Cranberry Thanksgiving

Cranberry Thanksgiving mini unit study to go along with Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin. Sites to help you supplement the book. What are your favorites?

All About Cranberries

• Cranberry Facts (Ocean Spray): How cranberries grow and are harvested.
  oceanspray.com
• Cranberry Facts (Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association): Common questions about cranberries answered by the growers.
  https://www.wiscran.org/FAQ
• Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association: Cranberry farming on Cape Cod in New England.
  https://www.cranberries.org/

Health Benefits of Cranberries

Cranberries are small, but they pack a lot of nutrition into a tart little berry.

• Vitamin C: supports the immune system and helps the body absorb iron.
• Fiber: aids digestion and helps you feel full.
• Manganese: helps the body use nutrients and supports bone health.
• Antioxidants: cranberries are one of the richest fruit sources of plant compounds like proanthocyanidins and quercetin, which help protect cells from damage.
• Urinary tract support: compounds in cranberries may help keep certain bacteria from sticking to the bladder wall. Research is mixed, and cranberries are not a treatment for an infection.
• Low in natural sugar: fresh and frozen whole cranberries are naturally low in sugar. Dried cranberries and cranberry juice cocktail usually have a lot of added sugar, so check the label.

Budget tip: stock up on bags of fresh cranberries when they go on sale in the fall and toss them in the freezer. They keep for months and go straight from the freezer into recipes and smoothies.

• Benefits of Cranberries (World’s Healthiest Foods): More on the nutrition in cranberries, from an archived copy of the page.
  web.archive.org

Art & Craft

• Cranberry Play Dough: A no-cook play dough colored and scented with cranberries.
  kidminds.org
• Edible Cranberry Slime: A taste-safe sensory activity for little ones.
  newhorizonacademy.net
• Cranberry Garland (Ocean Spray): String a garland. Make one with cinnamon sticks.
  oceanspray.com

Science

• Cranberry Anatomy Printable: Label the parts of a cranberry. You can include this in your lapbook or notebook.
  bloggymomma.com
• Cranberry Science for Early Elementary: Watch the Kanopy Kids episode about cranberries, then learn with this science sheet.
• Cranberry Suet Cake for the Birds: Make a suet cake for the wild birds with cranberries, no sugar added. You can use fresh or frozen whole cranberries.
  youtube.com
• Thanksgiving Science Activities With Cranberries: Hands-on experiments using cranberries.
  jenniferfindley.com

Social Studies

• Wampanoag Celebrations: The Wampanoag Tribe’s own page on their seasonal celebrations, from an archived copy.
  web.archive.org
• Cranberry Day: Traditional Harvest Festivals (Smithsonian NMAI): A video about the Wampanoag Cranberry Day harvest celebration.
  youtube.com
• New England Map (Enchanted Learning): A printable map to locate where the story takes place.
  enchantedlearning.com

English Language Arts

• Simile Worksheets: Practice spotting and writing similes.
  https://bogglesworldesl.com/simile_worksheets.htm

Lapbook

• Cranberry Thanksgiving Printables (Homeschool Share): Free lapbook pieces to go with the book.
  homeschoolshare.com

Field Trip

• Old Sturbridge Village: An 1830s New England living history museum.
  https://www.osv.org/

Recipes

From the Book

• Grandmother’s Famous Cranberry Bread: The recipe from the story.
  vintage.recipes

From Our Kitchen

• Butternut Squash with Wild Rice & Hazelnut Filling: Add about 3/4 cup of cranberries to the filling as a variation.
  https://homeschoolingonashoestring.com/butternut-squash-with-wild-rice-hazelnut-filling/

More Cranberry Recipes

• Raw Lemon Cranberry Cheesecake (The Blender Girl): A no-bake vegan cheesecake with lemon and cranberry.
  theblendergirl.com
• Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Cranberry Orange Bread (Celiac Mama): A quick bread for families avoiding gluten and dairy.
  celiacmama.com
• Raw Cranberry Orange Bread (The Rawtarian): Follow the directions but make a couple of swaps for raw cranberry bread. Use 1/2 cup walnuts instead of 1/2 cup pecans, and 2/3 cup dried cranberries instead of 2/3 cup raisins.
  https://www.therawtarian.com/raw-sweet-bread-recipe

🦃 More Thanksgiving Ideas

Looking for more for the holiday? Here’s our Thanksgiving page with crafts, books, songs, games, and history.

• Thanksgiving: Thankful decor, crafts, books, songs, games, recipes, and history for the holiday.
  https://homeschoolingonashoestring.com/homeschooling/homeschooling-by-subject/holidays/thanksgiving/

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