As U.S. schools prepare to go on Thanksgiving break this week, it can be difficult to keep students engaged and learning amidst the excitement. The days leading up to break present a perfect opportunity to think about values such as gratitude, charity, friendship, and community. Below are a few ways to celebrate the holiday while improving literacy skills!

• Have students make an “I Am Thankful for…” book, where they write and illustrate what they are most thankful for. This encourages students to demonstrate gratitude while also strengthening their reading and writing skills. 
• Create your own Feed the Turkey game to help tone reading skills. Using an interactive game keeps students interested and constantly learning throughout.
• Construct felt depictions of traditional Thanksgiving characters, such as turkeys and vegetables. These can be used to retell fun Thanksgiving stories or to invent your own!
• See how many different words your child can build by rearranging the letters in Thanksgiving-themed words, such as “thankful,” “turkey,” and “pilgrim.”
• Play the Gobble Gobble Game. This is a fun, competitive way to practice the alphabet.
• Help students create Thanksgiving dinner menus. This will give them a chance to show off their writing skills to dinner guests!
• Challenge students to The New York Times’ Thanksgiving-themed crossword puzzle.
• Learn about the language and culture of the Wampanoag tribe.

For more ideas, check out our previous Thanksgiving-themed blog posts.

Samantha Stinchcomb is an intern at the International Literacy Association.