“Thanksgiving: Fact or Fiction?”

Image Credit: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/97/96797-004-66B24CFA.jpg

Grade Level: Third

Time Frame: 45 minutes 

Broad Goals:

Students will compare the similarities and differences between the first harvest meal and the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate today. .

Students will know the types of food that were served at the first harvest meal in 1621.

Students will distinguish what a primary source is.

Students will formulate the main purpose of a primary source document.

Students will be sensitive to the ways historical stories are told in ways that are only partly true

Social Studies Goals:

State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States, and other nations.

Learning Standard A: Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.

Benchmark 16.B.1a: Identify key individuals and events in the development of local community (e.g. Founders days, names of parks, streets, public buildings). 

State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, the United States, and other nations.

Learning Standard A: Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.

Benchmark 16.B.1b: Explain why individuals, groups, issues, and events are celebrated with local, state or national holidays or days of recognition (e.g. Lincoln’s birthday, Martin Luther King’s birthday. Pulaski Day, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving). 

NCSS Standard II- Time, Continuity, and Change

Early Grades D-  Identify and use various sources for constructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others.

Lesson Objective:

During the lesson the students will be able to:

v  Track what they know, want to know, and have learned by completing a KWL chart about Thanksgiving. 

v  Identify the differences between the first Harvest Festival and the current Thanksgiving holiday by listing what one associates with Thanksgiving today.

v  Identify the misconceptions of the first Harvest Festival by matching pictures to their common misconception.

v  Define a primary source by distinguishing between primary sources, secondary sources, etc.

v  Comprehend the message of a primary source by summarizing the main idea of Edward Walton’s letter to a friend in England.

Materials:

v  Thanksgiving Powerpoint

v  ABC Chart

v  KWL Chart

v  Thanksgiving food worksheet

v  Copy of Edward Walton’s letter to England

v  Bag/Box

v  Stuffed turkey/cornucopia/pumpkin pie etc.

v  White board

v  Dry erase markers

v  Reward feathers 

Resources:

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving. New York: Aladdin, 2005. Print.

Armstrong, E. (n.d.). The first Thanksgiving | csmonitor.com. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1127/p13s02-lign.html

Hines, Gary. Thanksgiving in the White House. New York: Henry Holt And Co. (Byr), 2003. Print.

Kamma, Anne. If You Were At The First Thanksgiving (If You.). New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 2001. Print.

Mcgovern, Ann. Pilgrim's First Thanksgiving. New York: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1993. Print.

Reed, K. (2007, October 25). The Original Thanksgiving Day: The Surprising First Thanksgiving Menu- No Turkey, No Pumpkin Pie? | Suite101.com. Retrieved October 13, 2009, from http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_first_thanksgiving_day

R. R. (2004, November 9). History of the First Thanksgiving -- The Wild Turkey Zone. Retrieved October 14, 2009, from http://www.wildturkeyzone.com/articles/thanksgivinghistory.htm

Thanksgiving. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2009, from  http://www.plimoth.org/kids/homeworkHelp/thanksgiving.php

Focusing Activity:

“I have a bag here and there is something special that deals with our lesson today in here. You will have to think very hard about what is in this bag. In order to learn the contents of the bag, you can ask me questions about the object in the bag, but they have to be “yes” or “no” questions only. You may ask your questions now. (Is it bigger than my folder? Is it an animal? Is it brown?).  Our object is a cornucopia. This object has to do with our lesson today. Beside Halloween, which holiday is coming up next? (Thanksgiving.) Thanksgiving is the next holiday. Where was the first Thanksgiving located? (Illinois.) Good try, but the first Thanksgiving was located right in our very own National Park, Plimoth Plantation! In fact, the Wampanoag people and the English colonists were the first people to celebrate this feast. Thanksgiving was not actually made into a holiday until a woman named Sarah Hale wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, asking him to make Thanksgiving a holiday. In 1863, he did just that!

Purpose & Importance of Lesson:

“Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving. Many people believe that this first Thanksgiving was the feast mentioned before, but that belief is incorrect. The feast that took place is in fact different in many ways  from the Thanksgiving we celebrate today. With all these misconceptions, we must know the differences between the meal on what is today Plimoth Plantation and the Thanksgiving we celebrate today.”

Content Knowledge:

“Can anyone think of some food, animals, objects, people and customs we associate with Thanksgiving today? (Turkey, Indians, Pilgrims, cornucopia, pumpkins, pie, friendship, fall, every year)

Very good! These things are all things we think of when talking about the Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate each year. This does not mean that these were all present at the first harvest feast that happened at Plimoth Plantation in 1621.

We are going to complete a chart that identifies:

v  What we know about the first Thanksgiving

v  What we want to know about the first Thanksgiving

v  What we learned about the first Thanksgiving.

We’re going to use a KWL chart. Why don’t we start with something we know about Thanksgiving. (It happened in November, they ate turkey, the Pilgrims and Indians were there.) Great ideas! Now let’s think of what we want to know about the first Thanksgiving. (Why did they have the first Thanksgiving? Who went to the Thanksgiving dinner? Why did they have the Thanksgiving dinner? Was it to give thanks? If it was to give thanks, why were the Native people and the English colonists giving thanks? How long did the feast last?) Awesome questions, boys and girls! We will fill out the learned part after we have learned the answers to our questions. For now, put the KWL chart back into your folders.

Now, Miss Milen and I have prepared an interactive learning center for us to learn about the facts and fiction of Thanksgiving. What does fiction mean again? (Not real.) Yes, fiction means that its made up and it’s the opposite of fact.

