Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Last time, we talked about learning the story of the first Thanksgiving from the Pilgrims themselves. Today, we’ll take a turn on the literary side of Thanksgiving.

Your children will delight in stories about Thanksgiving from famous American authors. Louisa May Alcott tells a charming story in “An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving.” Or, read aloud Laura Ingalls Wilder’s account of a pioneer Thanksgiving, On the Banks of Plum Creek. Older readers may enjoy the New England flavor of Washington Irving’s tales of colonial America. And there are lots of Thanksgiving and harvest-themed picture books for younger readers—just visit your library!

But your Thanksgiving English unit wouldn’t be complete without some of the great poems of the season. Edgar Guest, John Greenleaf Whittier, James Whitcomb Riley, and many other famous American poets have celebrated this season in memorable verse. Your students may enjoy memorizing a poem to recite for the whole family over Thanksgiving dinner!

And after you read together, make time for writing. This would be a great time to assign a creative writing project. Have the family story-teller pen some historical fiction, or let your budding poet add her own verse to the canon of Thanksgiving poetry! If creative writing is not your student’s cup of tea, a short research paper could still add to his appreciation of the holiday.

On our next program, we’ll take Thanksgiving outdoors! And until then, I’m Mike Smith.