Name of Teacher Candidate: Hunterpaige Date: November 12, 2018

McDaniel
Central Focus: Thanksgiving Grade Level: Kindergarten

Lesson Title:
Lesson 8: Thanksgiving Today
Curriculum Areas Addressed: Social Studies; ELA
• SSKH1 Identify the national holidays and describe the people and/or events celebrated.
i. Thanksgiving Day

• ELAGSEKRL6 With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the
role of each in telling the story.
Time Required: Instructional Groupings: Are you using whole group,
35 minutes small group, partners, quads, homogeneous,
heterogeneous?
• Introduction & read aloud: whole group
(heterogeneous: different abilities and
comprehension levels)
• Activity: small groups to work together
(heterogeneous: different abilities and comprehension
levels)
Standards: List the GPS/CCGPS that are the target of student learning and are key to this lesson. Include the
number and the text of each of the GPS/CCGPS that is being addressed. If only a portion of a standard is
addressed, include only the part or parts that are relevant.

SSKH1 Identify the national holidays and describe the people and/or events celebrated.

i. Thanksgiving Day

SSKG1 Describe the diversity of American culture by explaining the customs and celebrations of various

families and communities.

ELAGSEKRL1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

As a result of this lesson/unit students will…

Be: (State the BE Bridge for the unit.)
• Be thankful for the people, things, and experiences in life.
• Be aware of other people’s feelings, cultures, and traditions.
• Be caring towards others.
• Be accepting of differences.

Relevant Goal(s): (The relevant goal states the overall purpose of the lesson. The purpose of the lesson is to …..)
• The purpose of this lesson is to discuss the different traditions that families have for celebrating
Thanksgiving.

Essential Question(s): (Essential questions should be used to guide instruction.)

• How do I identify the national holidays and describe the people and/or events celebrated?
Learning Objectives: (Objectives are stated in measurable/observable terms. These should reflect the thinking
skills, skills of the discipline. These represent the skills that will be assessed.)

Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College

1. Students will be able to identify Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

2. Students will be able to identify common traditions of Thanksgiving in present times.

Support for Academic Language

Vocabulary: (What Academic Language will be taught or developed? Identify the key vocabulary and/or symbols
specific to the content area. These may be derived from the standards.)

• Thanksgiving
• Greet
• Buffett
• Traditions
• Modern

Language Demands: (Language demands is defined as the specific ways that academic language (vocabulary,
functions, discourse, syntax) is used by students to participate in learning tasks through reading, writing,
listening, and/or speaking to demonstrate their disciplinary understanding. Identify the following way/ways that
students will participate in learning tasks to demonstrate disciplinary understanding: reading, writing, listening,
or oral language.)

1.Students will use this academic language through listening to a read a loud of Thanksgiving Rules.

2. Students will use this language through discussion while completing a craft.

3. Students will use this language for a whole class discussion for lesson wrap up.
Language Function: (The language function is represented by the active verbs within the learning objectives.
Common language functions in the include identifying main ideas and details; analyzing and interpreting
characters and plots; arguing a position or point of view; predicting; evaluating or interpreting an author’s
purpose, message, and use of setting, mood, or tone; comparing ideas within and between texts; and so on.
• Identify traditions celebrated on Thanksgiving
• Identify Thanksgiving as a national United States holiday
• Compare and contrast the first Thanksgiving to modern Thanksgiving
Syntax: (Syntax is defined as the set of conventions for organizing symbols, words, and phrases together into
structures, such as sentences, tables, or graphs. Identify the supports that will be provided for students to
organize the information – charts, graphs, diagrams. These must relate to the Language Function.)
• Recipes returned from family engagement activity sent home
•

Discourse: (Describe how the students will demonstrate/express their understanding of the Academic Language.)
Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College

• Students will express their understanding of the Academic Language when answering discussion questions during a read aloud of
Thanksgiving Rules.
• Students will demonstrate their understanding of the Academic Language when completing a thankfulness turkey.
• Students will express their understanding of the Academic Language while discussing Thanksgiving traditions.
Assessment (Each learning objective must be assessed. Questions to consider: How will the KNOW, DO, and BE
be evaluated? How will students demonstrate their understanding or the lesson’s objectives? How will you
provide feedback for the students? What type of assessment will be used? Is the assessment formal or informal?
What evidence will be collected to demonstrate students’ understanding/mastery of the lesson’s objective? What
constitutes success for the students?)
Assessment Strategy: (Identify the assessment strategy/strategies to be used for assessment of the learning
objectives listed above. Each learning objective should be assessed. DO NOT restate the learning objective.)
• 1. Add students answers and names to create a Thanksgiving fact concept map
• 2. Ask students to give a thumbs up if Thanksgiving is a national US holiday, or a thumbs down if
Thanksgiving is not a national US holiday

Evaluation Criteria: (Indicate the qualities by which levels of performance can be differentiated and that anchor
judgments about the learner’s degree of success on an assessment.)
• 1. 15-21 students giving a correct fact learned about Thanksgiving= mastering; 8-14 students giving a
correct fact learned about Thanksgiving = progressing; 1-7 students giving a correct fact learned about
Thanksgiving = lacking (mastering= ready to move on; progressing =will need to review again;
lacking=will need to completely teach again)
• 2. 15-21 students giving a thumbs up= mastering; 8-14 giving a thumbs up= progressing; 1-7 students
giving a thumbs up= lacking (mastering= ready to move on; progressing =will need to review again;
lacking=will need to completely teach again)

