Vintage Children's Thanksgiving Poetry for Those in Colder Climates

THANKSGIVING DAY

Over the river and through the wood,
To grandfather's house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.
Over the river and through the wood—
Oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
And bites the nose,
As over the ground we go.
Over the river and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring,
"Ting-a-ling-ding!"
Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!
Over the river and through the wood
Trot fast, my dapple-gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting-hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.
Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barn-yard gate
We seem to go
Extremely slow,—
It is so hard to wait!
Over the river and through the wood—
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin-pie?
~ Lydia Maria Child

Free and in public domain: Childhood's Favorites and Fairy Stories The Young Folks Treasury, Volume 1

Over the River and Through the Woods free geography lesson(grades1-2).

Repost from 2007.

Free Thanksgiving Coloring Pages

Here is a sampling:







Click here for printable and saveable pdf copies. They print out nicely.

HT to Betsy who has an ongoing list of Thanksgiving links on her blog.

Repost 2007.

Children's Thanksgiving Coloring Page

Right click on image to save and print.

Source: mostlypaperdolls.blogspot.com via Alexandra on Pinterest

Stocking Up with Holiday Sales

Tonight we had a simple dinner of baked potatoes(frozen in early November) with cheese, sweet potatoes, and homemade cranberry relish. Delicious! And all where from the freezer, gleaned from extreme holiday sales.

I've been having a great time stocking up the pantry with super inexpensive post-Thanksgiving grocery sales. Nothing makes my day like finding a tower of canned sweet peas and green beans for .29 cents each! I'll be returning to the Bottom Dollar grocery store to purchase more tomorrow. Sweet potatoes have been .39 cents pound, and yellow onions, a dollar a bag. I've been cooking and baking loads of onions and sweet potatoes every night for the freezer.

I also stocked up on canned pumpkin. It has been scarce at the grocery stores this past year. I found one good coffee deal at Save-A-Lot - .13 cents an ounce, where the usual price hovers around 15 cents an ounce for store brand coffee. Reportedly, coffee prices(among other foods) are on the rise. It may be a good time to stock up on sales while prices are still low.

Saint Nicholas Day is fast approaching, and the Dollar Tree didn't disappoint. I got some Christmas chocolates and glitter glue pens for my daughter's Saint Nicholas shoe which is put out the night before December 6th for Saint Nicholas to fill with treats. My son is at the age where he settles for an IOU or cash for his favorite books and games - easy. Also found at the Dollar Tree: six ounce jars of marinated chopped gourmet mushrooms, 28 ounce cans of chopped tomatoes, six ounce boxes of organic California raisins, 32 ounce box containers of all natural chicken broth, 6.5 ounces of cinnamon, and 2.5 ounce bottles of pure extracts of vanilla, lemon, and orange.

The sales and discounts have been much less prolific this year. Turkey and ham discount deals have been sparse or non-existent. Stores are being more conservative with their stock, but I can still find a few excellent deals.

Classic Thanksgiving Poetry and Stories

Copy and paste at links:

Paul Laurence Dunbar writes: "The sun hath shed its kindly light, / Our harvesting is gladly o'er, / Our fields have felt no killing blight, / Our bins are filled with goodly store."

Rebecca Harding Davis writes: "On Thanksgiving morning a light flutter of snow fell on the woods and carpet of red leaves below. Jane stood at her window, looking into the bright, silent Heaven beyond."

Lydia Maria Child, Over the River and Through the Woods

and Louisa May Alcott's rendition on Thanksgiving.

Courtesy of
 About.com Classic Literature

Low Calorie Pumpkin Cookies and Muffins

I found this recipe for pumpkin cookies at DeeDee's Weight Watchers Recipes. Check out her other low point muffin and pumpkin recipes.

These pumpkin muffins are only 1.5 points if you leave out the oil, chips, and replace the sugar with artificial sweetener. I'll be making these today, and bringing some to my sister-in-laws home for Thanksgiving. I'm glad I can indulge and not break my diet! Pumpkin desserts are my favorite. Update: These were very good! I'm be making more. Cinnamon apple sauce would taste even better.

