An American Thanksgiving: Ledger (Ages 9 to 11)

How a harvest feast in 1621 became a national holiday. Your children meet the people who carried the idea of a day of thanks from Plymouth to the White House, and learn a song the whole family already half knows.

Ledger level: ages 9 to 11, works mostly alone. 12 printable letter-size pages: a two-page lesson and a one-page Parent Key for each of the four weeks.

The four weeks

• Week 1, The Harvest of 1621: the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag, and Squanto at Plymouth.
• Week 2, A Nation Gives Thanks: George Washington's Thanksgiving proclamation of 1789.
• Week 3, The Mother of Thanksgiving: Sarah Josepha Hale's long campaign, and Abraham Lincoln's answer.
• Week 4, Over the River: Lydia Maria Child and the poem that became a holiday song.

Each week has a short reading, a Patriot Spotlight, a Quote of the Week, a primary source in plain words, words to know, fill-in-the-blank and find-the-facts questions, and one question to think through. Memory work is one stanza a week of "Over the River and Through the Wood," four stanzas in all. The Parent Key gives the answers, what to look for, a dinner-table question, and background for parents.

Instant PDF download. No prep: just print and go. Print as many copies as the children in your own household need.