The toast is buttered. The pretzel sticks are ready. And Peppermint Patty would like to speak to whoever’s in charge of the turkey.
In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, Patty is so busy looking for the dinner she expected that she misses the work her friends put into the one in front of her. And somewhere, a teacher is thinking, Wait. There’s a writing lesson in that toast.
A Thanksgiving episode can also get kids counting pie slices, investigating food waste, or figuring out why a sitcom joke works. Pick a scene, give students something to watch for, and try the activity that goes with it.
Roll the thank-you credits
Twenty Thanksgiving specials, and somehow I’m still thinking about the toast. Peppermint Patty wanted turkey. Fair enough. But somebody buttered all that toast, and there’s a lesson in pausing long enough to notice.
After you watch, have your students make their own thank-you credits. Ask them to pick one character who helped and write a line from the point of view of the person they helped. Snoopy’s might read, “Thank you for making dinner when we showed up hungry.” Then have students write one for someone in their own lives. Maybe it’s the classmate who scooted over at lunch or the sibling who explained the rules to a game. Younger students can draw the moment and say their thank-you aloud.
If your class is also studying Thanksgiving history, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian offers The “First Thanksgiving”: How Can We Tell a Better Story? The inquiry includes Wampanoag perspectives, primary and secondary sources, and a video on Cranberry Day as a living harvest tradition.
Happy Thanksgiving, Teachertainers. Now, can someone pass the popcorn, please and thank you.
Jake Perlman is the founder of Teachertainment, blending education, entertainment, and pop culture to turn learning into an unforgettable experience.
