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Thanksgiving

How do your students understand Thanksgiving? Where do their views on the holiday come from? In this lesson plan, students share what they've been taught about Thanksgiving, and then compare a set of very different modern viewpoints on the holiday. FIND OUT MORE »

Learning Resources

Explore what's known about early contact

Sarah Josepha Hale's Crusade for Thanksgiving

Screencap, Sarah Josepha Hale's Crusade for Thanksgiving

What was one woman's part in making Thanksgiving a national holiday? [...] »

Resources on Native American History

Negative, [Woman wearing native american clothing. . . ], 1923, LoC

When the resources readily available to you are just not comprehensive enough. [...] »

Mass Moments

Coast Guard plane landed at Children's beach, 1926

MA educators—explore a historical moment (and accompanying primary source [...] »

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Teaching Resources

Adopt strategies for analyzing the holiday

Confronting the "Official Story" of American History

Photo, George Washington, August 26, 2008, cliff1066tm, Flickr

Can students learn history through themes that don’t fit the usual approach to [...] »

A Larger Global or Interregional Story

Gelatin silver print, Grass seed plants being examined, 1960, Flickr Commons

Case studies grab attention, but how can you be sure you're also teaching the [...] »

What Really Happened? Comparing Stories of the First Thanksgiving

Postcard, Thanksgiving greetings, P. Sander, New York Public Library

Take a variety of perspectives into account before moving past the first [...] »

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Quizzes

Test your Thanksgiving knowledge!

Thanksgiving: Presidential Turkeys

Postcard, 1910, Ault & Wiborg Printing Ink Company

How many turkeys have presidents pardoned? [...] »

Thanksgiving Dinner in 1943

Postcard, Thanksgiving day, 1907, Raphael Tuck and Sons, NYPL

Rationing in the Land of Abundance: Choose the foods that would have been hard [...] »

Turkey Tracking

Magazine cover, Harper's Bazaar--Thanksgiving 1894, 1894, Louis Rhead, LoC

Thanksgiving—you know the mythology and history behind the Pilgrims' [...] »

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