KUTZTOWN UNIVERSITY

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

PROFESSIONAL SEMESTER PROGRAM
LESSON PLAN FORMAT

Teacher Candidate: _______________Julie Chiodo__________________________ Date: _____11/17/2016_____

Cooperating Teacher: ________Mary McGinley___________________________ Coop. Initials: ______ _____
Group Size: _________23_________ Allotted Time: ______40 minutes_______ Grade Level: _Kindergarten_
Subject or Topic: _______________Thanksgiving____________________________ Section: ________934__________

Thanksgiving

Standards(s)
PA Common Core
Speaking and Listening: CC.1.5.K.B Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or
information presented orally or through other media.
Reading Literature: CC.1.3.K.B Answer questions about key details in a text.

C3 Framework
D2.His.2.K-2. Compare life in the past to life today.

NCSS Theme(s)
Theme #2 Time, Continuity, and Change: After activating our prior background knowledge about how we
celebrate during Thanksgiving, the students will learn about the events that took place during the first
Thanksgiving. The students will use role play to pretend to be the Pilgrims and Native Americans as they
act out the first Thanksgiving in 1621 as well as the events leading up to it. As a class we will review key
vocabulary terms so that the students will be able to use them appropriately

I. Performance Objectives
The students will be able to compare and contrast the first Thanksgiving to how we celebrate Thanksgiving
today.
The students will be able to put the events that led up to the first Thanksgiving in order.
The students will be able to

II. Assessment/Evaluation plan

A. Formative:
1. Using a checklist to see that the students are able to identify the similarities and differences
between the first Thanksgiving and how we celebrate Thanksgiving today.
2. Seeing that the students are able to correctly sequence the events leading up to the first
Thanksgiving
3. Students were able to use books as sources to learn new things about Thanksgiving.
B. Summative: There is no summative assessment until the unit test.

III. Instructional Materials

A. Teacher Materials
1. Thanksgiving books
2. Expo marker
3. Thanksgiving vocabulary worksheet
B. Student Materials
1. Crayons
2. Scissors
3. Glue

IV. Subject Matter/ Content

A. Prerequisite skills: None
B. Key vocabulary
1. Native American- The group of people that were already living in America, sometimes called
"Indians"
 2. Pilgrim- The group of people that came over from England in search of freedom of religion
3. Mayflower- The boat that the Pilgrims sailed to America in
4. Plymouth Rock- The place in Massachusetts where the Pilgrims sailed to
5. Cornucopia- A symbol of "plenty" that is a container in the shape of a horn that is filled with
fruits, vegetables, flowers.
C. Big idea
1. Compelling Question: How was the first Thanksgiving similar and different to how we celebrate
Thanksgiving today?
2. Supporting questions
a. What food did the Pilgrims and Native Americans eat? What food do we eat?
b. What are some traditions that we have on Thanksgiving today?
D. Content
1. Watching a brainpop video to give a brief background of when the Pilgrims came to America,
their original hardships, and the first Thanksgiving.
2. The students role play as Pilgrims and Native Americans to reenact the events that took place in
1621.
3. Compare and contrast the first Thanksgiving to how we celebrate our Thanksgiving today.
4. Color, cut, and glue print out pictures to show the sequence of the events that lead to the first
Thanksgiving.

V. Implementation

A. Introduction
D1.1.K-2. Explain why the compelling question is important to the student.
1. Remind the students that we are now in the month of November and have an important holiday
coming up next week.
2. Ask the students what holiday we will be celebrating next Thursday.
a. Call on volunteers to answer.
3. Explain that in exactly one week, we will have off from school to spend time with our families,
eat a lot of food, and give thanks for what we have.
4. Ask the students to use the think, pair, share method to talk about what they know about
Thanksgiving with a partner.
a. Have volunteers share their answers, verifying any true statements and clarifying and
false statements.
5. Tell the students that we celebrate Thanksgiving just as the Pilgrims and Native Americans did
in 1621.
6. Explain that the brainpop jr. video (https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/holidays/thanksgiving/)
will briefly describe what events lead up to the first Thanksgiving.
a. Play the entire video.
b. After the video is over, review key vocabulary words that were mentioned in the video
(Pilgrims, Native Americans, Mayflower, Plymouth Rock, cornucopia).
7. After the video is over, ask the students what two groups of people celebrated the first
Thanksgiving together.
a. Call on volunteers to answer
8. Explain that there were many similarities and differences between the first Thanksgiving and
how we celebrate Thanksgiving today.
9. Tell the students that these similarities and differences are extremely important to us because it
shows where our traditions came from and how we made it our own.

