Super Mom Hacks

Thanksgiving Bead Bracelet Craft & Poem (Free Printable!)

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, here’s a question for all you U.S.-based parents. Have your kids learned yet why we celebrate this holiday, and what the story behind it is? Need help? This Thanksgiving Bead Bracelet is a sweet craft to do with your preschoolers or elementary-school students, while teaching them about the first Thanksgiving in what’s now the United States.

This Thanksgiving Bead Bracelet is what’s called a “story bracelet.” and the bracelet itself will help TEACH them part of the story behind the first Thanksgiving! Plus the beads will then serve as nifty reminders of the story’s key points. (More at the end of this post about the storied past of “story bracelets.”)

This is a super-simple craft that requires only two items, and takes maybe 15 minutes to make. And it’s perfect for doing at home with your kids as a fun weekend activity, but it can also scale up for classroom settings. (I first learned about it when helping out at my girls’ kindergarten and first-grade Thanksgiving celebrations at school.)

This Thanksgiving story bracelet is a great way to teach your kids the history of Thanksgiving, while practicing colors and motor skills!

Originally published Nov. 3, 2018; last updated October 2020.

Thanksgiving Bead Bracelet Craft & Poem

While I first encountered this poem at my kids’ school, its original author (far as I can tell) was Dr. Jean Feldman. Dr. Jean, as she’s known on her website, is a renowned educator and author of numerous books, many geared toward preschool and elementary school teachers. I’ve adapted her poem slightly to make it easier to read while you’re actually doing the craft with your child.

What you need for Thanksgiving Story Bead Bracelets:

You only need two things for this craft:


How to make a Thanksgiving Story Bead Bracelet, Step-by-step:

For each bracelet, you’ll need one pipe cleaner and eight beads, in this order: white, blue, green, black, brown, red, yellow, and orange.

Slowly read through this poem with your child, starting with the pipe cleaner in your hand. As you reach each UNDERLINED/CAPS word in the poem, pause for a moment and have your child slide the corresponding bead onto the bracelet. Then, at the end, twist the pipe-cleaner ends together at the part where “they all held hands” to form a bracelet.

 

For a FREE printable form of the poem and directions, click HERE.

 

Thanksgiving Story Bracelet Poem

With this bracelet you will know
The first Thanksgiving that was long, long ago.
The Pilgrims set sail from far away
On the Mayflower with tall WHITE sails.
They sailed many days across the ocean BLUE.
The seas were rough, but the ship came through.
At last they spotted land so GREEN,
They were so happy they cheered and screamed!
The first year was so hard and BLACK,
Many died, or wished that they could go back.
But the Native Americans gave them a hand
And helped them survive in the strange new land.
They decided to celebrate in a special way
And that became the first Thanksgiving day.
They prepared a feast with turkeys BROWN
And RED cranberries that they had found,
YELLOW corn that they’d learned to grow,
And ORANGE pumpkin pies, don’t you know!
But before they ate the turkey and dressing,
THEY ALL HELD HANDS for a thankful blessing!

Tips, tricks, and hints for making Thanksgiving story bracelets:

There’s two sides to every story…

Did you know that the history of stringing beads to tell a story goes WAY back, to before Europeans first settled in what is now the United States?

Eastern Woodlands tribes of native peoples (the broader cultural grouping that inhabited much of what’s now the northeast, including where the Pilgrims landed) had a long history of stringing beads together to record and commemorate important events. These beaded items, made of purple and whitish beads carved from quahog (COE-hog) and whelk shells, are known as wampum.

Quahogs: source of wampum beads, and a wicked good appetizer when stuffed and baked by my Mama.

While most Americans celebrate Thanksgiving as a national day of gratitude, many descendants of this continent’s earliest occupants instead mark the fourth Thursday of November as a national day of mourning. If you try and think about this for a moment from their perspective, this makes perfect sense. Especially when you consider the Thanksgiving history that students in U.S. public schools traditionally learn. Far as anyone can tell, after that first Thanksgiving, the native peoples of southern New England just disappeared.

To be fair, many of them did succumb to disease or assimilation. But having grown up in southern New England, I can assure you that plenty of their descendants are still around.

But how to make this a “teachable moment” for kids?

I can understand that parents of very small children might prefer to gloss over these details when teaching their kiddos about the history of Thanksgiving. But as someone who taught U.S. history until the girls were born, I can’t ignore the fact that every history has at least two sides. So,

 

Click here to download your free Thanksgiving poem/bracelet craft printable!

Ready to make this Thanksgiving bead craft with your children? Please share by pinning this image!

 

 

NOTE: This site contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission from any purchases made through affiliate links, at no additional cost to you. For more information, please read the full disclosure/privacy policy.

 

Follow Super Mom Hacks on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Or stay in the loop by joining our mailing list!

 

Exit mobile version