The week before Thanksgiving is short and busy. These read-alouds fill it with something worthwhile: gratitude, a little history and some real science. Every book is free to read, and you can assign any of them from the free teacher dashboard.
Kindergarten and Grade 1
- Ten Thankful Things: count to ten with things to be thankful for.
- Big Pie, Little Pie: comparing sizes.
- The Turkey Trot and Add the Pies: movement and adding.
- Saying Thank You!: a short picture book about manners.
Ask: “What is one thing you are thankful for today?”
Grades 2–3
- Sarah Hale’s Letters: how a magazine editor wrote letters for years until President Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving in 1863.
- The Harvest of 1621: the harvest gathering at Plymouth, including the Wampanoag people who were there.
- Wild Turkey Facts and Fractions of a Feast.
Ask: “Whose point of view is missing from the story we usually hear?”
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Grades 4–5
- Should Our Town Have a Parade?: a persuasive-writing model.
- Feeding a Thousand: multiplication for a community meal.
- The Wild Turkey Comeback and Monarch Winter: conservation science.
Middle and high school
- Why Cranberries Bounce (Grade 6) and The Chemistry of Baking Soda (Grade 7).
- Heritage Turkey Breeds (Grade 8) and How Turkeys Were Domesticated (Grade 10).
- The Dutch Hunger Winter (Grade 12): history, food and gratitude for older students.
Pair the read-aloud with an activity
- Thanksgiving reading comprehension
- Thanksgiving writing prompts
- Thanksgiving maths word problems
- Thanksgiving word search for the last afternoon before the break.
Many classrooms now teach Thanksgiving with the Wampanoag perspective included. It makes the history more accurate, and the conversation richer.
Assign these Thanksgiving books to your class for free.