If you are familiar with my blog or my resources, then you know I love seasonal and holiday resources and activities. I love taking the students’ excitement and channeling it into productive, engaging work. My favorite activities to do each year are Thanksgiving writing activities involving pie tasting.
Materials Needed
- At least two different types of pies – I also include pumpkin pie because I always have a handful of students who have never tried it.
- Small plates, napkins, and silverware
- Optional Brainstorming Page (available at the end of this post)
- Optional Seasonal Drafting Paper (available at the end of this post)
Writing Activities
As the students eat the pies, they record details about each pie. Depending on your students, you may wish to have a mini-lesson before the tasting to brainstorm characteristics and sensory details for your students to look for while they are eating. I use a themed brainstorming page for the students to write their details (included in the free download at the bottom of this post). However, a blank piece of paper would also work.
The students will take the details they record and use them in their choice of writing activity. Here are the choices I give my students:
Compare and Contrast
The students can choose to compare and contrast the pies. As a class, you may want to brainstorm a list of characteristics to compare and contrast to move them past superficial comparisons. Here are some:
- Flavor/taste
- Texture
- Ingredients Used
- Messiness
- Smell
Descriptive Writing
Using similar characteristics as brainstormed for the compare and contrast essay, the students choose one of the pies and describe it in-depth. They could also describe both pies in two different essays (or the same).
Persuasive or Opinion Writing
The final option is to have the students choose one pie as their favorite and write either a persuasive essay persuading people to include this pie (and perhaps only this pie) at Thanksgiving or an opinion essay declaring their opinion of which is the best and all of their reasons why.
FREE Printables for the Thanksgiving Writing Activities
More Thanksgiving Activities
Want more Thanksgiving activities to use in your classroom? Click on the links below!
Thanksgiving Activities for Upper Elementary —> This post has more free Thanksgiving writing activities along with activities for other subjects!
Thanksgiving Science Activities
Thanksgiving Resources in my TeachersPayTeachers Store
What do you think about this Thanksgiving activity? Is this something you would do in you classroom? Do you do something similar already? Let me know in the comments!
Want More Thanksgiving Activities?
Click the links below to check out my favorite Thanksgiving math and reading activities.
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