The Real 1st Thanksgiving

One of my HS mom's pointed me toward this great link. Let your child become the historian - pulling together historical facts in order to compile an accurate idea of the 1st Thanksgiving


Plymouth.Org

Ahhh We're Baaaaack!

Independance Hall (where the Constitution was signed)

Liberty Bell

We're now back on track after our vacation. The kids and I had a fantastic time. We first visited my BFF in Ohio (yup that's a 10 hour dive from my house to hers!), where we stayed for 4 days. Then we drove to Philadelphia for an afternoon of visiting the Liberty Bell and Independance Hall. The kids had a good time, and it was nice to get out of the car for a bit - but the drive is 1000 times worse having to drive up through NJ and NY.

So this week we're focusing on finishing our Liberty Lapbook - which covers Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell as well as touches on Thanksgiving. Fun Stuff!

DJ & The Liberty Bell

DJ & X-man looking on to the bell (Xman was nervous of the park ranger tour guide so refused to get his pic taken with the bell itself.)

Abraham Lincoln Stood Here!!! This was a great segway into learning about Thanksgiving, as it was shortly after Getteysburg that Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday - to help bring the country back together.

Playing on the grass at Independance Hall Visitors Center.

Colonial Times

The books we have to support our Colonial Times/Thanksgiving lapbook (I made a mini book for each one)..are:
If You Lived in Colonial Times by Ann McGovern (1992, Scholastic Inc)
Why We Have Thanksgiving by Margaret Hillert (1982, Modern Curriculum Press)
Hands on History: Projects About Colonial Life by Marian Broida (2004 Marshall Cavendish Corp)
The North American Native Americans by Ernest Berke (1963, Lithograph for the Library of Congress)

To support these books and include them in our Thanksgiving Lapbooks, I made 2 mini books ...They can be used as research tools...or whatever; essentially one asks questions about the colonial times, one asks about the colonists...Check out Shannon's Colonial Times Minibooks...

Other great adds to your Thanksgiving Lapbooks:

• We're doing our lapbook, as well as several crafts that I've listed before - like making a quill pen and felt hats and such......
• Various links - this site (toward the bottom) has an archive of some great printables for thanksgiving.
• Dr. Pat's Pilgrim Coloring Pages
• Homeschool Helper - always a great lapbooking resource with some worksheets as well as templates.
• Homeschool Share - my favorite lapbooking resource
• Enchanted Learning - the best collection of Thanksgiving printables I've found!