Literacy and Language Development Activities During the Week of Thanksgiving

It's that time of the year again when teachers can make a really great connection to students' home lives--Thanksgiving! I know that many might be on vacation during the week of Thanksgiving, but those who are not have the opportunity to make connections with their students and build literacy through the study of the theme of Thanksgiving. Teachers can try the following activities with their students in order to build literacy and language development:

1. Write a letter about what students are thankful for in their lives. Teachers should provide a model for students at the lower levels of ELD English proficiency. Teachers can also teach mini-lessons about letter writing, capitalization, punctuation, compound sentences and many other language objectives when teaching about letter writing. Make every second count! Just because students are having with holiday activities doesn't mean that literacy and language objectives shouldn't be taught!
2. Read aloud books about Thanksgiving to students. The local library or local bookstores will have tons of books about Thanksgiving. Read both nonfiction and fiction books about the holiday. Take the time to teach concepts of print, comprehension strategies and other mini-lessons about reading.
   
3. Ask students to orally share with their partners how they celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in their home. Guide students (by showing a model) of how to write a paragraph about how they celebrate Thanksgiving in their home. Compile all of the paragraphs into a class book.
4. Chant and read songs, poems, and chants about Thanksgiving and related themes such as turkeys, pumpkins, and autumn. English learners will benefit from the oral language development and reading. In addition, teachers can teach English language development (ELD) mini-lessons about vocabulary, pronunciation, phonics, high frequency words, and many other literacy topics. Teachers can find poems on the Can Teach website, the Alphabet Soup website, the Apples4Teacher website, and many other websites.

Have fun and develop literacy!