Publix Turkey Craft Writing Activity

 This blog post shows you how to make this adorable pasta turkey. We made a little book from a paper bag to make a "Thankful Book." Read on to see how...

We found this cute little pasta turkey craft in a publix ad.

Then, we used a paper lunch bag and some raffia to make little books for each child.

We cut apart the tiny "I am thankful for..." text boxes. The kids glued one on each page. Then, they used pictures, letters, and word to show things they were thankful for. Be sure and click on the slide above to get the text boxes.

Thanksgiving Ideas

Megan's room was fully engaged as we learned all about the First Thanksgiving, The Pilgrims, and Native Americans. Here are some of the things we did today.

Mayflower Compact

We learned that there were 102 Pilgrims on the Mayflower. We made connections to having rules at school to having rules on the Mayflower.  The Pilgrims called it The Mayflower Compact. We wrote our Classroom Compact. First we used interactive writing to make a class list of rules.

Then, the children worked to create their own list of rules. Some used pictures, some used labels, and some used sentences. While they are all in different places when it comes to their foundational skill acquisition, they all were successful in the Social Studies concept of why we have rules and laws.

All About Native Americans

We also learned about Native Americans today. After reading about Native Americans over the last several days, the kids were ready to demonstrate their learning through writing.

First, we made this super cute Native Americans using a paper bag and construction paper.

Then, I gave each child an "All About Native Americans" book. Here they recorded informational text they learned about Native Americans.

Here is an example of one child's book. She did a super job! Again, some children used pictures, some used labels, and others wrote sentences to convey their learning.

We displayed our Native Americans with the Pilgrim Circle Maps we made earlier in the week.

Connecting Math, Literacy and Social Studies to Learn About the First Thanksgiving

From October to January we move from one Holiday to the next creating memories, developing schema and growing dendrites all through highly engaging, rigorous activities. Here are a few of the activities we did this week as we are learning about The First Thanksgiving.

Making the Regalia

We learned that Native Americans of long ago, and on special occasions today, we special clothes called Regalia. We talked about these clothes being like party clothes. They wear the clothes to celebrate special events in their culture. We made quivers (for holding arrows). The kids laced their quiver together with a piece of yarn. Then, we used feathers which we dipped in black paint to draw Native American Symbols.

We smashed berries to make dye for our string. I have tried several types of berries, but the frozen ones seem to work best. They have more juice than fresh berries. After smashing the berries with a rock, the put a piece of cotton string in the bowl and dyed it. We placed the string on a paper towel to dry. We are going to make clay beads later in the week to string.

We made the vests using pattern block patterns and paper bags.

Thanksgiving Literacy Centers: _at Family Words

One of our literacy centers this week is to make a list of _at words. To make the spinner, I cut a hole in the Pilgrim's hat to make a "window". I made a wheel with onsets for the _at family. Then, I attached the wheel to the back of the card so that the onset would show in the window. The children move the wheel to create a new _at family word.

Mayflower Compound Words

The children cut apart pictures and matched them together to make compound words. We talked about Mayflower being a compound word.

Math Activities: Five Big, Fat Turkeys

We taught our kids a song about 5 Big, Fat Turkeys. Then, we used paper turkeys to make different combinations of 5.

Pattern Bead Necklaces

The kids colored patterns in this easy to reproduce bead necklace book. At the top of each page, it shows the children which pattern to make.

Social Studies and Graphic Organizers

We worked together to create a circle map where we wrote all of the words we associated with Thanksgiving. As I was modeling by making the large circle map, each child was engaged as they were writing the words on their smaller circle maps.

Celebrating Thanksgiving

This blog post shares some fun activities to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Number Line Mystery

To play this game...

• Make a deck of cards with 4 different images: turkey, teepee, pilgrim and Native American. For each image make cards 1-10.
• Shuffle the cards.
• Lay them facedown in 4 rows with 10 in each row.
• The first child turns over any card. He decides where that card belongs.
• He picks up the card that is laying in that space, and replaces it with his card.
• He hands the new card to the next child.

Syllable Sorting Drum Beats

To play this game...

• Make a step book for each child.
• Cut the book into the shape of a teepee.
• Give each child a selection  of thanksgiving themed clip art.
• Invite them to cut out the pictures.
• Using the little plastic drum, the children hit the drum to count the syllables in each picture.
• Glue the picture under the correct flap.

Thanksgiving Survey Graph

To play this game...

• Give each child a graph.
• Invite them to walk around the room and ask their friends the question.
• After they tally the responses, they will create a graph.
• Finally, they will write their analysis.

Turkey Story Problems

To play this game...

• Invite the children to write their name or glue their pictures in the box at the beginning of the problem.
• In this picture the children are using pictures to solve the problem.
• If this is too challenging for your kids, consider giving them clip art images to manipulate to solve the problem. This is working at the conceptual level.

 

Ordinal Turkey Parade

To play this game...

• Provide children with turkey clip art.
• In this picture, the children colored the turkeys. But, you can also photocopy the turkeys on colored paper.
• Invite the children to line up their turkeys.
• Complete the recording page by telling the ordinal position of each color turkey.

Turkey Glyph

To play this game...

• To create a glyph, ask the children questions like "Do you like corn?" If they say yes, they add a yellow feather.
• Continue asking questions to create the turkey craft.
• Now, the children analyze their individual glyph.
• Then, analyze the entire class. For example, by counting the number to turkeys with yellow feathers, you will know how many children like corn.

****This Unit has been updated since this post to include better graphics. Here is the new cover.

****This unit has been updated to include better graphics and patterns. Here is the new cover.

Gobble! Gobble!

I’m Back! Playing in Kath’s room while learning about pumpkins!