My 16th Great-Grandfather, William Brewster, was one of the 102 Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower ship in 1620. My mom is a big family history buff and through her research she traced her mother’s family line all the way back to the Mayflower. This makes Thanksgiving even more meaningful for our family. It has been wonderful teaching my kids about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower voyage.
We brought out all our Thanksgiving books and decided to make a Mayflower book basket to hold our books during the month.
Find an oval shaped basket or anything resembling a boat. You’ll need a dowel stick (about 2 feet tall), some muslin fabric for the sails, yarn, glue, scissors, some pencils or popsicle sticks to support the top and bottom of the sails.
Cut 2 sails out of muslin to the size that will look good with your basket. I poked small holes in the top and bottom of each sail. Then I ran the dowel stick through the holes to become the mast. I glued sticks to the top and bottom of each sail (you may want longer support sticks for this but popsicle sticks worked fine for our task). Then I tied the mast to the basket at each side.
The pictures below are of my relative, William Brewster, one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. He was a religious leader. These are depictions of him I’ve found online and a tribute marker on the land near Plymouth. The book ‘Pilgrim’ is a biography of William Brewster. My mom bought a copy at the gift shop at the Plymouth Plantation. We’ve watched several videos on YouTube about the Mayflower and learned that 10% of the American population can trace their heritage back to the Mayflower.
You could also make these fun Thanksgiving puppets and put magnets on the back so they serve double duty. My sister made these and my kids love playing with them. Use big tongue depressors and paint them, then add felt, feathers, ribbon, googley eyes, yarn or other crafts supplies to create your own set.
Mayflower on Pinterest:
I've found so many great ideas from other blogs that I've pinned to my Giving Thanks board on Pinterest. If you have a Pinterest account you can
click here for more ideas.
Here are the Thanksgiving books about the Pilgrims and Mayflower I recommend:
From National Geographic, Mayflower 1620, A new look at a Pilgrim Voyage, is an excellent visual with live photo re-enactment of Pilgrims on a ship similar to the Mayflower.
Three Young Pilgrims is a retelling of the Mayflower story from a child’s perspective.
There are many more available. Check some out from your library or find several like these on Amazon. (I am an Amazon affiliate and receive a small percentage if you buy from clicking the links. Thank you!)
I hope you share the story of the Mayflower with the children in your life. I’m eternally grateful for the Pilgrims' courage and faithfulness to create a new life and realize I would not be the person I am today without them. What are you thankful for? Do you have any favorite Pilgrim or Mayflower books? I’d love to try some new ones.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sharing this at Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap Up Party -
See other great autumn ideas here:
