American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association

American Centuries > Lessons > History Lessons By Teachers > To Grandfather’s House We Go…Then and Now

To Grandfather’s House We Go…Then and Now

Details

Author
Janet Ducharme
Topic/Subject Area
Customs, Holidays, Rituals
Historical Era
National Expansion and Reform, 1816–1860
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5)
Creation Date
2010
Last Revision Date
2024

Related items

About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will understand that primary documents help us infer what a celebration of Thanksgiving might have been like during a different time period. Students will examine and discuss picture books and web site images and compare their discoveries with what they know about modern Thanksgiving celebrations.

Materials & Resources

Collection Items
Literature

Teaching Plan

  1. In an earlier lesson, ask children to name all of the holidays that they know. List on a chart. Next to this list make columns and label with headings: food, fun and travel. Go through the list of holidays with children and make checks next to each category that applies. Children discover that most family holidays have common characteristics.
  2. Give students background information about the history of Thanksgiving. Provide a timeline of these events.
  3. Activate students’ knowledge by asking them about the song, “Over the River and Through the Wood.” Tell them that the song is a poem by Lydia Maria Child also called “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day.” It was written about 200 years after the Pilgrims and Native people celebrated in Plimoth. Refer to the timeline to show the time of the Pilgrims, the early 1800s, and present time. Read the long version of the poem while displaying it on a monitor or overhead projector. Point out or highlight hints about the times.
  4. Tell children that we will investigate some pictures and documents and try to find out what Thanksgiving might have been like when the poem was written. Tell them we will try to find out if Thanksgiving was celebrated with special food, fun and travel like we do today. Show the children the items from the online collection that they will use. Explain that the picture of the sleigh is a photo and was taken at a later time but the sleigh was like one that was used during the time that the poem was written.
  5. Divide the class into groups. Each group is assigned a category like food. Using the items from the online collection and picture books like Over the River and Through the Wood by Brinton Turkle (ISBN 0-590-41190-x) children look for evidence in their category. As children search the resources, ask questions to focus and extend their thinking. Is there evidence of special food, fun or travel? What were some of the ways people had fun? Do we still do these things? What problems do you think people would have traveling in a sleigh? How do people travel now? How did they travel during the time of the Pilgrims? How are the foods like ones you would have at your Thanksgiving dinner? How were the foods prepared? Groups should record their discoveries by drawing, highlighting or writing.
  6. Small groups report their findings back to the large group. Results could be posted on the Holiday Chart.
  7. To close the activity, children can sing the song together.
  8. Follow-up activities could include reading different illustrated versions of the poem, and/or research biographic information about Lydia Marie Child as a poet/author and discover the political importance of her writing during this time period.