Differentiation for IEP and Focus Students:

• Differentiation for IEP: if noticing that speech student says something incorrectly, repeat it back to him
in the correct way
• JH: call on him last in order to get him to think more in depth, and give an answer other students have
not given
• DD: repeat directions before turn
• LW: repeat directions before turn
Steps in the Lesson (Include the attention getter or the hook for the lesson; the introduction; the lesson
procedures including strategies/planned supports for whole-class, small group, and individual instructions; and
differentiated activities.)
Attention Getter or Hook: (State how the attention of the students will be piqued at the start of the lesson.)
• Read Thanksgiving Rules

Introduction: (State how the lesson will be introduced. This should communicate the purpose of the lesson, be
directly related to the goals and objectives of the lesson, tap into prior knowledge/experiences, and develop
student interest.)

• Review the November calendar.

• Ask students to name the holiday that occurs in this month.
• Does it occur at the beginning, middle, or end of the month?
• What day of the week is Thanksgiving on?
• Ask, “what are some things your family does on Thanksgiving Day?”

Instructional Strategies and Planned Supports: (Use a bulleted or numbered format to communicate the
procedures for the lesson. Describe the strategies which will be used to support students’ learning. Knowledge of

Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College

students’ cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development along with their cultural backgrounds should be
evident.)
• Activate students’ prior knowledge by projecting a concept map we made as a class a few weeks ago
• Read the things written on the first concept map; as students if they think each one still relates to
Thanksgiving. Mark off items if they say no.
• Create a new concept map. Go through each color row asking each student to share one thing that they
know about Thanksgiving. Before adding it to the concept map, ask students to give a thumbs up if it
should be added, or a thumbs down if it should not be added.
• Repeat this process until each student has added to the map.
• Ask a student to tell us what it means to be thankful
• Tell students that we are going to create a thankfulness turkey.
• Each student will be given feathers. They can write words form our class thankfulness chart, or draw
pictures on their feather.
• Remind them that spelling each word correctly is not important; encourage them to sound it out
• Call students by color rows to return to the carpet
• Once all students are sitting, pass out construction paper feathers
• Give students circle turkey body to glue their feathers to
• Review instructions
• Walk around to help students, redirect attention, or explain instructions again
• Allow students 15 minutes to work on their thankfulness turkey
• When the timer goes off, call students by specific areas to clean up and return to the carpet
Closure/Wrap up: (Describe how the content of the lesson will be summarized. There may be a review of the
core concepts, relevant goals, or essential questions.)
• Review what it means to be thankful
• Review when Thanksgiving is celebrated, and allow students to share different traditions their families
have
Modifications/Differentiation to Support Student Learning
What will be differentiated? Choose one: Content/Process/Product
Process
How will differentiation be accomplished?
• Repeat assessment directions multiple times
What strategies will be used to differentiate for focus student 1?
• Allow student to share his families traditions for celebrating Thanksgiving
What strategies will be used to differentiate for focus student 2?

• D.D.: allow him to point out key details of the illustrations on various pages

What strategies will be used to differentiate for focus student 3?

• L.W. allow her to share the feathers on her thankfulness turkey
Instructional Supports
Resources and Materials Used to Engage Students in Learning (Provide citations for all resources that you
did not create. Attach key instructional material needed to understand what you and the students will be doing.
Examples: class handouts, assignments, slides, and interactive white board images.)
• Class Thankfulness chart (will be created in class)
• Thanksgiving concept maps (old one & new one to be created in class)

Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College

Additional Resources and Materials Used to Increase Teacher’s Background Knowledge of the Content:
(List any websites and sources of materials and background information that you will need or use as the teacher
to engage the students.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym4izq-rrow

https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/first-thanksgiving-meal

http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-first-thanksgiving/

http://time.com/4577425/thanksgiving-2016-true-story/

https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

https://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving

https://holidappy.com/holidays/Thanksgiving-Traditions-in-America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0bofuWCngY

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/american-celebrate-thanksgiving/2529775.html

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-was-on-the-menu-at-the-first-thanksgiving-511554/

Other Relevant Information

Clear Links to Learning Theories, Educational Research, and Principles of Development:
• Piaget: Children organize what they learn from their experiences. My students will talk about their
experiences learned throughout the unit.
• Vygotsky: Scaffolding. I will build upon prior knowledge of Thanksgiving celebrations, events, and
traditions. I will also revisit a Thanksgiving concept map made months before to show how much they
have learned.
• Utilizing developmentally appropriate assessments and tasks based on typical development for
kindergarten students.
• Developmentally appropriate to sit still through tasks that are around 15 minutes: breaking up
instruction time and tasks to allow students to have a break from sitting still
• “Compared with younger children, kindergartners show more flexibility in their thinking, greater ability
to conceptualize categories, advances in reasoning and problem solving, and gains in knowledge of the
world, ability to pay attention, and use of memory.” -DAP, p. 200
Connections to Technology and/or the Arts:
• Thankfulness turkey
Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College

Description of Collaboration with Others: (These might include the inclusion teacher, media specialist,
counselor, guest speaker, grade level coordinator, community experts, families, etc.)
• Collaboration with partner teacher over required standards, and IEP differentiation strategies
• Feedback from cohort members during class discussions

Elementary/Middle Childhood edTPA Lesson Plan Template John H. Lounsbury College of Education, Georgia College