B. Development
D2.His.2.K-2. Compare life in the past to life today.
D3.1.K-2. Gather relevant information from one or two sources while using the origin and structure to
guide the selection.
1. Ask the students to name some family traditions that they have on Thanksgiving
a. If the students are struggling, remind them about the food they eat, watching football,
etc.
2. Explain to the students that we will be looking at books to help us find things that are the same
and different from the first Thanksgiving in 1621 to our Thanksgiving.
a. Distribute one book to every 2 students to look together.
3. Give the students 5 minutes to look through the books and find similarities and differences.
a. Walk around the classroom and make sure that the students are not struggling and are
 able to make connections.
4. Draw a Venn diagram on the board with First Thanksgiving on the left side, Both in the
middle, and Now on the right side.
a. Explain to the class that the things that they learned that the Pilgrims and Native
Americans did at the first Thanksgiving on the left side, the things that we do today on
Thanksgiving on the right side, and the things that we both do go in the middle.
5. Ask the students to share some things the discovered about the first Thanksgiving that we can
put on the right side of our Venn diagram.
a. Call on volunteers to share answers.
b. If an answer is one that could go in the both section of the Venn diagram, help the
students understand why it wouldnt be on just the First Thanksgiving side.
6. Next, ask the students to share some things that we do on Thanksgiving day that we can put on
the left side of our Venn diagram.
a. Call on volunteers to share answers.
b. If an answer is one that could go in the both section of the Venn diagram, help the
students understand why it wouldnt be on just the First Thanksgiving side.
7. Ask the students why they think the first Thanksgiving was fairly different compared to our
Thanksgiving today.
a. Call on volunteers to share.
8. Explain to the students that our traditions are somewhat different today compared to the first
Thanksgiving because in 1621 the Pilgrims and Native Americans do not have the same resources
(electricity, ovens, lights, etc.) that we have today
9. Read all of the statements on the Venn diagram to the students. Ask the students to think, pair,
share with their neighbor to talk about which traditions they like better and why.
a. Call on volunteers to share their responses.
10. Remind students that the differences are what makes our own celebrations of Thanksgiving so
unique compared to 1621.

C. Closure
D4.2.K-2. Construct explanation using correct sequence and relevant information.
1. As a review, ask the students what happened that allowed the Pilgrims and Native Americans to
have the first Thanksgiving.
a. Call on volunteers to share one event.
b. If students are having trouble remembering what happened, remind them that the
Pilgrims sailed over on the Mayflower looking for a place where they were able to
practice the religion that they wanted.
2. Hold up the cornucopia review sheet and ask the students what shape is on the paper.
a. Call on a volunteer to say a cornucopia.
3.Hold up the four pictures of Pilgrims and Native Americans and explain that there are four
events taking place that we need to put in order.
4. Distribute the paper and talk about what is happening in each of the pictures.
5. After reviewing what is going on, ask the students what event came first.
a. Call on volunteer to say that first, the Pilgrims said to Plymouth Rock on the
Mayflower.
6. Point to the picture of the Pilgrims on the boat and instruct the students to draw a number 1 next
to the picture.
7. Continue this process until the students have put the events in sequential order.
8. Once the students know the order of events, have the color the pictures, cut them out, and glue
them in the corresponding areas on the cornucopia.
9. Give the students 5 minutes to finish the activity and then turn it in to be graded.
10. Remind students that Thanksgiving is only one week away and as we celebrate our holiday, we
can think about the similarities and differences between how the Pilgrims and Native Americans
celebrated the first Thanksgiving in comparison to how we are celebrating.

