French Thanksgiving Ideas

It can be hard to come up with French Thanksgiving ideas for your classes, since it’s not a holiday in France. But that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate.

French Thanksgiving ideas – compare and contrast cultures

Thanksgiving gives you a chance to do a compare and contrast activity about how the holiday is celebrated, or why it isn’t celebrated. It’s easy to find articles in French Canadian sites, and you can compare the foods and ways of celebrating. You could also read the food ads or recipes in magazines or on web sites to compare the cost of a typical Thanksgiving meal in Canada vs. the US. You can discuss the date of the holiday and brainstorm explanations for why Canadians celebrate earlier than Americans.

French Thanksgiving ideas – crafts

Each year I have my students think about what they are thankful for and teach them how to say “Je suis reconnaissant.e de”.  I explain to them that while Canadians do celebrate Thanksgiving, the French don’t – no pilgrims, none of the traditional stuff, no turkey. Even though it isn’t a French holiday, it’s still a good thing to think about what we’re thankful for.  I’ve had students make the little hand turkeys and come up with 4 different things they are thankful for (one for each finger, with the thumb being the turkey’s head).  For level 1 students, just listing words is enough. For upper levels, they can write more complex sentences.

This year I just had them answer the question on their bell work, since there were a lot of absences, and I wasn’t up to making a mess cutting out paper everywhere. The one thing that comes up most frequently is: Je suis reconnaissante de ma famille. That is usually followed by mes amis. I always get a few references to cars, video gaming consoles, and other material things.  But by far, family is the number one thing listed.  If I were to make my own turkey this year, I would put on it: ma famille, mes amis, ma santé, and mon chien. 

If you’d like to extend this idea, you might have your students write a short note in French to someone that they are thankful for – one of the Spanish teachers in my school has her students write a thank-you note to a teacher of their choice. While many of our teachers do speak Spanish, some don’t. In this case, the students write the note in Spanish and then include a translation or translate it for the teacher they give it to.

On a less personal level, I’m also grateful that we have a democracy where people are able to cast their vote for those who will represent them in government – I worked at a polling location this year and I saw so many people who were voting for the first time!  It was very exciting and such a wide variety of ages – there were several who were older adults who had never voted before, but they did this year. I hope that this is a trend that continues, with everyone taking the time to cast a vote.  

If you are looking for additional French Thanksgiving Ideas for your classes, here are some ideas.