actitity | ELT inspired

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach our students about being thankful!

Here are some ideas on how I teach my students about how to appreciate the blessings in their lives.

GIVING THANKS POSTER for my 3rd graders.

The poster collage

My little ones can’t read or write much yet, so I ask them to draw, or use photos of all the things they are thankful for.We make a “Blessings” theme…They add photos of their loved ones, pages or drawings of their favourite foods, and all the things that make them happy.Any time they feel down, I ask them to have a look at our posters wall and and see all the reasons they have, to be happy- and thankful!
We name all the things on their posters in english!

GIVING THANKS COLLAGE for my 4th graders

The goal of this craft, is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things my students are thankful for.They are asked to draw pictures or cut photos from magazines or even print photos from their computers! They write captions under their photos or drawings and talk to the class about them.It’s important , to braistorm ideas and have a class discussion about Thanksgiving, before they do the task above!

I keep their collage up on the wall, till the end of the school year! They love looking at them from time to time.

THANKFUL WREATH

Another way to remind my students of their blessing is the Thankful Wreath. It is similar to the Thanksgiving tree idea below and is used with my 5th graders.

I give them a leaves template and ask them to write the things they are thankful for and share them with the class, justifying their opinions.

We talk about Thaksgiving and how important it is to appreciate what we have and take nothing for granted, before we make the wreath.

Another idea that works really well, is to get each child to trace their hand on yellow, red or brown construction paper and write what they are thankful for on the hand shape.

THANKSGIVING TREE

This is ideal for my 6th graders. We start by talking about how Thanksgiving bacame a holiday and the first Thanksgiving!
Later, they cut out the leaves shapes and write their blessings on them!They add their leaves above the tree trunk, turning it into a beautiful Fall colored tree!