Thanksgiving, as the name implies, is a time to give thanks for the things and people in our lives we appreciate. Many families take a moment to share what they’re thankful for around the table on the actual holiday.

You can give your students a chance to talk about the things they’re thankful for with one or more classmates in a free discussion.

After students have talked, invite any volunteers to share their thoughts with the class. You could go around the classroom one by one, since we’ll often go around the dinner table this way at Thanksgiving and give everyone the opportunity to share with the whole family. You might also have students write a paragraph or draw a picture about the people or things for which they are thankful.

Ask students to share with the class their perfect meal. It can be any kind of food either from their home culture or host culture or neither. They will create their perfect plate by writing the names of the foods and ingredients on an actual paper plate.

If you can, bring several food magazines into class so students can cut pictures from them and paste them on to a paper plate. If you don’t have any magazines they can use, just have students draw pictures on the plate. Or both! Then have students share with the class what foods they put on their plate and why.