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.

Thanksgiving Snack Boats

Here’s a quick, last minute project for the Thanksgiving table!

Simply print the template from Dandee on brown cardstock, cut, fold, tape and fill it with yummy treats to snack on Or write names on the sails and use as place cards.

Here’s the link to the template.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Pretzel Cups

 

These were fun treats to make today. And simple too. Candy coated pretzel rods make a colorful (and tasty!) feather display in these cute turkey cups.

• Make a turkey cup
  1. Cut out a brown paper turkey head (or skip this step and buy brown paper cups!)
  2. Glue on googly eyes
  3. Cut out and add a beak and waddle (that little red thing hanging down) My kids cut out their own and I love how different they look!
  4. Use clear packing tape to attach your turkey head to the cup.

• Dip the turkey feathers
  1. I used red, orange and yellow candy melts (found mine at Joann on sale for $2-something). Melt according to directions in separate bowls.
  2. Use the long pretzel rods.
     • TIP: They were a little too long and kept tipping the cups over, so I broke them in half before dipping.
  3. Dip the pretzels and cool on wax paper.

Fill your turkey cup with several colorful pretzel feathers. A fast, easy, and tasty decoration for your Thanksgiving table!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank You, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is just around the corner! I love this time of the year. I love Thanksgiving and the focus it gives me on friends, family, and ALL the blessings I have. Today for preschool, I used one of my favorite Thanksgiving books and wanted to keep it simple. I love it that the kids just love to play. They learn through play and interact through play. We didn’t get all of this done, but here are several ideas for a …

“Thank You, Thanksgiving Day”

• Read “Thank You, Thanksgiving” by David Milgrim … available here.
  1. Easily one of my favorite Thanksgiving books. This little girl takes a walk to the store for whipped cream for the Thanksgiving pie. All along the way, she notices the little things … “thank you, park” “thank you, pretty clouds” “thank you, hill” (as she sleds down), “thank you, mixer” and “thank you, pie with whipped cream!”
• How to say “Thank you”
  1. Teach the kids a few ways to say “thank you” in different languages.
  2. Have them practice saying it with you:
     • English = thank you
     • Spanish = gracias (grah-see-us)
     • Hawaiian = mahalo (muh-ha-low)
     • French = merci (mahr-see)
     • German = (dahn-kuh)
     • Japanese = (ah-ree-gah-to)
     • Portuguese = obrigado (oh-bree-gah-doh)
  3. Here’s a great link to several languages!

• Make a colorful thankful turkey … these turned out cute!
  1. Collect several colorful paint swatches from a store like Home Depot or Lowes.
  2. Cut out a simple turkey feather shape from each swatch.
  3. Punch a hole in the bottom of each feather.
  4. Make a simple turkey face! … Cut a round circle from brown paper. Add 2 googly eyes and a triangle beak.
  5. Punch a hole near the bottom center of the turkey head.
  6. Write “I am THANKFUL for …” along the top of the turkey head.
  7. Let the kids pick out several feathers (the more the better!)
  8. Attach the feathers to the turkey with a metal brad.
  9. Let the kids tell you what they are thankful for and write each one on a feather, then let them illustrate it. We had everything from family, to Dora, to Reese’s Pieces
• Play with Pumpkin Playdough … I have to admit, this was my first time making homemade playdough and it was easy! It turned out great.
  1. I used this recipe from Joyce at Dinosaurs & Octopuses.
  2. It has pumpkin pie spice and vanilla extract. I actually had a head cold when I made this, so I couldn’t smell a thing. I kept having my husband smell it and tell me if it smelled pumpkiny enough. Today, I’m much better and sure enough, it smells great! Just remind the kids not to eat it
  3. If you’ve never made playdough, here are some before and after pictures. It looks like a glump of goo when you start, but thickens up just right and makes great soft playdough!                                            
  4. We used little rolling pins, ABC cookie cutters and popsicle sticks to play.

 

• Thanksgiving ABC fishing game … my 4-year-old really enjoyed this game from Making Learning Fun (tons of great ideas!)
  1. Print out the ABC sheet above.
  2. Have the kids choose a letter tile (available here)
     • You can also use Scrabble tiles or print these ABC tiles and cut them out. Just click the picture below.
     • Or we just used our ABC fish from another week’s activities.
  3. Have the kids name the letter, then choose a crayon and color the matching fish on their page.
  4. I loved this for my 4-year-old. It was a fun way to check and see which letters and sounds he knew.
  5. We also sang this letter sound song as he colored them in:

(to the tune of Farmer in the Dell)

The B says “buh.” The B says “buh”.

Every letter makes a sound.

The B says “buh!”

