While we had already done a Thanksgiving play the year before, this year was different because we decided to create our own play based on some fun drama games we had played with our homeschool group and some primary sources about the Pilgrims we had read.

Hi! My name is Danielle and I have homeschooled my kids for 20 years. When we started homeschooling, I was concerned my kids may not be able to participate in some of the fun activities like drama that I was able to do growing up with a public school education. I quickly found out that I had nothing to worry about. There are a lot of ways to fit drama into your homeschool.

How I Directed a Thanksgiving Play and so Can You!

Sometimes I look back at the things I have done and wonder why I thought I could do something that I had never done before. Those thoughts try to stop me from doing something new. Then I remember something that I have learned throughout all of my years of homeschooling – one week at a time. No matter if I was putting together a science fair or doing something I was more passionate about like drama, I have learned that you don’t have to be an expert, you can just take it one week at a time. It has helped me tremendously as I’ve homeschooled my own children through graduating high school.

My first year leading a drama class with our homeschool group, I put together a plan to do drama games each week. I tried to focus on certain skills I thought the kids would need to learn and blend that with some really fun games. The kids loved it and looked forward to coming every week. (Check out Places Everyone!)

As the fall semester progressed, I decided to write a Thanksgiving Play, A Reason to Be Thankful, that used some of these skills that they had learned and facts from some primary sources. They performed it in front of the rest of the homeschool group as part of our Thanksgiving day celebration. This was great because parents were already planning to have their kids dress up for this Thanksgiving event, so we just coordinated who would be Pilgrims and Indians for the play.

The main skill that we focused on for the play was pantomime. We used the games "Act Like a Mime" and "Family Portraits" from Places Everyone! It was a fun way to put into action the skills the kids had been learning throughout the semester and show them off to their parents. It's also great to use pantomime in a play because it doesn't require a lot of scenery or props. 😉

There is a scene in the beginning of the play where the teacher is asking the students about Thanksgiving and one of the students points to a painting on the wall. The "painting" is actually a group of students frozen into a picture about the Pilgrims. They later come to life and the students learn what Thanksgiving is all about.

Do You Have One Group of Students or Multiple Classes?

With one group of students, you can simply practice together after assigning roles. If you have multiple classes like we did in our homeschool group, then you have to divide the roles based on the scenes of the play.

Since we were a part of a homeschool group that met once a week, one parent helped me lead the 2nd – 3rd graders in a class and the 4th – 5th graders in another class; while another set of moms led the 1st grade class that would also be performing in the play.

With two larger classes, I needed to divide the play in a way that one class could be in certain scenes and the other class could be in the others. This way they did not need to rehearse with each other until the end. The first grade class would have a different role to play.

I chose not to hold auditions for this short play and just assigned students based on the class they were in and the scene they would perform in. This play has 16 characters, but I had 23 students plus a first grade class, so I had two Squantos, two Elder Brewsters and several other duplicates because those characters are in multiple scenes. The first graders didn't have any roles, but came on stage to sing a Thanksgiving hymn as a part of the church service. They could spend most of their semester doing the class they had originally signed up for, while learning a Thanksgiving song to present for the play. They didn't even need to show up for rehearsals.

Since A Reason to Be Thankful is only about 10 minutes long, it fit in nicely with our Thanksgiving day celebrations including the Thanksgiving feast we enjoyed together and other activities we had planned for the day.

You Can Fit Drama into Your Homeschool by Performing a Thanksgiving Play

Sometimes you may be the parent that leads the drama class and production, and sometimes you may be the parent that goes along for the ride. Either way there are opportunities for you to find ways to fit drama into your homeschool.

You can learn how to write a play like I did or choose to use A Reason to Be Thankful and Places Everyone! to save yourself time for other homeschool subjects you may be working on with your students. (When you purchase the play, you'll be given an opportunity to receive the drama game curriculum at a special savings!)

It is always fun to watch kids grow in their roles and abilities when performing a play. They start out having very little understanding of what they need to do, then at some point they become the character they are portraying and can confidently move on and off stage and interact with the other characters throughout the play as if they are that character. So, why not have your students perform a Thanksgiving play this Fall and enjoy watching them learn and grow!

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Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com