Psalm 50:14 -- Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.
Psalm 69:30 -- I will praise the name of God with a aosng, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 95:2 -- Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
Psalm 100:4 -- Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him and bless His name.
Psalm 107:22 -- Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing.
Psalm 116:17 -- I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
Psalm 147:7 -- Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving...
THANKSGIVING DAY (Classroom Use K-5)
The fourth Thursday in November in Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving
is our oldest national holiday and most Americans do not have to
go to school or work.
Thanksgiving started over 370 years ago with the Pilgrims. In the
fall of 1620, one hundred and two Pilgrims came to the United States
from England. They came on a boat called the Mayflower. Most of the
people came for religious freedom. All came for new lives.
The first winter, the Pilgrims were hungry, sick and cold. They
were unprepared for the harsh winter and because they had no homes
and very little food, many of them died. The Indians helped the Pilgrims.
They taught the Pilgrims to plant and store corn, pumpkins and squash
to see them through the next winter.
In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrim leader, William Bradford, ordered
a day for giving thanks to God. Church services were held, followed
by a feast of wild turkey and quail. That first Thanksgiving the
Pilgrims and Indians feasted for three days on the food prepared
by the Pilgrim women. They gave thanks to God for their new land
and the help that they had received from the Indians.
When George Washington became President in 1789, his first proclamation
was to declare a national day of Thanksgiving to thank God for His
care and protection.
TEACHING TIPS for using Thanksgiving Proclamations
in the classroom
Make copies for the entire faculty and for your class(es) to take
home
Offer your copy to other teachers, if it is not duplicated, or place
it on the faculty bulletin board
Tell the pupils about the Annual Thanksgiving Day Proclamation by
presidents of the United States urging the whole country to give
thanks to God
Use Lincoln's and Washington's Proclamation from this web site
Ask a pupil, or several pupils to read the Proclamation in an assembly
or class
Request the principal to announce it in the school bulletin or at
a faculty meeting
Use as a study project for the entire class
Use the historical background of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving
observance as a background for current study of our American affluent
living conditions
Discuss difficult words or new ones, making clear their meaning
Ask pupils WHY Presidents write a Proclamation for the entire nation?
Have pupils write themes on Thanksgiving and/or their own proclamation.
We do appreciate hearing from our Teachers! If you have a Thanksgiving Teaching Tip or how you personally used
the Presidential Proclamation, please let
CEAI know.E-Mail
Comments from Teachers
"I always look forward to receiving from
you proclamations from the President...and have made it a practice
to copy the Thanksgiving one for every staff member in my school.
Thank you so much for all that you do to help us! I am grateful
for our organization." L.A.P.
"I read (in an abreviated version) the
proclamation from President to my kindergarten class. They were
impressed we had a message from the president. God is at work in
our public schools. Thank you for CEAI and it's encouragement to
us to be faithful." J.L. Oregon