All By Myself? A Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
Enduring Understandings
  • Personal success can lead people to give all of the credit to themselves and to forget that others (God, parents, teachers, etc) helped them in their achievements.
  • Saying 100 blessings a day reminds us of God's role in our lives.
  • The holiday of Thanksgiving gives those who celebrate the opportunity to express their gratitude to God and/or others in their lives.
Students can work individually or in pairs/chevruta on the lesson.
Before you begin,
  1. Click here to open the student source sheet.
  2. Send the URL to the students
  3. Instruct the students to make a copy of the sheet. (File < Copy or select "copy" in the resource panel)
Lesson Plan
1. Sections 1-3 - Students work individually or in pairs/chevruta to read the the sources and answer the questions.
2. (optional) When the students have completed the text work, the teacher leads a discussion of the material to make sure that the students understand each of the texts.
3. Section 4 - Students, individually or in pairs, add berachot from the siddur to the source sheet. The teacher should make sure that the students are able to find the siddur on Sefaria. From the library homepage, click on "liturgy" and choose the desired siddur.
4. (optional) After the students have added berachot and written their explanations, the teacher can lead a discussion about their choices. Teachers may also choose to set their own source sheet to "everyone can add" and display it on the smartboard. Students can add their berachot to the teacher's sheet so that everyone can see what the berachot that were chosen.
5. Section 5 - This section gives the students the opportunity to reflect on the subject of gratitude. It is recommended that students complete this section individually. Students can share their thoughts with the class in a teacher-led discussion.