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 The First Thanksgiving, What Was It Really Like?

The First Thanksgiving, What Was It Really Like?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.12

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    congregate, Custardy, get-together, inaccurate, long-standing, round-roofed, centerpiece, headdress, traditional, provided, ownership, treaty, celebration, flaky, tradition, tribe
     content words:    Another Thanksgiving, Plymouth Colony, Native American, First Thanksgiving, Native Americans

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The First Thanksgiving, What Was It Really Like?
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     A family get-together at Thanksgiving is a long-standing tradition in our country. Thanksgiving is the holiday when relatives congregate to enjoy each other's company and appreciate a good meal together.
 
2     Another Thanksgiving tradition is school activities about the Pilgrims and the Indians. Students in the early grades learn about being thankful for their food by acting out scenes of the harvest celebration at Plymouth Colony. Can you remember a Thanksgiving activity from your own early school years? Maybe you dressed up in a black and white Pilgrim outfit or a colorful feathered Indian headdress made of construction paper. Maybe you painted scenes with Indian teepees in the background. Or maybe you drew a picture of the first Thanksgiving feast with turkey and pumpkin pie served up by generous Pilgrims.
 
3     Is this what the first Thanksgiving was really like? The answer is both "yes" and "no."
 
4     Yes, there have been harvest celebrations and celebrations of thanks since the earliest days of our country. Longer than that, as a matter of fact. Since ancient times, Native American tribes have held ceremonies of thanks for a good harvest and for other good fortune.
 
5     So, what parts are not true? In plays and stories about the 1621 Thanksgiving, often called the "First Thanksgiving," many of the details are inaccurate. In fact, so many of the details of some traditional elementary school Thanksgiving plays were inaccurate, that the Thanksgiving story you or your parents learned in elementary school may have been only part history. The other part was myth.

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