Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem Lesson Plan

Combine Language Arts and Character-Building With This Fun Lesson

Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem
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Are you in need of a quick and easy Thanksgiving lesson plan to share with your students in the week before Thanksgiving? Consider practicing acrostic poetry with your students. Acrostic poetry is great for building vocabulary and exercising creativity. 

An acrostic poem uses the letters in a word to begin each line of the poem. All of the lines of the poem relate to or somehow describe the main topic word. Here are a few quick tips to consider.

  • Model the format of acrostic poems with your students. Work together to write a collective acrostic poem on the whiteboard. You can use the sample below.
  • Give your students a Thanksgiving-related word so that they can write their own acrostic poem. Consider: gratitude, thank you, Thanksgiving, thankful, blessings, or grateful. Discuss the meaning of these words and the true meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday.
  • Give your students time to write their acrostic poems. Circulate and offer guidance as needed. Offer help but do not give students any phrases or sentences; let them do that on their own.
  • If you have time, allow the students to illustrate their poems. This project makes a great bulletin board display for November, especially if you do it early in the month!

Your students can even give their gratitude poems to family members as a creative way of saying "thank you" for all they do.

Sample Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem

Here are a few samples of Thanksgiving acrostic poems. Sample number three is written for someone.

Sample No. 1

  • G - Giving me tasty food to eat
  • R - Reading to me before I go to bed
  • A - Always working hard for our family
  • T - Treating me sweetly
  • I - I appreciate you!
  • T - Tucking me into bed at night
  • U - Understanding me when I'm upset
  • D - Doing the right things
  • E - Excellent parents!

Sample No. 2

  • T - urkey time (I love the white meat!)
  • H - oping the weather will stay cool
  • A - untie’s pumpkin pie is my favorite
  • N - ine plates around the family dinner table
  • K - eeping family traditions alive
  • S - tuffing my tummy with my nana's super stuffing
  • G - iving thanks for my family and friends
  • I - nviting our elderly neighbors over so they won’t be lonely
  • V - egetables that I love are corn and beans
  • I - think I am about to burst from all of the food
  • N - aps for the babies, grandparents, and all of us!
  • G - ames and laughter throughout the day!

Sample No. 3

  • T - Thank you for always
  • U - Understanding. Thank you for always
  • R - Remembering to be
  • K - Kind, helpful, generous, nice, and respectful of
  • E - Each other. That is why I am so happy and thankful every
  • Y - Year for everything that you do for me.
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Your Citation
Lewis, Beth. "Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem Lesson Plan." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/thanksgiving-acrostic-poem-lesson-plan-2081915. Lewis, Beth. (2023, April 5). Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem Lesson Plan. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/thanksgiving-acrostic-poem-lesson-plan-2081915 Lewis, Beth. "Thanksgiving Acrostic Poem Lesson Plan." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/thanksgiving-acrostic-poem-lesson-plan-2081915 (accessed March 19, 2024).