.

Vocabulary needed
Pilgrim, Mayflower, passenger, freedom pray, king, Native Americans, tools, plant,
hunt, build, crowded, hungry, dirty, equal, rules, warriors, harvest,turkey, lobster,
corn, squash, pumpkins. Vocabulary will vary according to grade and English
language level.

Warm-up

Thanksgiving
Look for the words in the puzzle listed below it.

R T T U G I Q M T S
H E Z U R N I G O G
O T W R R R I O O N
T Z U O G K W K L I
N G K L L J E Z S K
U K I Q R F F Y U P
H P O C Q N Y V L M
H A R V E S T A J U
D L I U B W N X M P
M G D S J T X K L A

o BUILD
o HARVEST
o HUNT
o KING
o MAYFLOWER
o PILGRIM
o PLANT
o PUMPKINGS
o TOOLS
o TURKEY
Complete the following puzzle

American Thanksgiving Puzzle

ACROSS

1. Who were the first settlers that celebrated Thanksgiving?

3. These are the people you eat Thanksgiving dinner with.
5. What is the most common main dish for Thanksgiving dinner?
8. Who did the pilgrims celebrate Thanksgiving with?
9. What big holiday is celebrated in November?
14. You watch this Thanksgiving morning on TV.

DOWN

1. This pie is orange. [HINT: You see a lot of them at Halloween.]

2. What can you find inside of a Thanksgiving turkey?
4. What is another word for "sweet potatoes?"
6. Dad's watch this game on TV after Thanksgiving dinner.
7. This food is red in color.
10. Who is the famous guy who appears at the end of the Thanksgiving parade?
11. What does a turkey say?
12. What animal loves to beg for some of your turkey dinner?
13. What do you do most of on Thanksgiving day?
Instructional sequence for Grades 1-4 beginners & advanced beginner ESL students
- Look for a book with simple pictures in it about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower.

- Review the story several times by asking students to point to the Mayflower, the
Pilgrims, etc.
- Give students a sense of how crowded the Mayflower was by making a rectangle
on the floor of your classroom with masking tape. Make your rectangle small
enough so that when your students all stand inside of it, they feel crowded.

- Brainstorm 4 or 5 important facts about the Mayflower as a group and write these
facts on sentence strips. There should be a strip for each student in the group.
Students should be able to sequence these strips.

- Have students write one of the facts on a sheet of paper & learn to say that fact.

- Present the story of the Mayflower to the ESL students' classes