This is really the first year I included lessons on Thanksgiving prior to Thanksgiving day. The majority of what we do comes in day to day conversations. I’ve used books, pictures, activities, games, and videos to give J a visual image of the different aspects of Thanksgiving. You don’t have to do ALL of them, one book or one activity is enough to jump start many conversations throughout your day. In my experience, those conversations are where they learn the most. They are often asking questions and therefore paying close attention to the answers. It’s all really simple and easy to do.
Here are a few resources I used to help me introduce the history and purpose of Thanksgiving to J (at 2.5 yrs old). You might have seen most of these links on my Thanksgiving index post, but I wanted to highlight a few that have been helpful for us in teaching.
SCRIPTURE:
Thankfulness List – “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. —Psalm 9:1” You don’t have to WOW them with fancy crafts, the beauty of a toddler! I wrote the scripture on construction paper, we talked about it and then taped it up where near where he plays. There’s a cup of strips nearby to add new things as inspiration strikes him. My goal is to help him learn how to recognize things he’s thankful for all throughout the day and to thank God right then and there. This means we stop whatever we’re doing to add to the poster. It’s worth that tiny effort. I review the scripture each time and we say a quick thank you prayer for that particular “wonderful deed” God did (or allowed in J’s life).
SONG:
“If I Were a Butterfly” – This is an adorable song that kids love about being thankful for how God made us. I played this song for him (used just the audio from youtube since the pictures weren’t great IMO) and had pictures of the different animals up on the computer. I just copied the pictures real quick from google images. He could follow along with the song by pointing at the different animals. Now we sing it together all the time. Sometimes we pull the pictures out again and he can choose which animal to sing about next, sometimes he calls out a random animal and I make up a verse about it. We make it a fun game this way.
BOOK:
“Let’s Celebrate God’s Blessings On Thanksgiving” by Lise Caldwell – I loved how this book incorporates the history of Thanksgiving, applicable scripture and the modern day Thanksgiving our little one’s will experience. (I found it for $2 at our local Christian Bookstore)
“Celebrate Thanksgiving with Turkey, Family, and Counting Blessings” by Deborah Heiligman – I like to use non-fiction books as well as fiction, just to get J used to seeing both type of books. This is a book published by National Geographic that takes you from Pilgrims on the Mayflower to the Thanksgiving parade to pumpkin pie. I wouldn’t buy this book, but it’s a helpful library check-out this time of year.
VIDEOS:
“The Story of Thanksgiving Basically” – This is a cute cartoon video that tells the BASIC story (with some humor) and does a decent job connecting it to our lives today. It’s no more than 2 minutes long, so will easily keep the attention of young ones.
This is America, Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers – this video is longer than the first one I linked to, but does OK at telling the story in a way little ones can understand. (the link will bring you to part one of the story; here’s part two)
CRAFT:
Pilgrim, Pilgrim – This is a create your own coloring book about the pilgrims. It’s told in a similar fashion to Brown Bear, Brown Bear. I was surprised at how into coloring J was on this activity. We just added a few quick staples and were done, nothing flashy. We now have a good review book.
Crafty Canned Food Drive – I love this (scroll down to the bottom of that link to see the canned food “craft”). This is so simple, yet a great way to incorporate the lesson of WHY we give and be a witnessing tool as well. You can bring this back to the history of Thanksgiving by explaining how we can be a blessing by bringing food to others, just like the Native Americans blessed the Pilgrims.
GAME:
Thanksgiving through pictures – J loved this game and still asks to play a full week later. You can choose whichever Thanksgiving images you want to reinforce whichever aspect of Thanksgiving you want. I made both cards for the historical aspect of Thanksgiving as well as images of things J will actually see when the family gets together.
LEARNING:
Thanksgiving Worksheet Packet – These are printable worksheets that add Thanksgiving imagery to basic skills like letters, writing, colors, sorting, and counting. They are really well done. We won’t be doing all of the pages, but I’ve chosen a few that will challenge J.
This is the time of year when many organizations are collecting school supplies for those in need. Our church is one of the many. We read through our church bulletin together and I explained the need to J. He’s so excited about going to school with his backpack in hand and wanted other kids to have a backpack too. The bulletin announcement had a list of sugggested supplies. J and I used that list to create our own picture list on ppt. I read the item, typed it into clipart and J chose which picture to use. This made even list-making an activity he could participate in.
we got home I set out all the supplies for him to fill the backpack with and it now sits by the door, waiting to be brought to church. I plan on having J turn it in himself.
Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers 
