Favorite Thanksgiving Picture Books

 Halloween picture books were perfect for teaching the life cycle of plants and pumpkins, as well as, the difference between fruits and vegetables. 

Thanksgiving picture books are ideal for covering social studies standards (geography, native American studies, American history) language arts, and of course, mathematics, while immersed in the storytelling and inching toward Christmas. 

 

 

Best Thanksgiving Reads and Why Kids Like Them:

 

1. Thanksgiving on Thursday by Mary Pope Osborne is a must-read and always the number one on the Thanksgiving reading list. Jack and Annie are our all-time favorite characters, and if you are a primary grades teacher, surely you have read the whole series of Magic Tree House multiple times. 

 

The best element of the Magic Tree House is the immersion in storytelling. Thanksgiving on Thursday is filled with history, new vocabulary, tradition, and the ability to compare our Thanksgiving practices today to the First Thanksgiving.

2. Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey is the Teacher's Pick on Amazon. On the night before Thanksgiving, a group of schoolchildren visits Farmer Mack Nuggett's farm. All is fun and games until the kids realize what's awaiting the turkeys. One doesn't have to be a vegetarian to understand children's love and concern for animals. All ends well as the kids take it upon themselves to save the turkeys. Super Read!!! 

 

 

3. "A Turkey for Thanksgiving" by Eve Bunting is an all-time Thanksgiving picture book classic in which everyone is looking for Turkey. 

 

The story is quite a suspense as the reader and Turkey try to figure out if Mr. and Mrs. Moose are searching for Turkey to have it for a meal or invite it to dinner. Turkey's behavior is priceless and hilarious! 

 

 

4. "How to Catch A Turkey" is perhaps the best out of the How to Catch Series. A turkey is loose in the school and stirs up chaos before it accepts its fate of being a school mascot. Written for primary-grade students, this text is great for teaching and practicing rhyme, story sequence, cause and effect, inferencing, and perspective.