D. Accommodations / Differentiation
1. Students that have glasses may sit near the front so that they are able to see the visuals in the
brainpop jr. video.
2. When distributing the books as resources, give simple books with clearly detailed pictures to the
lower level students and more challenging books to students that generally at or above grade level.

VI. Reflective Response

 Goals for the lesson
To teach the students about the events that led up to the first Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims
and Native Americans in 1621.
That all students will have a deeper understanding of why exactly we continue to celebrate the
important holiday of Thanksgiving.

A. Report of Students Performance in Terms of States Objectives

Of the 23 students in the class, 21 students received 6/6 (100%) and two students received 5/6
(83%). Therefore, the overall class average was 95% on the assessment. Since no students scored
"below basic" on the assessment, there was no remediation plan implemented after the lesson was
taught.

B. Personal Reflection
1. Were the students able to distinguish the similarities and differences between what
Thanksgiving was like in 1621 versus today?
After reading books about Thanksgiving, watching a brainpop jr. video, and putting
events leading up to Thanksgiving In sequential order as a class, the students were able to
distinguish the similarities and differences between what Thanksgiving was like in 1621
versus today. As a class we made a Venn diagram and listed the similarities and
differences together. During the lesson, I asked questions such as "where did the Pilgrims
and Native Americans get their Thanksgiving food from? Where do we get our
Thanksgiving food from?" and other questions such as these to spark conversations. After
we made the Venn diagram we talked about what was the same and what was different
between the two and why.

2. If I could teach the lesson again, what would I do differently?

If I could teach the lesson again I would try to incorporate another technology aspect.
Although there we did watch a short video, I think that the students would have found the
lesson more interesting if they could have done something on their iPads. Since
technology is such an important component to this school (since each student was given
their own iPad at the beginning of the year), I think that the students would have loved if
they could have done an activity on it.

VI. Resources
A. Brain Pop Jr. Video
1. https://jr.brainpop.com/socialstudies/holidays/thanksgiving/

Appendix
(include supplementary materials here such as teacher created student handouts, teacher-created PowerPoint, rubric,
graphic organizer, etc.)

Proficient (2 Basic (1 Below Basic

points) point) (0 points)
The student was able The student was able
The student was
to correctly place all 4 to correctly place 2 of
unable to correctly
of the pictures shown the pictures shown in
place any of the
in the sequence. the correct sequence.
pictures shown in the
correct sequence.
The student actively The student The student did not
participated during the participated during the participate at all during
discussion of the first discussion of the first the discussion of the
 Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. first Thanksgiving
The student carefully The student adequately The student was
colored, cut, and glued colored, cut, and glued sloppy while coloring,
the pictures on the the pictures on the cutting, and gluing the
cornucopia worksheet. cornucopia worksheet. pictures on the
cornucopia worksheet.

Student Score on worksheet

name activity (out of 6
Comments
points)
Arianna 6/6 Correct sequence of events. Colored, cut, and
glued nicely.

Bentley 6/6
Olivia 6/6
Ashton 6/6 Correct sequence of events. Colored, cut, and
glued nicely.

Gino 6/6 Correct sequence of events. Colored, cut, and

glued nicely.

Nyajah 6/6
Genesis 6/6 Took time coloring picture and putting events
in order.

Azaleah 5/6 Needed some assistance placing the pictures

in the correct sequential order.

Ella 6/6
Evan 6/6 Picture colored beautifully!

Genessa 6/6
Silas 6/6 Easily able to put the events in sequential
order. Knew the most background information
about Thanksgiving of anyone in the class.

Isolde 6/6
William 6/6
Zachary 6/6 Correct sequence of events. Colored, cut, and
glued nicely.

Delilah 6/6
Jerome 6/6 Easily able to put the events in sequential
order.

Naszere 6/6
Savannah 6/6
Carter 5/6 Needed some assistance placing the pictures
in the correct sequential order.

Richard 6/6
Nevaeh 6/6
Irwinsito 6/6
1 2
3 4