Thanksgiving Fun in Second Grade!

I am so lucky to have this entire week off! I truly needed the rest after a busy week learning about pilgrims with my sensational second graders! There are two second grade classrooms in my school (small, I know). My second graders studied the pilgrims and the other second grade classroom studied the Native Americans. I loved sharing a piece of American history with my kids. I'm all for correcting misconceptions and learning the facts about the origins of Thanksgiving.

We read several books about what it was like to live as a pilgrim in the 1620's. I made an anchor chart to document what we learned along the way, and students also recorded their learning on a graphic organizer I made for them. I was amazed at how detailed their notes were... they're so ready for these common core standards, hehe. 

After learning about the daily life of pilgrims, my second graders created a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast themselves to pilgrims. We used the Venn Diagram for a compare and contrast writing project.

And for the grand finale... my class and the other second grade class got together to showcase what we learned and to learn from one another! It was so much fun!