When we start to face down the home stretch to winter break, it’s time to pull out the Thanksgiving activities. Now that Halloween in past (whew!), it’s time to start thinking about Thanksgiving, because it is coming fast! But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with some freebies and some resources that will have your students saying Thank you!
And you can find all the products at the end of this post in either my TpT or Autism Classroom Resources store.
THANKSGIVING INTERACTIVE ADAPTED BOOKS
Let’s start with my favorite interactive books. My Thanksgiving books are some of my favorites, at least until I get to the post where I tell you about the winter holiday books! I like them because there are so many things we can teach in literacy and vocabulary, but you can learn things like cooking and outings and more. Let’s take a look.
What’s Included in Interactive Book Thanksgiving Activities
This set includes 5 interactive books that are appropriate for special education students addressing functional vocabulary skills. They include visuals for students to have and insert into the books as they are read. I also included choice board visuals to fit into the morning meeting starter kit book or story boards if you are using them.
Included Interactive Books
- Thanksgiving Dinner at Jamie’s—Illustrated book on nouns related to foods for Thanksgiving dinner
- The First Thanksgiving—Illustrated book focusing on nouns related to Pilgrims and Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving
- Thanksgiving Celebrations—Illustrated book on common activities of Thanksgiving Day focusing on common nouns (e.g., TV to watch the parade)How Did the Settlers Live?–Illustrated book focusing on comparing how settlers lived vs. present day. Great for compare/contrast and functions of common nouns.
- Thanksgiving Jobs—Illustrated book with verbs related to preparing Thanksgiving dinner
THANKSGIVING MENU MATH
Next up, let’s look at Thanksgiving Menu Math. Do you have students who need to learn how to go to a restaurant, read the menu, order and pay for it? Menu math is designed just for them. There are varying levels of restaurants and task cards. It focuses on Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, but it can be used at any time really.
You can read more about it and find IEP Goals that it would address in this post!
Oh, and as a plus, if you check it out in my TPT store and download the preview…there’s a FREE store and basic cards for FREE!! Yep, free!! Oh, and there’s a matching activity in that free download too–so don’t miss it!
Thanksgiving Morning Meeting
The newest addition to the Thanksgiving activities is the Thanksgiving Morning Meeting Add-On Kit. This add-on kit for preschool and elementary morning meetings or circle time provides supports for 4 Thanksgiving-themed songs/ rhymes (Floats in the Parade, The Turkey’s on the Table, The Turkey Pokey, and 5 Little Turkeys) you can use during morning meeting (or other group activities).
The visuals are designed to create opportunities for communication, choice making, counting, identifying names and/or pictures, comprehension, and meaningful participation. In addition it contains the visuals needed to add these activities to a choice board for students to choose which song to sing. There are also pictures for using switches for repetitive phrases in one song.
KINDNESS SOCIAL STORY
In addition to giving thanks, this is a good time of year to remember the importance of kindness and doing things for others. Well, really any time of the year should be a good time for that!
You can grab this free kindness social story and graphic organizers for making kindness resolutions. This helps make it concrete what students can do that is kind!
HELP YOUR STUDENTS SAY THANKS
Many times our students have a hard time participating in holidays with family and friends, like Thanksgiving. So a few years ago I wrote a post with some ideas of how to help students with disabilities express their gratitude at Thanksgiving. Everyone should be able to express gratitude they feel. Some just may need to do it in different ways.
And finally, do you do a Thanksgiving dinner in your room that your students cook? My Life Skills Mini Schedules might come in handy in that process. It’s got visuals for cooking, setting the table, cleaning up, and washing the dishes. Grab the Life Skills Schedules here.
Looking for Thanksgiving Activities?
So check them out and let me know on Facebook or Instagram how you celebrate Thanksgiving in your classroom!
