The Thanksgiving literacy activity below helps focus children’s attention on being grateful.
It’s easy for children to be self-centered in a world full of consumer branding and commercials. Reading books about being thankful and collecting food and mittens and hats for the less fortunate makes children more aware of the needs of others.
Buying a family livestock or chickens through agencies like World Vision, filling up shoeboxes with useful items (not a pile of cheap plastic toys) and/or modeling appreciation and being grateful during the day will help children practice gratefulness.
Make a Thanksgiving Pie and Share it With a Friend!
Each student makes a Thanksgiving pie and then shares it by reading his or her pages to a few friends. At the end of the week, your students can take their pies home and share them with their families.
Materials:
- Download the free pie page above
- 24# Photocopy paper for the covers (slightly heavier than regular)
- Paper for pages
- Optional - a page for a back cover page
- Stapler
- Felt markers
- Scissors
Directions:
Photocopy a “Thanksgiving for Kids Pie” for each student book. Photocopy it larger first if you want bigger pies.
- Do not cut the pie out yet!
- First, staple as many pages as you want the kids to draw on, to the cover pie page
- Then cut around the pie, being sure to cut through all the layers of paper
- Children color their pies and write their name on the pie shell
Inside pages
- Children draw pictures, then print what they are thankful for
- Help them sound out the words if necessary
Learning how to be thankful
Help the children learn gratefulness by reading books such as The Thankful Book by Todd Parr.
Sharing the “Thanksgiving Pies”
- Have the children work with a partner to share their Thanksgiving pies.
- One child reads his/her pie first and then the other takes a turn reading his/her pie.
- Set the children up with new partners and have them share their pies again.