Thanksgiving English Teaching Resources

Fun November, Fall, and Autumn
Reading and Creative Writing Activities

Are you looking for fun reading and creative writing activities to use with your elementary school students during the month of November and for Thanksgiving?

On this page, you will find a variety of reading and creative writing activities to use for Thanksgiving, autumn, and the month of November.

You can use the creative ideas that are on this page to help you plan engaging language arts activities for your students that will help them FALL in love with reading and writing!

Many of these Thanksgiving English teaching resources do not contain the word Thanksgiving on the worksheets or templates, so they can be used anytime during the fall, or by teachers living in countries that do not celebrate Thanksgiving.

Below you will find the following types of teaching resources that contain Fall or Thanksgiving themes: lists of read aloud books that are great to use at this time of the year, unique story writing templates, reading sticker charts, newspaper writing templates, poetry lesson plans, cooperative group projects, and grammar powerpoint presentations.

This month is a perfect time to have your students fall into the habit of reading at home each evening and to gobble up some great books. My students are encouraged to read during November with unique reading sticker charts that are designed especially to encourage and promote reading at this particular time of the year with fall themed sticker chart templates.

Provide your students with creative writing activities that will make them fall in love with writing by using the fun turkey shaped writing templates found on this page. When I give my students unique and fun templates to write on, I have found that they tend to use their best effort on these assignments and they are more careful to not make careless spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

I hope that you will find some creative ideas to use with your own students during November with the Fall and Thanksgiving English teaching resources that are found below.

Some of my favorite books to read aloud to
my students during the month of November are:

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey

• Dav Pilkey is most well know for his Adventures of Captain Underpants books. He has written and illustrated this Thanksgiving picture book that is similar to the Christmas story 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. In this story, children help rescue eight adorable turkeys from a farm.

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

• The Giving Tree is considered a classic by many teachers and parents. I enjoy reading this book to my students during autumn because of the tree theme and using leaf writing templates to create an eye catching autumn tree bulletin board display in my classroom. I read The Giving Tree near Thanksgiving to tie in with the theme of being THANKful for the people who are GIVING to us.

The Way to Start a Day by Byrd Baylor

• In this set of lesson plans, you will find two different creative writing resources to use for Byrd Baylor's Caldecott Medal winning picture book. This is not a Thankgiving themed book, but I like to read this book to my students during November or December because in the United States, this is when two of our biggest holidays occur. As I discuss the themes in this book, and important holidays in our country, I have my students research important holidays in other countries. I have created a Country Holiday Wheel cooperative group project based on this idea. This set of teaching resources also includes a creative writing topic that refers to the book that is titled: The Right Way to Start a Day of School.

Fall and Thanksgiving
Grammar Powerpoint Lesson Plans For English:

Go to: Thanksgiving Powerpoint Lesson Plans Page

Turkey Creative Writing Templates

For this unique set of teaching resources, students write a story inside turkey shaped templates. Your students will love completing this fun creative writing activity and their finished projects will making an eye catching Thanksgiving bulletin board display inside your classroom.

This set of creative writing activities will guide your students through all of the steps of the writing process. Students start off using their story maps, and at the end, they complete their assignments on turkey shaped final draft templates.

This set of Thanksgiving English teaching resources contains the following components:

• directions worksheet
• story idea map worksheet
• first draft worksheet
• final draft turkey templates
• color final draft turkey templates
• grading rubric
• 5 page bulletin board display banner (shown above)
• 4 colorful turkey bulletin board display accent pieces

Students begin this Thanksgiving creative writing activity by brainstorming and writing down their ideas on their story maps.

This story map will help students to plan their stories before they begin writing them. On the story map worksheet, students brainstorm ideas about the main character and setting. They have to think about and briefly write how their story will begin, the middle section, and the ending of their stories.

After students have completed their story maps, they write the first draft of their stories on the first draft worksheets. Students proofread and edit their stories before they write on their final draft turkey templates.

There are two templates that are cut out and then glued together to form this uniquely shaped turkey creative writing project.

This set of Thanksgiving English teaching resources includes color turkey templates that you can use as an example to show to your students before they begin this assignment.

Display this colorful example at the front of your classroom so that your students can see what their finished Thanksgiving creative writing projects will look like.

Below you will find an example of the grading rubric that is included in this set of Thanksgiving English teaching resources. This grading rubic contains an area for both students and the teacher to assess this creative writing project.

This set of teaching resources includes 4 turkey bulletin board display accent pieces. You can use these turkeys to help you decorate your classoom display that features your students' fun Thanksgiving creative writing projects.

Fall Into A Good Book
Sticker Chart Set

Fall Into a Good Book is a sticker chart set that will help you to motivate your students to read this fall.

Cut out your students' sticker chart templates along the thick black border and you will have unique book shaped sticker charts to record the number of books that your students have read.

Students place stickers inside the 16 leaf spaces on their book templates after they have finished reading a book.

This set of teaching resources includes:

• black and white sticker chart template
• color sticker chart template (4 different colors schemes)
• 5 page bulletin board display banner (shown above)
• parent letter and reading record sheet
• leaf bulletin board accent pieces

This set of teaching resources includes 6 colorful leaves to use as bulletin board accent pieces to help you create your eye-catching fall bulletin board display. There are also 6 black and white leaf templates for you to use if you want your students to color the leaves themselves, but these are not shown below.

