THANKSGIVING

In the 1600s, the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians shared a feast that we now cite as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the American colonies.  For years after, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual states, but it was not until the 1860s that a national day of thanksgiving was declared.  During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday to be celebrated every year in November.

For more information on the history of Thanksgiving visit the following websites:

http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving-facts
http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving-quiz
http://www.history.com/topics/mayflower-compact
http://www.history.com/topics/plymouth
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/stories/history/first-thanksgiving/
http://www.plimoth.org/learn/MRL/read/thanksgiving-history

For more information on Thanksgiving, check out these books:

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick
Pilgrims by Garrison Keiller
Pilgrims by Mary Pope Osborne
1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving by Catherine O'Neill Grace
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas

For some fun, holiday reading, take a look at these titles:

The Triplets First Thanksgiving by Cathy Gillen Thacker
The Cat Who Talked Turkey by Lilian Jackson Braun

Children's Fiction:

Thanksgiving Mice! by Bethany Roberts
This Is Thanksgiving by Harriet Ziefert
Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott
The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Doherty

Thanksgiving Movies:

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
William Bradford
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles


Picture from http://rockcat.als.lib.wi.us/search~S29?/X(mayflower)&searchscope=29&SORT=D/X(mayflower)&searchscope=29&SORT=D&SUBKEY=(mayflower)/1%2C8%2C8%2CB/frameset&FF=X(mayflower)&searchscope=29&SORT=D&2%2C2%2C