Pumpkin bread can be made lower calorie simply by substituting plain apple sauce(no sweetener added) for oil and using artificial sweetener. The bread is a bit soft and chewy, but still delicious.

Other oil substitutes: sour cream or plain yogurt.

Free Thanksgiving Children's Activity Print-outs and Stories

Vintage Children's Thanksgiving Poetry for Those in Colder Climates

Free Printable Vintage Children's Thanksgiving Poems and Stories

Free Notebooking Thanksgiving Pages

Free Thanksgiving ebook: Mary of Plymouth by James Otis

Vintage American Indian Thanksgiving Hiawatha Cut Outs

Another Children's Vintage Cut and Paste Thanksgiving Project and Coloring Page 

The above posts are from years past.

November Multi-grade Short Stories, Poems, and Clip Art

Thanksgiving, A North American Holiday

Bumped up from 2007

For my friends from other continents, a little about Thanksgiving.

How we celebrate:

It is customary to have turkey and dishes featuring North American autumn fruits and vegetables. It's a time when extended family gets together to share each others company and give thanks for God's abundance and mercy. There is a contemporary tradition to watch football, and fall asleep in an easy chair after making a glutton of yourself. We don't watch football here, ack, did I say that out loud! Sacrilege! My husband loved sports as a young person, and excelled at it, but curiously he doesn't enjoy watching it on television.

We usually have my out-of-town parents over, but this year they have other plans. Dh has to work Thanksgiving day, so we'll be going to the fire station for a tasty homemade meal over there. No cooking for me except a dessert dish.

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

"Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day, is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks for the things one has at the end of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. The period from Thanksgiving Day to New Year's Day is often collectively referred to as the "holiday season" in the United States."

The first Thanksgivings were celebrated by early settlers in the New World.

"The Pilgrims were particularly thankful to Squanto, the Native American who taught them how to catch eel and grow corn and who served as an interpreter for them (Squanto had learned English as a slave in Europe and travels in England). Without Squanto's help the Pilgrims might not have survived in the New World. The explorers who later came to be called the "Pilgrims" set apart a day to celebrate at Plymouth immediately after their first harvest, in 1621. At the time, this was not regarded as a Thanksgiving observance; harvest festivals were existing parts of English and Wampanoag tradition alike."

The story of the Pilgrims is a popular Thanksgiving tradition, and the children often put on plays, and make little crafty things related to autumn harvest and the Pilgrims.

Also check out this post at Laudem Gloriae, a small bit of history regarding the Pilgrims, Democracy, Thanksgiving, etc. HT to Tea at Trianon.

Free Thanksgiving and Pilgrim Paintings and Artwork

Click here, lots and lots of images in public domain.

Free Printable Vintage Thanksgiving Postcard Place Cards

Click here for more, so nice!

Educational Freebies at Currclick

A few freebies I downloaded from Currclick(e-curriculum) tonight:

Anne of Green Gables Study Guide
Blackline Maps of World History Free Sampler
Shenanigans at Sugar Creek by Paul Hutchens
TBB Periodic Table of Elements Card Kits
Thanksgiving - A Creative Writing & History Elective
Gift Magi(OHenry)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: A Novel-Ties Study Guide
The Timeline Project

More here.

Cut and Color Table Top Turkey

We are making this tomorrow for grandmom's/aunties Thanksgiving table. See here for template and directions. Instead of card stock, we are using recycled dry food boxes.

Image is from site.

Printable Children's Poetry: The Pumpkin by Whittier

From Poems by Grades(1-4),1904, pages 223-224, free and in public domain. To print at link, right click on the image of the pages. This one is listed under grade four, but could be used by older children as well.

This is a wonderful melodic read-aloud poem for Thanksgiving. Easy to read, understand, and enjoy.

Free Thanksgiving Children's Activity Print-outs and Stories

See more activities at Kaboose

Children's Thanksgiving Crafts

Cardboard cut-out of Miles Standish

Grow a yam.

See here for directions.