The 6 reading phrases that are written inside the leaves are:

• Fall Into a Good Book!
• Fall In Love With Reading!
• Reading Leaves You Smiling!
• Leaf Through a Good Book!
• Read a Harvest of Books This Month!
• Fall Into the Habit of Reading Every Night!

Below is a letter that you can send home to parents that explains this home reading program, along with the reading record worksheet for parents to sign each time their child reads at home.

This parent letter is in the form of a Microsoft Word Document so that you can edit it to your own word choice.

Reading Leaves You Smiling
Sticker Chart Set

Reading Leaves You Smiling is a sticker chart set that will help you to motivate your students to read 10 books this fall.

Cut out your students' sticker chart templates along the thick black border and you will have unique leaf shaped sticker charts to record the number of books that your students have read.

This set of teaching resources includes:

• black and white sticker chart template
• color sticker chart template (9 different colors schemes)
• 5 page bulletin board display banner (shown above)
• parent letter and reading record sheet
• leaf bulletin board accent pieces

This set of teaching resources includes 6 colorful leaves to use as bulletin board accent pieces to help you create your eye-catching fall bulletin board display. There are also 6 black and white leaf templates for you to use if you want your students to color the leaves themselves, but these are not shown below.

The 6 reading phrases that are written inside the leaves are:

• Reading Leaves You Smiling!
• Reading Leaves You Happy!
• Reading Leaves Full of Knowledge!
• Reading Leaves You With a Larger Vocabulary!
• Reading Leaves You Full of New Facts!
• Reading Leaves You Hungry For Books!

Below is a letter that you can send home to parents that explains this home reading program, along with the reading record worksheet for parents to sign each time their child reads at home.

This parent letter is in the form of a Microsoft Word Document so that you can edit it to your own word choice.

More Fall and Thanksgiving
Sticker Chart Templates:

Go to: Thanksgiving Bulletin Board Displays and Sticker Chart Page

November News
Creative Writing Newspaper Templates

During the month of November, include a newspaper creative writing activity in your language arts lesson plans using these fun "November News" newspaper templates.

For this assignment, I often have my students write articles about school events that are happening in November or a review of a Fall or Thanksgiving themed book. Students could also write historical newspaper articles about the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, or the Mayflower.

This November News Newspaper set of teaching resources requires your students to write two articles and draw two pictures. Although I assign this as an individual project, this November creative writing activity could also be assigned as a group project.

This set of Thanksgiving English teaching resources
contains the following components:

• first draft worksheet
• grading rubric worksheet
• final draft newspaper templates
• color final draft newspaper templates
• 5 page bulletin board display banner (shown above)

Students write the first draft of their newspaper articles on the first draft worksheets. Students proofread and edit their articles before they write on their final draft newspaper templates.

Below you will find an example of the grading rubric that is included in this set of November teaching resources. This grading rubic contains an area for both students and the teacher to assess this creative writing project.

There are two templates that are glued together to form this November News Newspaper creative writing project.

On each template, students write a newspaper headline and article and then they draw a picture about that article.

This set of Thanksgiving English teaching resources includes color newspaper templates that you can use as an example to show to your students before they begin this assignment.

Display this colorful example at the front of your classroom so that your students can see what their finished November News newspapers will look like.

Your students will enjoy being newspaper reporters during the month of November and completing this fun Thanksgiving creative writing activity. Their finished newspaper projects will making an eye catching November bulletin board display inside your classroom that will capture everyone's attention!

Thank You Letters Stationery Set

Worksheet and Bulletin Board Display Banner

During the month of November, to tie in with Thanksgiving, have your students write thank you letters. This is the perfect time of the school year for your students to think about someone that they are thankful for and to show their appreciation by writing this person a thank you letter.

This "Thank You Letters" set of
teaching resources includes the following:

T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. Acrostic Poem

Worksheet and Bulletin Board Display Banner

As the holiday of Thanksgiving approaches, have your students think of someone that they are THANKful for, or things in their lives that they are THANKful for. Using this set of poetry worksheets, have your students write a T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. acrostic poem.

This "T.H.A.N.K. Y.O.U. Acrostic Poem"
set of teaching resources includes the following:

Large T-H-A-N-K Y-O-U Letters
Cooperative Group Project

This THANK YOU set of lesson plans is a cooperative group project that your students will enjoy completing together. This activity can be done any time during the school year, but it fits in well with the month of November and THANKSgiving.

These completed group project letters will help you create an unique and eye catching fall bulletin board display.

There are 8 letters and an explanation mark in both black and white and color templates, and each letter takes up an entire worksheet. These letters have a thick black border around them, so they are easy for your students to cut them out themselves. An example of the color templates is shown above.

Give each group of students one of the letters. Each student in the group should write a sentence(s) about something that he/she is thankful for. Below is an example of the letter Y from this set of teaching resources.

This set of teaching resources includes a second activity for your students to complete on their own.

After your students have completed their group project letters, give each student a Thank You leaf template (examples of the templates are shown below).

There are 6 pages of colorful leaf templates and 3 pages of black and white leaf templates in this set of teaching resources. These leaf templates have lines on them and students can write a sentence about something that they are thankful for.

After your students have completed their Thank You Leaves, arrange them on the branches of a tree and display this tree on a classroom wall, or design a colorful autumn bulletin board display.

Use all three of the "Thank You" projects that are found on this page together (thank you letter, thank you poem, and group project) to help you design an eye-catching THANKsgiving bulletin board display!

Thanksgiving 5 Puzzle Set

Go to: Thanksgiving Bulletin Board Displays and Puzzles Page