We need to be aware that not all the things we know about Thanksgiving are all true. In order to find out what is a “fact” and what is a “myth” about Thanksgiving we’re going to look at our category “Fact or Myth.” Can anyone think of what a myth is? (A myth is a made up story.) That is exactly right, a myth, in this case, means that it is an invented piece of information. Let’s click on our category.   

Here we have three sentences and we are going to think really hard about which sentence is a fact. Can I have a volunteer to read the first sentence? (The 1621 celebration lasted three days.) Can I have a volunteer to read the second sentence? (More English colonists took part in the harvest celebration than Wampanoag people). Can I have one more volunteer to read the last one? (The Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate today originated from the 1621 harvest celebration.) Thank you very much for reading those so wonderfully.

Let’s think about each of these carefully and we can choose which sentence we think is the fact.

Does anyone have an idea as to which sentence is the fact?

Responses for each answer:

v  The 1621 celebration lasted three days- This is a fact! The celebration lasted three days and the attendees did more than just eat. They also shot muskets, a type of gun, and played games.

v  More English colonists took part in the harvest celebration than Wampanoag people- This is a myth. In fact, there were almost forty more Wampanoag people. There were 53 Pilgrim men, women, and children. There were more than 90 Wampanoag men. Women and children were not at the harvest festival.

v  The Thanksgiving holiday we celebrate today originated from the 1621 harvest celebration- This is a myth. The Wampanoag celebrated more than six thanksgiving feasts a year, including the harvest festival. The Thanksgiving we celebrate is very different from the 1621 meal. This specific feast and celebration last three days. The 1621 harvest meal between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims did not become an annual event. Also the food was very different.

Now that we know a little more about the harvest feast of 1621 can explain why these pictures are inaccurate?

Before we discuss what is wrong with the pictures here. We are going to look at pictures that we associate today with Thanksgiving and match the sentence/s that go along with the pictures.

Alright, let’s look at our pictures. First look at the picture of the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims bringing food to one another. This picture suggests that the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims were great friends at the time of the harvest meal. This is inaccurate, or not correct. Though the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag were polite with one another, they did not enjoy a friendship until after the harvest festival.

This three day celebration brought the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims closer.

Next, let’s look at the calendar of November. It is believed that the harvest festival took place in

October because this was during harvest season. Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving in November, which is not accurate.

Let’s look at the picture of the turkey and cranberry sauce. Neither of these dishes were actually at the 1621 harvest feast. We eat the turkey and cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving because it has become a tradition.

Lastly, look at the picture of the festival itself. This portrayal is inaccurate because there were actually more Wampanoag than Pilgrims at the harvest festival.

Why do you think these ideas of Thanksgiving exist today? (People got the story wrong before and continued telling it the wrong way.) Often, past events are told wrong and people continue to tell the stories wrong and they are never corrected. History and the past are not the same thing. The difference between “the past”  and “history” must be known in order to get the correct information.

The past is what actually happened and it never changes. In order to know what happened at an event, we must have information from someone or something actually at the event. We can find out about the past through first-person accounts, photographs, and interviews with people at the event.

History, on the other hand, is how we think and how we write about the past. We can find history in our text books and news stories. The past will never change, but how we think will always change and has already changed quite a bit.

Historians are people whose work is to keep our stories of the past as correct as possible. A lot of history is made up of stories which are told well from experts who are experts. They put the facts together as carefully as they can.

Now that we have identified the facts about the first harvest festival, we can begin to uncover how we know about the details of the event. Evidence is important when proving how, when, and where an event occurred.  Let’s look at these four things and identify what they have in common. Can anyone think of what these four things might have in common? (They are all part of history.) Very good, these are indeed all part of history, but more importantly they are all primary sources.

A primary source is an original fundamental and authoritative document pertaining to an event or subject of inquiry; a firsthand or eyewitness account of an event. Some examples would be a photograph, oral history, or a first person account of an event.

Would a fictional story be a primary source? (Yes.) What does fiction mean again? (Made up). So, therefore a fictional story would not be a primary source because it is not based on fact and does not come from someone who experience the event.

Response Activity:

Sticking with primary sources, we are going to look at the only primary source available about the 1621 harvest festival. Please take out your letter from your folder. Can someone please read the top of the page for us? What is this paper? (Edward Winslow’s letter to a friend about the first harvest festival.) Very good, Edward Winslow, a Pilgrim, wrote this letter to a friend back in England about the 1621 harvest festival. We are going to read through this letter silently and when you are done look up.

Read carefully! (Students read letter and look up).

What is the main idea in this letter? (It tells about everything that happened at the first harvest festival.) Very good and what did happen at the first harvest festival according to Edward Winslow? (They killed fowl, the Wampanoag brought five deer, and the festival lasted three days.)

Why is this document important to us today? (Because its old and tells what happened.) Right, this document is one of the only accounts of the harvest festival. This letter reveals most of what we know about the 1621 feast and activites.

Students will complete the Food at the First Harvest Festival

Now that we know a little more about the Thanksgiving we celebrate today, let’s finish our KWL charts.

We did learn some new words today that we can add to our ABC chart as well. Students will then add to their ABC chart.

Modeling:

The KWL chart will have some questions written down and the KNOW column will be completed with what we know about Thanksgiving.

The white board will provide students with an idea of how to organize their information as well as how to spell certain words.

The ABC chart will also have some words on it from previous lessons and the students will have an opportunity to look at the teacher’s copy of the ABC chart.

The food worksheet will also be completed by the teacher at the time the students work on the worksheet. 

Conclusion:

“Today we learned a lot about what we thought to be the original Thanksgiving. This was a lot of information, but it is very important that we learn about the history of events as well as the accuracy of the holidays we celebrate today. Now you can share all the information you learned with your families as you celebrate Thanksgiving this year!”

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