Free Homeschool Curriculum: Vintage Fall/Autumn Nature Study, Literature, and Poetry

Repost from last year:


All are in public domain and are free to read, print, and download.

In the Child's World, K-First, various lessons

Graded Literature Readers, First Grade(Apples)

The Finch First Reader, first quarter of the book covers fall(beautiful illustrations).

Nature Study in Elementary Schools, First Grade Reader

Nature Study in Elementary Schools, Second Grade Reader

The Haliburton Second Grade Reader , poem

The Art-literature Readers, Third Grade, poem and art

The Goose Quill Third Grade, poetry lesson

Good English, Oral and Written Third Grade, see Chapter 3 and 4 for fall themes.

Stepping Stones to Literature Third Reader, How The Oak Tree Became King.

The Children's Friend(LDS) Apple story

The Goose Quill, third grade, entire section on autumn.

Language Through Nature, Literature, and Art(Third grade), nature study and writing assignment

The Story of a Caterpillar (mid-elementary school)

The Cambridge Book of Poetry for Children, Keats - To Autumn; Allingham - Robin Red Breast for younger children.

Farm Arithmetic, Apple word problem (about fifth grade)

The Farmer and His Friends - apples and corn, about fifth grade, very factual

Insect Life, upper elementary

The Stars and Their Stories - The Winged Horse(Autumn constellation), elementary

Poetry of the Seasons, middle elementary and up.

Poems by Grades, middle elementary and up

Independent Fifth Reader , poem

Nature Study Made Easy, ages 10-11, fifth grade. Select Autumn plant chapters.

The American Normal Readers Fifth Grade, October poem

Sixth Grade Nature Study

Nature Study Lessons for Primary Grades

The Outdoor Handy Book, Autumn ( Classic Boy's Outdoors Book)

Nature in Verse, elementary

A Child's Book of Saints, Golden Apples and Roses Red(Patroness of Gardeners)

Nature Study, by Grades - see fall work for fourth and fifth grades

Sharp Eyes, A day-by-day nature study(fall), middle school

Eighth Reader, poem

The Fun of Cooking, Jams and Jellies

Peter and Polly in Autumn(late second-third grade reader)
An Evening in Autumn(fourth-fifth grade reader)

All the year round: a nature reader, Autumn(late elementary)


Teacher Helps, Lesson Plans:

How Nature Study Should be Taught(Autumn, elementary)

Nature Study by Months, elementary.

Type Lessons for Primary Teachers in the Study of Nature, Literature and Art for grades One through Four. Fall nature study.

Trees that Every Child Should Know

Home Games and Parties: A Corn Husking and An Apple-Paring Bee


School Arts: Autumn.

Also see Free Thanksgiving Printable Stories.

Another Children's Vintage Cut and Paste Thanksgiving Project and Coloring Page

I keep finding these in vintage public domain pages. They are so charming, I just have to share. This one is from a 1919 School Arts Magazine. Click to enlarge and print. It's a Thanksgiving basket.



And a coloring page.

Children's Printable Vintage Thanksgiving Stories, Poems, Activity Sheets, and Coloring Pages

There are too many to list, but to make your search easier, I've linked my Google Books library to search term "Thanksgiving, Massasoit". There are 54 books with stories for all grade levels, just click through, select a book, right click on the pages(s) you want, save, and print. All are in public domain, free to download, and print.

My Google Books Library(1000+ free children's homeschool ebooks)

Also see these posts from past years for quicker access to stories, etc.. I inserted "Thanksgiving" into the search engine on this blog, so there are a few unrelated posts, but just scroll past those. Also see here for books about Pilgrims.

My eleven year old son is reading this version from The Beginner's American History by David Henry Montgomery, 1915, and this one from Short Stories from American History, 1905. Both are good for about fourth through sixth grade.

Vintage American Indian Thanksgiving Hiawatha Cut Outs

Click on images to enlarge and print.

Found in public domain(1915) at Google books.

Homemade Gifts from Vintage Clip Art

Made from free vintage clip art printed onto photo fabric(available at craft stores).
Craft Project - Thanksgiving Burlap Napkin Rings

Pretty Muslin Bag