Thanksgiving Music Lesson for Kids-Culturally Responsive

A couple of things I love about Thanksgiving: getting to spend time with family and eating endless amounts of mashed potatoes. A couple of things I don’t love about Thanksgiving: the complicated, and often dark and misconstrued, history and the meal typically centering around Turkey (I am a vegetarian! lol.). In the past years I’ve struggled with teaching songs about Thanksgiving in music class because of the history associated with it. I want to teach kids the true facts about Thanksgiving but the facts are grim. So, my solution has been to put the focus on learning about Native Americans and the general idea of gratitude.

So what’s the REAL Story?

First I teach the students about how Native American tribes, also referred to as Nations, were the first to settle in America. I remind my students that the pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower landed in someone else’s home-The Wampanoags home. The Wampanoags were very nice & welcoming. They taught the Pilgrims how to live off the land and survive. If you’d like to show videos to your students about this topic, the most historically accurate videos I’ve found are from BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. If you have a subscription then definitely use that! But it not you can try to find the videos on Youtube.

Allow time for your students to process this information. They may never have heard the Thanksgiving story told this way before. Ask if they have any questions and answer if you are able.

Thanksgiving Food Rhythm Activities

The “Pilgrims” and Wampanoags got along for a little while and even had a 3 day feast to celebrate the harvest!

Questions for students: What do you think they ate at their meal? Squash, beans, nuts…things you can grow from the land. They probably did not eat Turkey! Some of you may not have a Thanksgiving meal and that’s ok! But for those of you that do, what types of food do you eat?

Thanksgiving Food Rhythm Composition Activity: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rhythm-Centers-and-Composition-Rhythm-Sort-Fall-Food-Festival-Edition-2857745?st=51786888c4bda6686dca16c8b06f683e

Even though the Native Americans got to America first, eventually the pilgrims wanted more land and they bullied the tribes into leaving. If they didn’t leave they probably got hurt or killed by the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims ended up treating the Native American tribes very badly and taking over their home. This behavior was very disrespectful and ended with people getting hurt or killed. We should remember to always be respectful when visiting someone’s home.

Question for students: Is anyone visiting someone’s home for Thanksgiving? How can you be respectful when you go visit?

Focusing on Gratitude

Then I get the students into a circle and put a cornucopia in the middle along with other “play foods” in the center as we pretend to have a feast together. I explain that Thanksgiving is also a time to remember what we’re thankful for. Being thankful means that we are glad something is in our life. Then we sing the simple “I’m Thankful” song that I created:

“I’m thankful for my friends x3….. And I’m thankful for YOU”

When I sing “YOU”, I point to a student in the circle and they tell me what they’re thankful for. If they said they’re thankful for shoes, we would sing:

“I’m thankful for my shoes x3…… and I’m thankful for YOU”

And I’d point to another student and ask what they’re thankful for then the class would sing their response. And so on and so forth!

Sing a Native American Lullaby

Then I’d talk about how after eating so much food we might get tired and need to take a nap. Which is a segue to singing this Native American lullaby. I teach it through call and response then have students improvise movements.

I hope you enjoy this lesson. As educators, it’s important to be culturally sensitive and teach to the facts as much as we can. This way our future generations are able to humbly reflect on the past so that society can move forward.

Keepin’ it simple,

Paige