Scholastic's Online Field Trip to Plimouth Plantation

On Tuesday at 1 pm, Scholastic will arrange a live feed from Plimouth Plantation so that your class can meet a Pilgrim and Wampanoag, and later receive a series of letters.  Click the link, sign up for the webcast and bring the 1620s to life for your classroom.

Holiday Activities: Thanksgiving Bingo and Math Practice

Head over to Makingfriends.com to make use of their free Thanksgiving Bingo printable.  A favorite game has been transformed with a Thanksgiving theme and now includes squares with pumpkins, pilgrims and pies.  The site has helpfully included calling cards and 12 different Bingo cards to print.

                                    makingfriends

Another classroom activity idea is to practice math using this suggestion from Scholastic.com:

Shopping For a Turkey Dinner:

Invite your children to "shop" for a Thanksgiving feast and practice addition at the same time.  Provide students with photocopies of grocery store advertisements.  Guide children in searching for favorite foods while also planning a balanced feast.  After selecting their items, children list and add up the prices.  Combine students' totals for a grand total.

You can also divide the class up into groups and have each group plan their own dinner.  Differentiation and challenges can be added to the activity by having groups "shop" on a budget and use coupons for items (calculating percents).  Have groups create a graph or display with their final meal and calculated total.

-Veronica

Native American Heritage Month Activities: PBS' "We Shall Remain"

American Experience's "We Shall Remain" special is online for complete viewing in your classroom.

From the site:

From the award-winning PBS series AMERICAN EXPERIENCE comes 

WE SHALL REMAIN, a provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history.

The special is divided into 5 parts that begins with the effects of the Thanksgiving celebration with the Europeans.  Each part is about an hour-long and includes a teacher's guide with questions about viewing and related activities, such as having the class compare and contrast the Puritans to the Wampanoag.  Here is the teacher's guide for the first episode.