Thanksgiving lesson

Because I'm going to be out of town next week, I went ahead and did a lesson on Thanksgiving tonight. I think their favorite part was the pumpkin bread that I took, but I'm not above bribing students with pumpkin bread. :)

1. Vocabulary introduction with the spelling game: pilgrims, Indians, crops, to die/died, to bless/blessed, plenty, winter, thanksgiving, feast, to provide/providing
2. I read a story about Thanksgiving to the class, allowing them to listen and see what they could understand:

The pilgrims had a hard first year in America. The crops did not grow well, and many people died. During the second year, God blessed the crops. The Indians that lived in the area helped the pilgrims with the crops. There were fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat. They had plenty of food to save for the winter. In 1621, the pilgrims and Indians met together for a feast. They thanked God for providing for them.

3. After reading through once, I read through again and had the students take turns translating, line by line.
4. I gave each team/group a fill-in-the-blank copy of the story to work on together. After they completed their stories, we read it aloud, checking their answers and practicing pronunciation.
5. I passed out pumpkin bread to the students to snack on while I talked about different Thanksgiving traditions. In keeping with a tradition my family has, we went around the room and listed things we were thankful for.
6. I took a moment to talk about many things in my life that I'm thankful for, sharing my story.
7. We then discussed our verse for the week: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will remember all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1
8. We read in English, translated, discussed meaning, and re-read several times.

I am thankful for my wonderful ESL students!