Colorful harvest corn representative of Thanksgiving with the title STEAM overlayed on top.

The First Thanksgiving: An Accurate History – Part 3 STEAM

The Appropriate Thanksgiving lesson STEAM resources for this lesson contain an art activity with read aloud, a hands-on beaded corn activity, and several engaging  learning activities designed to explore water, food, and plant and bird relatives living outside your door. Each activity has a two-page overview document. The activities are in no particular order. Just choose the ones that you find most interesting!

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Course Information

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State Standards: , , , ,

Course Instructor

Brenda Kilmurray Author

Brenda Kilmurray is a National Board Certified Teacher, currently certified in Arizona with 17 years’ experience in the classroom working with 3rd – 5th grade students.  Brenda was awarded Cochise County’s Arizona Rural Teacher of the Year (2017), The Air Force Association’s Cochise County STEM Teacher of the Year (2017), Sierra Vista Unified School District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year (2017), and The Arizona Educational Foundation’s Arizona Teacher of the Year Semi-Finalist (2018). Brenda brings her passion for the classroom and understanding of the Arizona Department of Education State Standards together to create engaging and developmentally appropriate lessons. These lessons incorporate differentiated reading, writing, and STEAM activities. The lessons featured here were reviewed and critiqued by content experts, including historians, archaeologists, other educators, many of whom are members of Indigenous communities. For a full list the advisors visit Our Contributor’s Page.

Special Thanks to Our Contributors

Amerind would like to thank Ms. Christina Faw Faw Goodson for reviewing this lesson. The comments, advice, and guidance of our contributors improved these educational materials significantly. We are truly grateful for their help. Any errors or oversights in these materials are solely the responsibility of Amerind.

Course Structure

This course is delivered in 4 parts.

  1. History – Includes all links and activities in the Orange column below.
  2. ELA Reading and Writing – Includes all links and activities in the Yellow and Green columns with the title ELA.
  3. STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) – Includes all links and activities in the blue column with the title S.T.E.A.M.
  4. Resources – This is a simple page with links for extended learning and study. These are found in the purple column labeled Resources.

The image below gives a quick view of the lessons and links that are found in each of the lessons. You can access this document here.

The First Thanksgiving – Curriculum Chart

History /Social Science Standard

Learning Objectives:

SP2.1 We will explain why individuals and groups during the same historical period differed in their perspectives.
H2.1 – We will describe the cycles of conflict and compromise that occurred in the Americas during the convergence of Europeans and Native Americans.
RI.3 – We will explain the relationships between two or more individuals in a historical text.
RI.9 – We will integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
W.2 – We will write an explanatory text to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

History ActivitiesELA 
Crosswalk		ELA
Activities		S.T.E.A.M.Digital
Resources
1) The First Thanksgiving: An Accurate History Lesson Digital Notebook
2) The First Thanksgiving: An Accurate History  
3) The First Thanksgiving: An Accurate History CLOZE notes		Reading Passages:
1) How Thanksgiving is Also a Day of Mourning
2) The Mayflower Myth
3) The Wampanoag and Plymouth Colonists’ First Harvest Feast
4) A Closer Look at Thanksgiving
5) Wampanoag People Save Pilgrims
6) Who were the Pilgrims?
7) Mayflower Compact
Writing Assignment:
The Truth of Thanksgiving Informative Writing
1) Thanksgiving Myth Versus Facts Venn Diagram
2) Harvest Ceremony, Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth
3) Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition
4) Corn Mother – Native American Legend (Read Aloud)
5) Rethinking Thanksgiving
6) We Are Grateful
7) In 1621, the Wampanoag Tribe Had Its Own Agenda
8) Reframing The First Encounter		1) Analyzing Art Activity
2) Beaded Corn STEM Activity
3) Native American Dolls
4) Native American Pottery Making Methods
5)  Indigenous STEAM Activities
6) How Corn’s Microbe Partners Have Changed Over Time		1)The Truth About Thanksgiving
2) We Are Still Here: Four hundred years of Wampanoag history
3) Mayflower Myths
4) Beyond the Bubble: Sourcing
5) Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard – Book Read Aloud
6) Thanksgiving Books to avoid
7) “Our” Story – 400 Years of Wampanoag History

Accessing the Course Content

This course is designed and presented with the goal that the material can be easily used by anyone. As a result, each lesson will present content in multiple ways to accommodate many different teaching styles and technology needs. For each lesson you will have the following options:

  • Website Content – The lessons/worksheets/videos will be available to view inside of the website. You can read and use the lesson from this site.
  • External Link – You will also have a link that directly links you to the resource (ie. Google Doc, Google Slide, YouTube Video)

* IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR GOOGLE DOCS AND SLIDES

If you go directly to a link to save a google document or slide, you must make a copy of the document and save it to your own account.