Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Surprise

What really happened at the first New England
feast? Was it duck or turkey on the plate? (Were

there any plates?) A historian shares some secrets.
Click the picture above to find out.

Gratitude: 20 Little Things to Treasure

Have students create a list of 20 little things to treasure about: _________. You can choose the topic. Here is an example using the fall season:

20 Little Things To Treasure in Autumn

1. Quiet dinners by the fire
2. Reading mystery novels in darkened rooms
3. Flannel sheets at the end of a long day
4. Candles Flickering
5. Smelling cinnamon, oranges & cloves
6. Pumpkins
7. Roasts, Potatoes & Carrots
8. Fluffy feather beds on a cold night
9. Watching movies snuggled in soft blankets
10. Cozy socks
11. Pie in the oven
12. Warm crackling wood stoves
13. Squash with buttered brown sugar
14. Chili and corn bread smothered in honey
15. Wind blowing through leaves
16. Glow of lamps through windows
17. Laughter filling a room
18. Scrabble and popcorn
19. Caramel apples
20. Family

Gratitude: Make a Thankful Tree or Pile of Leaves

Use this printable sheet and copy it onto fall colored paper. Have students create thankful leaves by writing directly on the leaves. You can choose to do this activity in a general way or have students focus on what they are thankful for from each other as we did with the bucket drops.
Additional leaf shapes can be found here:
Ash
Maple

Gratitude: Create a Journal

Students are often asked at this time of year to recall all for which they are thankful. It may involve one lesson or a week's worth of lessons and/or a culminating activity on the last day before the Thanksgiving holiday. Instead of making Thanksgiving break the stopping point for thankfulness, why not make it the starting point? Students can start a gratitude journal over Thanksgiving break and maintain it until winter break. This way, middle school students can truly see the many people, places, and things for which they should give thanks.

The premise is simple. Write the date and list 5 things that you are grateful for every day. This can be accomplished the "old fashioned way", or online or on your itouch or iphone!

Online, students can use this template to print or save in a word document.

You could also create a wiki for your advisor where they collectively add to an online gratitude journal.

itunes also has an app called Gratitude! Click the gratitude tab to see what it looks like.

Current Events: Student News Daily

Studentnewsdaily.com is an incredible current events website designed for middle school to high school students. They feature the following:

• Daily news article
• Daily best of the web
• Tuesday's news issue
• Wednesday's biased item
• Thursday's commentary
• Friday's news quiz
• World's quick takes
• Quote of the week
• Cartoon
  

Current World Events: Explore.org

If you want your students to get lost in the world, explore.org is the place to do it! Each section of the world has its own films in a documentary form with shorter films called "moments" that are great to use if you don't have the luxury of time to view the entire film in class.

There are also photos that are tagged into categories such as "culture". The photos are stunning and offer a great springboard for discussions as well as an incredible source for writing prompts.

Included are interviews with people that are making a difference in that part of the world. These interviews will encourage discussion about what the challenges are in trying to make a difference.

Another great feature is the question of the month. This month's question is: What is the key to a happy life?

This site has it all...high interest video, beautiful photography, and connections to people. Students will love to explore explore.org! Teachers will love to use this educational site as a guide to exploring the world with their students!