Thanksgiving in March? Posted on March 25th, 2013 by

Yes, I realize that it is March and not November, but today our class will be investigating a holiday that is often celebrated, but not studied in elementary schools: Thanksgiving.

We’ll be using the QuIPs (Questions into Paragraphs) strategy to do research for a class book on Thanksgiving. During our research time, please consult at least one book and one online resource. You are welcome to search for resources yourself and/or check out some of the ones listed below

  • Debbie Reese’s American Indians in Children’s Literature blog is an excellent source of literature reviews and includes thoughtful posts on teaching about Thanksgiving.
  • The Plimoth Plantation website provides information about the historical site itself, along with a number of teacher resources and activities. I haven’t had a chance to try it out myself, but I would be interested in hearing anyone who tries the virtual fieldtrip or the “You be the historian” activities!
  • National Geographic Kids has an informative article, as well as games related to Thanksgiving content.
  • The History Channel site has a number of written content and video clips on topics ranging from “Thanksgiving Controversies” to the “Thanksgiving Parades”.  (The written content is written at a pretty high level, but would be good for your own research.)

If you find other resources that are helpful, share them in the comments!

 


3 Comments

  1. James Kluver says:

    QuIPs was also a new strategy to me. I saw how it was very organized in its set up and helped me to organize that research I was doing in order to complete the questions that I had designed for myself to answer during the research period. And while going through the whole process of I found out some interesting information, especially while utilizing the National Geographic website. One of the very surprising facts I discovered was that, contrary to popular belief, the Pilgriims did not wear all black with buckles on their hats and shoes but rather wore brighter colors.

  2. Jill Oxborough says:

    Like Sarah, I had never even heard of the QuIP research strategy before and after using it in class I really enjoyed it! It is definitely something that I want to implement into my own classroom someday. I also really liked how we even discussed addressing Thanksgiving accurately. I feel like there are a lot of misconceptions in the way I was taught history in elementary school and I like learning ways to teach these subjects in the honest way that they happened. Even though this can be controversial I think as teachers it is our right to teach students the truth because in my experience they are going to find out eventually!

  3. Sarah Martin says:

    Before this activity, I had never used or heard of the QuIPs research strategy before. After using it for this thanksgiving activity, I can see how this would be a great strategy to use for grades second grade and up. Using the QuIP format gets students to refer to multiple sources to answer their questions. If students come across sources that contradict each other, it is up to them to dig deeper and to see which source is credible and accurate. This format also gives students practice summarizing main ideas because they can only fit so much information into the tiny boxes that are provided on the worksheet. Lastly, you could teach students how to turn questions into topic sentences through a mini lesson using the QuIP format. I will have to remember this research strategy for future teaching both as a way to teach the researching process as well as provide a way for student to organize their findings.