Teaching About Thanksgiving - Top 3 Websites from LessonGateway

With the Thanksgiving season fast approaching many teachers are developing lessons about both the holiday and how the Pilgrims established their settlements in Plymouth. There are numerous websites with information to help with this - here are the ones we rate as our 'Top Three'.

Teachers of younger students will appreciate DLTK's Thanksgiving site which has coloring pages, craft ideas, games and puzzles, songs, printables, recipes and worksheets - best of all, these resources are all free!

Elementary school teachers should take a look at an excellent resource from Scholastic for teachers wanting their students to learn about or conduct research on the history of Thanksgiving. Students review the voyage on the Mayflower, daily life of the Pilgrims and the Thanksgiving feast. The site has many illustrations and students can either read the accompanying text or listen to narration (great for younger or ESL students). There are also suggested lessons for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-12 available by clicking on the Teachers Guide in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

The History of the Mayflower is also an excellent site for student research, though it is fairly text heavy and is likely most suitable for grades 7+. This is certainly one of the most complete online resources on the Mayflower and the Pilgrims you are going to find with genealogy, history, primary source documents, a complete passenger list and links to Pilgrim related family societies and museums. At the time of our reading, materials on their website are declared copyright cleared for classroom use.

We invite you to view other resources at the LessonGateway site or share your top rated Thanksgiving sites by going to the LessonGateway Thanksgiving category and clicking on "Contribute a Resource". Enjoy your turkey!