• Play with Floating Cranberries … this was a hit too.
  1. Fill the sink or a large tub with water.
  2. Place a towel on the table or floor and just realize it’s going to get a little wet I tried to be pretty easy-going about it, but we did have one “no splashing” rule.
  3. Dump in a bag (or two) of cranberries. Available in the produce section right now.
  4. Give the kids slotted spoons and tins with holes punched in the bottom.
  5. They had a great time and played and played.

 

• Pilgrims & Native American Coloring Page … also from Making Learning Fun.
  1. Print, color and cut out.
  2. Attach a popsicle stick and use to re-tell the Thanksgiving story!
  3. Or glue to a toilet paper tube and they will stand up on their own.

Thanks for taking a picture Camie!

Snack Idea: Mini Pies … since our book “Thank You, Thanksgiving” ends with “Thank you, pie with whipped cream!” we had mini pies for our treat. I didn’t take a single picture before they were eaten but they were bite-sized and yummy. Similar to the larger pies here.

1. Use homemade or store-bought pie crust.
2. Use a cup to cut circles in the crust.
3. Press lightly into a mini muffin tin.
4. Fill will pumpkin and apple pie filling, then bake.
5. Or bake first, cool, then fill with chocolate pudding.
6. Mmmm!

Thankful Turkey

There are so many fun ways to make a thankful turkey or even a thankful tree. This is the tradition in our home…

We started our turkey when my oldest was 2 years old. I decided to keep the feathers because I loved his little drawings. I wrote his name and the year at the end of each feather. Now four years later, I’m so glad I’ve kept them. We re-read them this year and they giggled and smiled and loved remembering what they had written in past years. We just keep adding new feathers each year.

• Start with a turkey body
1. I used a brown 12” by 12” scrapbook paper for the body.
2. Add a beak and feet
3. Add little eyes with a sharpie
4. Cut out a cute, plump turkey tummy from scrapbook paper
5. Write “I am Thankful for…”

• Cut out several blank turkey feathers on colored paper
1. I traced the feathers we use so you can print them out easily! Just load colored paper into the printer!
2. Click the image above to download.

 

• I am Thankful for…
1. Every couple of nights, we each get a feather and write down something we’re thankful for.
2. I write the word for our younger kids, then they draw a picture of it.
3. Don’t forget to make a little note at the end of the feather of who said it and what year.
4. Then up it goes on our turkey. He is sure getting plump!

Pilgrims & Indians

With I week landing early in November, it’s perfect to start getting ready for Thanksgiving with some fun activities with Pilgrims and Indians (of course, you can explain the term Native Americans, too).

 

• Read “The Story of Thanksgiving” by Nancy J. Skarmeas … I love these books. There are several of them. They’re simple and do a great job explaining on a kid’s level.

• Simple Indian Headband
  1. Place a long piece of colorful duct tape sticky side up on the table.
  2. Give the kids several colorful craft feathers to choose from.
  3. Place the quill (stem?!) of the feathers on the sticky tape.
  4. Top with another long piece of duct tape … sticky side down.
  5. Measure around your preschooler’s head and use one more piece of matching duct tape to secure the headband at the right size!
• Learning to Plant Corn … also a Treat!
  1. Read a simple book about Squanto, a friend to the pilgrims, who showed the Indians how to plant corn and other seeds, by adding a fish to the hole (as the fish rotted, it became natural compost adding nutrients to the soil … great for the seeds to grow!)
  2. Mix up a batch of chocolate pudding and pour into individual serving bowls.
  3. Crumble chocolate graham crackers and spread on top of the pudding for dirt.
  4. Use the end of a wooden spoon to make a hole in the “dirt.”
  5. Drop in a candy corn (corn seed) and a swedish fish or goldfish cracker. Cover the hole with “dirt.”
  6. Enjoy your planted corn treat

• A Thanksgiving Tale with Puppets
  1. Use this fun short story from Scholastic.com
  2. Cut out the circles with each of the four children. Attach each to a popsicle stick.
  3. Introduce the pilgrim & Wampanoag children (John, Sarah, Strong Bear and Little Doe) to your preschooler.
  4. As you tell the story, have them hold up the characters talking in the story.
  5. You could also make up actions to go along with the story (run when they run to their friends, pretend to shoot a bow and arrow, plucking birds, gathering firewood…)

• Indian Corn … what a cute, colorful craft from Musings of Me!
  • Cut out a simple corn shape from yellow cardstock
  • Squeeze glue into a small bowl and use a Q-tip to dab glue onto the corn.
  • Add colorful Fruit Loops to make the Indian corn.
  • Back with a green paper husk, just larger than the corn.
• Mini Teepee Printable … a great ready-to-color teepee from Danielle’s Place. Click the link, then scroll about halfway down.
  1. Print the blank teepee here.
  2. Color in the fun designs. The kids can write their names in the blank area and use as a place card for dinner!
  3. Cut out and tape or glue.
  4. NOTE: You can also add 3 toothpicks to the top to look more like a real teepee!