I found some interesting print outs from crayola.com with Thanksgiving BINGO and some simple crafts for fall, great for young students. I also found some great historical information about the "pilgrims" and the original Thanksgiving on scholastic.com where it will read aloud the information presented, broken down for even young students to understand.

This is really silly, I know, but for those of you who like Advent calendars, it might be a great warm-up idea: Make a Thanksgiving cornucopia "calendar"

Last year, just as Luke and Nina were getting into their coloring stage, we did this and they loved it. Basically, we drew a big cornucopia on a paper bag and cut it out. We wrote something like, "I thank God for..." along its brim. Then, I found lots of fruit and vegetable coloring pages online, which I printed. Every day in November, the kids colored one of these, cut it out and, then, dictated to me something that day that they were thankful for. We put it on or near the cornucopia, saying a little prayer as we did.

It ended up being a fun activity that not only helped us all focus on gratitude and simple blessings, but provided a focal point for dinner conversation - as it was on the kitchen wall - and seeing the world through my children's eyes. And, of course, all those educational things like fine motor skill development, literacy, etc. were naturally involved.

Perhaps someone else might like to adpat this simple idea with their own family.