Before Plymouth, a History of Thanksgiving, and Thanksgivings Compared

By this time next Thursday many Americans will be plopped in front of a television, watching football, and or napping after eating Thanksgiving turkey. Last Friday I shared a short list of Thanksgiving lesson materials. Here are three videos that you might want to consider showing to students too. These videos are geared toward the middle school and high school ages.

When Is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America is an episode in John Green's Crash Course on US History. The video starts with the history of Jamestown before moving onto Plymouth. Green does a good job of illustrating the differences between why and how each colony was established. This is video is suitable for high school students, but Green's use of sarcasm (which I actually like) and the details would probably be lost on middle school students.


The History Channel's History of Thanksgiving provides a short overview of the history of American Thanksgiving. This video is suitable for middle school students.



And now just for fun here's a video that explains the differences between American and Canadian Thanksgiving. This video is appropriate for high school students. (I would stop it before the credits roll at the end).