10 Fun Thanksgiving Activities For English Language Learners

This post presents 10 of the most entertaining Thanksgiving activities for English language learners.

Introduction

Even though it’s one of the most well-known holidays in America and Canada, many English language learners have little knowledge of it.

Because it is a crucial part of American culture and history, it is a good idea to spend some time working with your students on the different aspects of this holiday.

Activities for Thanksgiving don’t have to take over your class plans, though. Here are some quick and simple ways to include Thanksgiving in your English language teaching lessons.

Thanksgiving Activities For English Language Learners

The following Thanksgiving activities for English language learners can be integrated seamlessly into your lesson plan.

They cover language teaching components such as reading, writing, speaking, and vocabulary.

1. Reading Comprehension

Students need information about the Thanksgiving holiday: when, where, and how it is celebrated. The perfect way the get this information is by reading texts about this celebration.

My English Pages offers a reading comprehension lesson plan that involves students in reading, understanding, and interacting with the information in the text.

2. Thanksgiving recipe

One way to bring fun to your classroom is by asking your students to write a thanksgiving recipe. 

This is the perfect occasion to practice writing the recipe genre by talking about their favorite Thanksgiving meal.

Here is the usual layout of a recipe:

1. A summary of the recipe
2. The equipment
3. The ingredients
4. the instructions
5. Additional notes

1. You may first proceed by providing the vocabulary items they may need to write the recipe.

Here are some suggested vocabulary items:

• Types of equipment: pan, saucepan, spoon, fork, knife, cup, mug, etc.
• Ingredients: meat, chicken, fish, turkey, salt, pepper, olive oil, butter, etc.
• Verbs: beat, mix, stir, bake, cook, sprinkle, spread, scrape, beat, pour, etc

2. Ask students to work in small groups to write their favorite thanksgiving recipe.

3. Once they finish, invite groups to share their recipes. 

4. You may also ask a representative of each group to gather the recipes and write a thanksgiving cookbook.

3. Thanksgiving menu

Most likely, none of your students has ever organized a Thanksgiving meal. This is the perfect time to train them to design the menu for the Thanksgiving celebration. 

1. Have a class discussion about the various Thanksgiving-related meals that Americans or Canadians typically have for Thanksgiving. 
2. Then, invite students to work in small groups to create a menu for the holiday

Students may get inspired by the following example:

4. Chain Game

Since having a good meal is an important thanksgiving activity, you may want to invite your students to play a chain game that involves meals!

Here is one way to proceed with this game:

• The first person starts the game by saying, “I’m going to eat …. for Thanksgiving dinner,” 
• The following student repeats it while adding their own meal to the list.
• Every food item must be repeated by every person after them in the exact same order. 
• If they make a mistake, they are eliminated from the game and sit down. Continue until there is just one person left standing.

5. Word Search

What about a vocabulary review game using a fun way?

Students may enjoy a good word search game. Consider creating your own puzzle for Thanksgiving if you want a calmer activity to be accomplished by the students. 

You can quickly and easily create your word search game using online tools. Here are two links you may be interested in:

• Super Teacher Worksheets
• Puzzle Maker

To get a word search puzzle that is appropriate to your student’s needs, just provide the students’ level, and the words that you want the tool to generate and you are good to go!

6. Thanksgiving bingo game

There is nothing more fun to practicing Thanksgiving vocabulary than playing Bongo Game.

Here procedure:

1. Print out one set of calling cards and a bingo card for each player. 
2. Calling cards should be cut out and put in a bowl or hat.
3. One card at a time is taken out of the hat or bowl, and before revealing it to the students, the card’s image is described.
4. Students use a marker to color the bingo card’s corresponding image.
5. A player must cover five spaces in a row, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, and cry “BINGO!” before any other players can do the same to win.

7. Thanksgiving banner

Here is another fun way to practice writing. Invite students to write three things they are grateful for and string the pieces of writing together to make a lovely banner to be exhibited in your classroom.

In this activity, your students will have some fun while decorating the classroom for Thanksgiving.

You may want to look at a similar activity here.

8. Guessing game

What is more fun than trying to guess something while reviewing and learning vocabulary?

This guessing game is a nice thanksgiving vocabulary practice game.

1. Divide your students into groups, 
2. Have a member of each group select a word from a hat
3. They try to draw or act out what the vocabulary item represents. 
4. Their respective team tries to guess the Thanksgiving word.
5. The group that scores higher wins.

Guessing games are a lot of fun and always get the students’ energy levels up. 

While your learners are having a good time, the game will also help them remember the thanksgiving terminology.

9. Thanksgiving survey

Surveys are a good starting point for a speaking lesson. Devise a survey and invite students to work in pairs to ask each other to get answers about the Thanksgiving holiday. 

here are examples of thanksgiving survey questions:

1. Do you travel or stay home for Thanksgiving?
2. Do you dress up or dress casually on Thanksgiving?
3. What is your favorite thanksgiving food?
4. Who do you eat with? 
5. Would you rather eat Thanksgiving dinner with your family with three celebrities of your choice?
6. Do you watch football?
7. Would you rather watch Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade or NFL football?
8. The morning after Thanksgiving, do you sleep in or go Black Friday shopping?

Once all the students got answers from their partners, they are given 5 minutes to prepare an oral report about their findings.

10. Dictogloss

A dictogloss is an activity designed to challenge the students to recreate a text previously read out loudly by the teacher.

1. First, find a short text about Thanksgiving and read it aloud.
2.  The students attempt to create their own version as closely as possible to the original.
3. Once they finish, hand out the original text and invite them to compare it to their recreated version.

Conclusion

All the above thanksgiving activities for English language learners can be integrated seamlessly into your lesson plan depending on whether you are teaching reading comprehension, vocabulary, or writing skills.

In addition to practicing the target language, the activities create a lot of fun and provide an opportunity to learn the cultural aspect of the language.

Your learners will undoubtedly be very grateful that they have discovered so considerable information about American culture and language from you.