Thanksgiving {Turkey Day}

We get to spend Thanksgiving with grandmas, grandpas and cousins next week, so we are doing our week of Thanksgiving preschool a little early! Today we had our friend preschool and had a fun Turkey Day!

• Turkey Hats … this was a perfect gathering activity.
  1. Print out a fun turkey coloring page. I used an old copy I had from my student teaching days. Click here for another great coloring page. 
  2. Let the kids color it with lots of color!
  3. Cut it out and write “Turkey Matt” or “Turkey Sue” on the front.
  4. Add a 2” paper headband.

• Read “Run, Turkey, Run!” by Diane Mayr
  1. My kids think this book is hilarious. The farmer, of course, wants turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey just wants to get away. He thinks if he acts like the pigs or the ducks or the horses, then the farmer won’t find him. I love the consistency as each of the animals say, “Run, turkey, run!”
  2. Have the kids help say “run, turkey, run!” throughout the book.

• Preschool Journal Page
  1. Practice writing “Turkey”
  2. Draw a picture of a turkey
  3. Add turkey stickers to the page.

• Turkey Puppets & Songs
  1. The kids loved holding these turkey puppets to sing our songs.
  2. I found these little felt turkey stickers at Michaels.
  3. Add a craft stick to the back.
  4. Songs to sing:

     Turkey Dinner (sung to the tune: Frere Jacque) Turkey dinner, turkey dinner Gather round, gather round Who will get the drumstick? Yummy, yummy drumstick All sit down. All sit down. Cornbread muffin, chestnut stuffin’ Pumpkin pie, 10 feet high All of us were thinner before we came to dinner. Me, oh my! Me, oh my! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Turkey Ran Away Oh my goodness! (put hands on cheeks like you’re surprised) The turkey ran away! (run turkey puppet in front of you) What shall we eat on Thanksgiving Day? (put hands out to the side, palms up like you’re asking a question) *Each time you sing it, let one of the kids choose which food they would have instead of turkey!

 

• Pattern Block Turkeys
  1. Cut out a simple turkey body from brown paper.
  2. Add a beak, gobble, and googly eyes.
  3. Tape the turkey to the table (so it won’t wiggle).
  4. Let the kids use pattern blocks to create feathers for their turkey.
  5. NOTE: we talked about symmetry, so the kids tried to make the feather blocks the same on each side to make them symmetrical!
• Run, Turkey, Run Game … by now the kids are ready to wiggle!
  1. Find a good place for the kids to run around. Outside if the weather is good. It was raining here, so we have a permanent race track around our living room and kitchen table.
  2. Start the kids off by saying “Run, Turkeys, Run!”
  3. Change it up by saying:
     • Jump, Turkeys, Jump!
     • Freeze, Turkeys, Freeze!
     • Crawl, Turkeys, Crawl!
     • Hop, Turkeys, Hop!
     • Walk, Turkeys, Walk!

 

• Turkey Word Families
  1. Print out these adorable word family turkeys from First Grade Parade.
  2. Cut out several colorful feathers.
  3. I wrote my own word families on the blank turkeys (a little simpler for preschoolers)
  4. We used our magnetic letter tiles to make new words.
  5. Have the kids put a letter next to the word chunk, then copy it onto the feather. Don’t worry if the word is not real, just compliment them on coming up with a rhyming word!

• Colorful Rice Crispy Turkeys
1. Make a batch of rice crispy treats.
2. With buttered hands, make several rice crispy balls. Cool on wax paper.
3. Insert 5 toothpicks into the rice crispy ball making the turkeys feathers.
4. Have the kids string Fruit Loops onto the toothpicks.
5. You could also add a candy corn beak and chocolate chip eyes.