How To Create A Homeschool Lesson Plan

This post might contain referral links which means if you click and buy through my website, I might receive payment. That would kinda be great because that's how I help support my fam! #momshelpingmoms #highfive

Need an easy Thanksgiving homeschool lesson plan so you can get to planning all the other Thanksgiving festivities? This is just for us slackers…

As always, many of these sources are free and some can be found at your local library. Many are also available through Amazon Prime, which has been WELL worth it for us. You can try it for free for 30 days here! If your family loves audiobooks, you might love Audible – try it free for 30 days!

Slackers need things nice and easy, right? So, friend, if you are looking a homeschool lesson plan that you can basically just watch, listen, read, etc. WITH your kids instead of pulling it allllll together and teaching – this is for you.

Pick one or pick a few, this is an easy homeschool lesson plan for slackers…

Easy Thanksgiving Homeschool Lesson Plan

For Slackers

Videos

Now, you know I have to list A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving… It's an Amazon video. It's not free, but it's a timeless classic that nearly everyone loves and is totally worthy of a slacker's Thanksgiving homeschool lesson plan.

We're big fans of the Dear America historical fiction book series, so when I saw that they had 2 seasons of episodes for $1.99 each, I added it to our watchlist tout de suite, sister! Episode 2 of season 1 isA Journey to the New World. A perfect fit for a Thanksgiving lesson!

So, as always, the History.com gives a short but gives a good introduction of the original Thanksgiving and how it's changed over the years.

I also love this little video! Some surprising facts about our very American holiday!

This is an even shorter video from National Geographic. The truth is that very few resources touch on how grievous were the years surrounding the Mayflower landing, for both the natives and the Pilgrims. This is an opportunity for us to discuss some of these harsh realities with our children.

Books

We have enjoyed the Berenstain Bears, Little Critter and other fun books about fall and Thanksgiving with our little ones. I really love how Liz Curtis Higgs weaves the Gospel into her sweet fall-themed story, The Pumpkin Patch Parable.

Dear American: Journey to the New World has a wonderfully-descriptive fiction account of what happened at Plimoth and the first Thanksgiving. I often have the older kids read books from this series aloud. These books are so fascinating they will read and listen for hours while I scramble to pull together plans and food.

I was enormously excited to see this little classical book for our deep thinkers. "Excerpt from Thanksgiving: Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse" Doesn't that sound lovely?

All in one resource

We love Scholastic. They have totally opened our world up to living history and that's been huge.

The First Thanksgiving is a fantastically interactive site largely based on Plimoth Plantation.

There is an entire lesson plan right here with the videos, timeline, reproducibles, and games…

Free printables

I am thankful for bloggers and creators who share easily accessible pages that I can just print off to go with my easy Thanksgiving homeschool lesson plan!

Most of these are quick fixes that don't involve subscribing.

In the all-in-one Scholastic resource (listed above, as well) is what I would use for the historical printables and activities.

We love mad libs! Such a fun way to learn parts of speech. You can download this non-historical Thanksgiving mad lib from My Sister's Suitcase. If you want to save this for later, save it here.

This cute free printable can be used as an easy coloring activity sheet for littles or as a placemat as part of the Thanksgiving or fall kit. I have this pinned in my Thanksgiving section.

This is one of the two cute Thanksgiving coloring pages offered by Hope Ink. Just print and go. (Pin it, below.)

The Time Warp Wife shared this free coloring page to go along with her Exodus Bible study. All good stuff!

So, there it is, friend – mix and match to customize a lesson for your family this Thanksgiving!

Mama to Mama Encouragement

I start with videos because they are the easiest way to go, with no prep and very little teacher involvement other than listening in. We then work our way down the list to books and activities if we have the time (or energy.)

Realistically, sometimes because I am making mad dashes to the grocery store, up to my elbows mixing stuffing bread (family secret – can't tell – don't ask!) or planning a fab outdoor Thanksgiving dinner, we don't always get much past the videos.

I am going to say this with all due respect to teaching and history: That is okay.

I would rather that my children actually see a peaceful thankfulness while I happily plan an event, lovingly make dishes to bless a gathering table, or prepare to serve those whom I love…

That goes the other way, too.

I would rather have store-bought pie *gasp* to offer if my desire is to take more time to teach my children.

From our nation's incredible history to festivities with friends and family, we have much to be thankful for. But, nothing is as thanks-worthy as the Lord's goodness to us.

"Only in Jesus, the paragon of creaturely appreciation, are we able to become the kind of persistently thankful people God created us to be and fulfill the human destiny of thanksgiving. For the Christian, with both feet standing firmly in the good news of Jesus, there are possibilities for a true thanksgiving which we otherwise would never know." David Mathis, desiringgod.org

Happy Thanksgiving, friend.

If you love this lesson plan, Advent is coming up! Check out my easy Advent lesson plan for slackers…

Hi, I'm so glad you're here! I am Katie, the wife of my handsome bearded man and mama to my 4 fantastic children. I love the life the Lord has given me and want to encourage mamas like you while I share about frugal homemaking, relaxed homeschooling, healthy eating and community living. For His Glory. View all posts by Katie