November is the perfect time to build a daily writing habit in the classroom. A themed journal helps students reflect on gratitude, fall changes, and Thanksgiving traditions while practicing sentence structure, handwriting, and creative expression. If you have not chosen a November Writing Journal yet or want to add a little extra seasonal fun to your writing centers, this one may be just what you need.
You can download FREE SAMPLE PAGES, from the November Writing Journal here! If you would like the full packet, scroll to the end of this post for links to my online stores.
What’s Inside the November Writing Journal
This 41 page writing packet is filled with Thanksgiving themed prompts and fall writing ideas that help young learners explore gratitude, history, and imagination while practicing handwriting and sentence building skills.
Draw and Label Pages
Perfect for beginning writers who are building vocabulary and confidence.
Students draw and label:
- Parts of a turkey
- Contents of a cornucopia
- A Pilgrim and a Native American
List Writing Prompts
Encourage students to organize ideas and record them clearly:
- Thanksgiving Menu
- Things Pilgrims Did Not Have
- On Veterans Day, we honor
How To Writing
Help students develop sequencing and procedural writing skills with prompts that come with and without picture supports:
- How to Catch a Turkey
- How to Cook a Turkey
- How Squanto Plants Corn / How to Plant Corn
Opinion Writing
Guide students to express preferences and give reasons with structured prompts:
- I would rather eat (green beans or sweet potatoes)
- The best place to live would be (log cabin or teepee)
- Best Thanksgiving food (turkey or ham)
More open ended opinion prompts include:
- Football is a fun sport because…
- Veterans Day is important because…
- Native Americans were helpful to the Pilgrims because…
Sentence Starters and Picture Prompts
Support early writers with visual cues and simple sentence frames:
- A turkey has
- I am thankful for
- On Thanksgiving Day, I eat
- The best dessert to eat on Thanksgiving Day is
- For Thanksgiving, my family and I (activities)
- The Native Americans can
- The pilgrims can
- The pilgrims had
- Soldiers (describing)
- I am thankful for our veterans because
Narrative Writing
Encourage storytelling and creativity with these prompts:
- Describing turkeys (sentence writing)
- Write a sentence to match the picture (boy and turkey)
- Write a story about a family Thanksgiving dinner
- Write a story about a Native American teaching a Pilgrim to fish
Additional story starters include:
- If I had a pet turkey…
- Living in a teepee
- Pilgrim chores
- While hiking with my family in the woods, I suddenly heard…
- My favorite thing to do when the weather gets colder…
Poetry and Letter Writing
Finish the journal with these special writing pages:
- Acrostic poem: NOVEMBER
- Letter to a Veteran
How to Use the November Writing Journal
This writing packet works well in a variety of classroom settings.
- Use one page each day as a quick morning warm up or independent writing task.
- Add pages to your literacy centers for extra practice in sequencing, labeling, and sentence writing.
- Encourage students to build their own November Writing Journal booklet by stapling the completed pages together.
- Revisit the finished journals at the end of the month to reflect on writing progress and celebrate student growth.
Purchase the November Writing Journal
You can purchase the complete 41 page November Writing Journal by clicking the store links below.
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Happy Teaching 🙂
