Practice writing a narrative letter, a compare and contrast, an informational paragraph, and an opinion paragraph using 4 different prompts inspired by the Thanksgiving historical fiction picture book, The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dagliesh.

The four prompts include a narrative letter about traveling on the Mayflower, an informational compare and contrast paragraph, an informational paragraph about how the Native American Indians helped the Pilgrims, and a convincing opinion paragraph as to why those Pilgrims should celebrate with a Thanksgiving feast.

This picture book-based writing lesson correlates with The Thanksgiving Story. As students learn of the many difficulties that the Pilgrims faced and better understand why they were so “thankful.”

See also Thanksgiving Writing Prompts for Squanto’s Journey by Joseph Bruchac.