Thanksgiving

Origin of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday

Normally I wait until it is too late to put up my Thanksgiving post, so here it is earlier enough to consider adding to your class next week.  Did you know that the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was behind the US making Thanksgiving a national holiday, that Lincoln was the president who initiated this, that there is no proof that turkey was actually eaten on the first Thanksgiving. So many nice tidbits in this video and more of the story here. 

Everything You Wanted to Know About Thanksgiving

For those of you who are planning out next week the video above is what I play for my students the last day I see them before Thanksgiving.  It talks about the first real Thanksgiving, how it because a holiday and how it landed on its current day.  It is a "feast" of facts in 150 seconds!  I hope you have a great Thanksgiving next week. 

Origin of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday

Did you know that the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was behind the US making Thanksgiving a national holiday, that Lincoln was the president who initiated this, that there is no proof that turkey was actually eaten on the first Thanksgiving. So many nice tidbits in this video and more of the story here.

Fun Facts About Thanksgiving

This is a great 2:38 film on about all the cool facts about Thanksgiving such as what really was eaten (and not eaten) on the first Thanksgiving, why we started celebrating it and why it is on the date it now is.  Here are other short films on it from the history channel and here are other posts I have done on it in the past.  

The Library of Congress - Thanksgiving Pictures

The Library of Congress has a rich number of pictures in their online files.  Here, for example, are all the ones that they have pertaining to Thanksgiving.  

Thanksgiving

There are many myths out there about Thanksgiving such as it was not officially celebrated until 1863 when it was the last Thursday in November thanks to Sarah Hale (who also wrote "Mary Had A Little Lamb").  FDR moved it back a week to help boost spending by giving people an extra week for their Christmas shopping. 

The History Behind Thanksgiving

This is a great video you can share with your students to give them the history of Thanksgiving.

How the Government Impacts US History on Thanksgiving

I have put this on my blog before and will show it to my students on Wednesday and it is so perfect in describing the interplay between government and US history.

Online University Resources

A few months ago, I started getting e-mails (yes, thankfully sometimes people just e-mail me items they want to see and while I do not put them all up, I do add a number of them) from Online University. While it is an interesting way to promote an online learning center, they do have a number of historical items as well as technological help. For example, their penultimate post was on myths of US history (how Thanksgiving came about, Washington and the cherry tree, Pocahontas, Columbus and others), 100 sites for military history and many useful technology in the classroom. Now be cautioned as there are other things not related to either (job hunting skills, for ex.), but it is certainly worth a look.