The ULTIMATE MEGA Thanksgiving Bundle for Secondary Students

This bundle contains 20 high-interest activities for secondary students during the Thanksgiving season. These activities range from analytical reading to persuasive speaking and creative writing-- all while acknowledging the first Thanksgiving Feast as well as the perspectives of both the colonists and the Native Americans.

In this bundle, you will find:

• Thanksgiving Choice Board-- Google Slides
• The Great Pie Debate
• Thanksgiving One-Pager Assignment & Rubric
• The Iroquois Constitution Close Reading Activity
• The Iroquois Nation "Thanksgiving Address"
• Acts of Kindness Challenge
• Friendsgiving Friendship Recipe Activity
• Gratitude Jar Activity
• Gratitude Gram
• "Thank You" Around the World
• Thanksgiving Famous Figure Research Activity and Project Choice Board
• The Multiple Perspectives of Thanksgiving-- Reading & Reflection
• Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford-- Excerpt & Discussion
• Today's Pilgrims-- A Close Reading of "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
• "Don't Eat ME!"-- A Persuasive Turkey Speech Activity
• "Black Friday" Persuasive Essay Assignment
• Three Thanksgiving Grammar Worksheets
• Tabloid Trash: Funny Thanksgiving Headlines, a Creative Writing Assignment
• Character Thanksgiving Menu-- Creative Writing Assignment

These activities are sure to engage your students during the Thanksgiving season!

Answer Keys Included*

FREE BIRD Thanksgiving Literary Trivia Game for Middle School & High School ELA

Poor TACKY THE TURKEY has been caught and will be eaten on Thanksgiving if you don’t save him first! Help Free the Bird by answering trivia questions that reveal mystery words. The trivia questions pertain to knowledge of famous authors and texts as well as literary terms and parts of speech.

The object of the game is to FREE THE BIRD by earning the most points.

There are FIVE rounds of this game total. Each round consists of FIVE literary trivia questions that reveal a letter for the mystery word, phrase, title, or name.

For each round of the game, an assigned group member will shout out “GOBBLE” when he/she has figured out the mystery word. The first team to get the mystery word earns THREE points; the second team earns TWO points, and the third team earns ONE point. The remaining teams earn ZERO points for that round. The team with the MOST POINTS by the end of the class period (or the end of the five rounds) will FREE THE BIRD and win a prize! Teachers can decide on the prize to be won. Suggestions include candy, a homework pass, bonus points, or just good ole “brownie points”!

Note that some questions reference Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, and other titles that your students may or may not know, depending upon the grade you teach. However, the questions are stacked so that students can still figure out most answers without knowing all of the trivia questions.

Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation: A Rhetorical Analysis Activity

In this Thanksgiving activity by Bespoke ELA, students will study Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamations in order to assess the relationship between language and persuasion while targeting the Common Core.

First, students will read an editorial from The New York Times in order to understand better the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and Thanksgiving. Then, they will analyze the rhetoric of Lincoln's two Thanksgiving Proclamations-- from 1863 and 1864.

Thanksgiving became a national holiday as the result of the Civil War. While other presidents had called for a day of "thanksgiving," it was not nationalized as an American holiday until Lincoln saw the need to unite the nation as our country was being ravaged by war. The article from The New York Times also reveals how Thanksgiving had nothing to do with pilgrims and Indians but later became intertwined with the "Founders Day Celebration" of New England. Originally, Thanksgiving came from our leaders' desire to recognize progress in our country.

This activity is an excellent Thanksgiving activity that targets non-fiction Common Core skills while also targeting close reading skills and rhetorical analysis.

As a final step in this activity, students will write their very own Thanksgiving Proclamations including rhetorical devices and appeals to entreat their audience to adopt Thanksgiving using their own reasons to be thankful.

Great activity for grades 9-12, including Honors and Advanced Placement.

Answer Keys Included

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