english

Thanksgiving, 4th Thursday in November

Overview

This is a self-paced "webquest" activity. It is an example of how to use the Internet to support learning on a cultural topic, using a fun and interactive approach. Work by yourself or with a friend or classmate. Choose sites that interest you from Webquest Choices below, and do the tasks. Note that there are some additional Educator Resource ideas at the end.

Webquest Choices

Virtual Tours | Fact-Finding | Quizzes | Web Tales | Word Games|Jokes | E-Cards | Compare-Contrast | Recipes

  • Virtual Tours
    Choose and do:Take a tour and learn something about homes, food, and customs for this holiday. What has changed since the 17th century? What seems to be the same?
    Plimoth Plantationhttp://www.plimoth.org/ in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
    The First Thanksgiving, from Scholastic.
  • Fact-Finding
    Choose and do:How many millions of turkeys do you think the US eats on this holiday? How many pounds of pumpkins? Check your guesses against the facts about these and other"typical" food and side dishes in this report. Information here may also help you with the following quizzes!
    Facts for Thanksgiving Dayhttp://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/005712.html, from the US Census.
  • Turkey Trivia Quizzes
    Choose and do:See how much you already know about this holiday with one or more of these quizzes.
    Quiz for Thanksgiving Day, from The Holiday Spot.
    Thanksgiving Trivia Test, from Thanksgiving Cheer.
    Turkey Trivia Quiz, from Aristotle.
  • Fill-in-the-blanks Web Tales
    Choose and do: Fill in the blanks with your favorite English words and you will have a funny story to read.
    Thanksgiving Dinnerhttp://www.sff.net/people/julia.west/rowan/madlib2.htm, a Mad Lib by Rowan West
    Wacky Web Tales: My Amazing Thanksgivinghttp://www.eduplace.com/tales/content/wwt_017.html, from Eduplace.
    Wild and Wacky, A Holiday Letterhttp://ngeo.com/ngkids/games/wildandwacky/wildandwacky_0312/wildandwacky_0312.html, from National Geographic (you can use "Thanksgiving" as the fill-in-the-blank holiday).
  • Word Games
    Choose and do: Try one or more of the puzzles and then check your answers.
    Seek-A-Word Thanksgiving Word Puzzle    , from Tcastle.
    Thanksgiving Meal Word Gamehttp://www.aitech.ac.jp/%7Eiteslj/quizzes/9704/af-sw-thanks.html and Crossword Puzzlehttp://www.aitech.ac.jp/%7Eiteslj/cw/1/af-thanks.html from Internet TESL Journal.
    Thanksgiving Puzzlehttp://www.puzzlemesilly.com/ff8.htm, from Puzzle Me Silly.
    Thanksgiving Day Crossword Puzzlehttp://sunniebunniezz.com/puzzles/thankcr.htm, from Sunnie BunnieZZ.
  • Jokes
    Choose and do:Pick a joke, and tell it to a friend. Did he or she laugh?
    Gobbler Groanershttp://www.saskschools.ca/%7Egregory/thanks/turkey.html, from Web Pages for Students, Saskatchewan, Canada.
    Thanksgiving Jokeshttp://www.quotesandjokes.com/thanksgiving-jokes.html, from Jokes and Quotes.
    Thanksgiving Riddles and Jokeshttp://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/thanks/games/jokes.html, from KidsDomain.
    Turkey Jokeshttp://www.chevroncars.com/wocc/lrn/artcl/artcl.jhtml?id=/content/Fun_and_Games/Jokes/a0432.xml, from Chevron cars.
  • Holiday E-Cards
    Choose and do: Choose one of these e-cards sites and send a Thanksgiving greeting to a friend, family member, or colleague.
    123 Greetings, Thanksgivinghttp://www.123greetings.com/events/thanksgiving/.
    Thanksgiving Ecardshttp://all4love.net/ecards/thanksgiving-ecards/.
    Thanksgiving Day Ecardshttp://www.thanksgiving-ecards.com/.
  • What's New? Compare and Contrast
    Choose and do: Look for differences in past and present, in places around the US, and in activities that people do to celebrate this holiday.
    CNN's "Oh, how that Thanksgiving spread has changed since 1621"http://cnn.com/EVENTS/1996/thanksgiving/food.history/ with article and pictures about Thanksgiving and its history.
    CNN-Interactivehttp://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/1996/thanksgiving/index.html with news stories, polls, pictures and more.
  • Recipes and Menu Makers
    Choose and do: There are lots of different ways to put a meal together. What are some of the "traditional" foods? What are some alternatives? Check out the recipe and menu sites below, and see which one(s) most appeal to your sense of taste.
    Celebrate with Epicurioushttp://www.epicurious.com/cooking/holiday/thanksgiving/.
    Thanksgiving Recipeshttp://thanksgiving.allrecipes.com/.
    A Thanksgiving Alternative to Turkeyhttp://allrecipes.com/advice/coll/all/articles/254P1.asp, for vegetarian guests from All Recipes.

Educator Resource Ideas

  • Teacher support sites have many materials for holidays and cultural occasions on the web. ThanksgivingTheme Unithttp://www.edhelper.com/Thanksgiving.htm, from EdHelper, is one such example. For more ideas, visit the OnlineEnglish Language Center (OELC), TeacherResourceshttp://oelp.uoregon.edu/teach.html site and select the web guide for Lesson Plans. You can run asearch on any of these lesson plans sites for Thanksgiving and other theme-basedteaching ideas.
  • Public media sites (television, newspapers, radio) also make interesting resources available freely through the Web. BBC Language Learninghttp://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/index.shtml, CNN Student Newshttp://www.cnn.com/EDUCATION/, Discovery Schoolhttp://school.discovery.com/, The New York Times Learning Networkhttp://www.nytimes.com/learning/, and PBS Teacher Sourcehttp://www.pbs.org/teachersource/, are just a few.
  • Web directories offer lists of sites for Thanksgiving, harvest festivals and holidays in other countries, and other topics. For kids and teens in particular, run your searches through youth-friendly resources such as DMOZ Kids and Teenshttp://dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/, Google Kids and Teenshttp://www.google.com/Top/Kids_and_Teens/, or Yahooliganshttp://yahooligans.yahoo.com/.