In preparation for Thanksgiving we did some fun Thanksgiving-themed activities. In the past we haven't talked too much about the origin of the holiday. This year we talked a little bit about it but I still didn't want to get into the specifics too much. It was just a little bit of an introduction and we'll get into it more when Carter is a bit older. I always enjoy doing turkey-themed activities! Read about our Thanksgiving learning theme from last year here and 2014 here. We did this theme the week of Thanksgiving, I'm just a little bit behind on getting it posted.
Listed below are the objectives I am focusing on for the themed weeks. I have revised our objectives to really hone in and focus on specific skills Carter will need to master before kindergarten and are appropriate to his age and development right now. I plan to continue to implement activities to practice and reinforce our previous objectives while putting more emphasis on our new objectives. Some of them won't necessarily be targeted with specific activities during our weeks, but I wanted to list them to help me remember to practice them continually. I have added working on his name as his teachers at school have asked us to work on it at home and I want to remember to include working on it in some form during each of our learning themes. I'm also adding in a section for Elise now that she is a year old. I don't considers her bullet points objectives, they are experiences I want to make sure to expose her to frequently. Her experiences are listed below Carter as bullet points rather than numbers.
The highlighted objectives below are ones Carter received exposure to during our theme this week:
- Begin to organize and focus on writing. (Dictate stories, plan out a story, draw pictures and scribbles to create a book).
- Understand same and different.
- Accurately tell stories as well as retell the story from a book.
- Use age appropriate scissors. (I'm moving on to looking for a thumb and forefinger grasp with writing tools and holding scissors appropriately)
- Develop a better understanding of time (for example, be able to describe when things happen using morning, afternoon, night)
- Group objects based on a category (sort by defining feature).
- Count with one-to-one correspondence, begin to identify numerals, being to use ordinal numbers (first, second, last).
- Recognize the letters in name, arrange them to spell name, begin to write name.
- Pretend play/Imitate the behaviors of others.
- Begin to identify and point at body parts. (Right now I just want to say body parts aloud to her frequently and point them out on myself)
- Group based on simple characteristics. (This is something I will do while talking aloud and allowing her to feel objects)
- Fill and empty containers.
- Begin to hold writing tools and scribble spontaneously.
- Identify sounds around her. (Point out sounds and ask her what is making the sound).
- I wrote Thanksgiving on a sentence strip. Carter pointed out the letter names and sounds he recognized. Then I chunked it into thanks and giving and asked him to blend the words together.
- Carter did a cute turkey counting activity at school. They had him identify the numbers he knew and then stamp the number of dots that corresponded with the number on the line for the turkey's feathers. I loved seeing the activity, what a great way to work on multiple skills at once!
- Carter did another turkey number activity at school. They had numbers written on the turkeys, had the kids identify them, and match the stamp number to the number on the turkey. When he brought it home we practiced counting while pointing at the numbers.
- To practice with cutting Carter helped me cut strips for our thankful chain. Each day we wrote something we are thankful for and then I stapled them together to make a chain for us to countdown to Christmas once December rolls around. Carter wrote the cutest things and I loved hearing what he is thankful for. I will post what he wrote on each strip later on. They were all so cute!
- I put together a feather sensory play bin. The kids love to play with feathers and especially enjoy dropping them and watching them fall. I put a wipe container in the box for each child and they loved stuffing feathers into the container and then opening the lid to dump them out. Elise saw Carter open his lid so she'd try on her own but needed a little bit of help. As we played we talked about colors and sizes of the feathers. Of course Elise insisted that all the feathers were "lellow!"
- I'm beginning to talk about some directional words such as on and under with Elise. For some practice we played with a turkey Carter made at school. I'd put it under something and tell her it was under the chair or wherever it was. Then I'd put it on top of something and say it was on the chair or wherever it was. She loved finding and retrieving the turkey for me!
- I had a copy of special Thanksgiving lined paper I used to use at school so I made a copy for Carter to write his name on. I wrote his name and had him trace it. He loved writing his name and then wanted to practice writing some other letters so I wrote turkey as well as his letters for the month at school: Gg, Kk, Qq, and Tt. He is starting to understand capital and lowercase letters. He's so cute referring to them as big and lowercase. He identified each letter before he traced it. When he was done we sat and colored the pictures on the sides of the paper together.
- I had quite a few different Scholastic News magazines related to Thanksgiving so I pulled them out for us. One was called "Talk Like a Pilgrim" and had a map of a pilgrim village on the back. Carter loves looking at maps and drawing routes to take on them. Then there was one called "Thanksgiving Kids" with a graph on the back. Carter liked counting the boxes on the graph and answering the questions that went with it. There were also ones about children called "Meet a Pilgrim Child" and "An American Indian Child". Carter liked reading those and comparing their lives to each other's lives as well as to his.
Ready to read about Thanksgiving Kids. 
Filling in answers about the graph on the back of one of the news pages. 
Following directions on the back of the news to identify parts of an article. - One of the Scholastic News magazines I had was a Reader's Theater. I had made little puppets to be used with the magazine back when I used it in class. When Carter saw the puppets, the first thing he wanted to do was play memory. Once we'd played memory we read through the magazine with the puppets. He didn't want to act it out with his puppet so he just held it and listened to me as I read.
Playing memory with the turkey and farmer puppets. - We read a couple books about the first Thanksgiving and then discussed what life was like back then and what celebrations were like. We talked about how our Thanksgiving is the same as it was back then and how it is different now.
- We played Roll a Turkey. I wanted to practice with identifying numerals so we used the die I had made by sticking sticky paper onto the sides and writing the number instead of the dots. Carter then had to identify the number and then count the dots on the direction page to determine which part of the turkey to draw. He did a good job drawing the turkey especially considering he rolled the parts all out of order and had a hard time drawing the face without having a head to draw it on.
Counting the dots to determine what he needed to draw.
- I found some cute foam cornucopias with foam stickers at Dollar Tree and picked them up for the kids to complete. I got 3 so Jake could make one with us on his day to come over. Carter looked over and told Jake he wasn't doing a very good job because he was putting his stickers all on top of each other and he needed to spread them out. Jake pointed out that Elise was doing it too and Carter told him she didn't know any better because she's a baby. I told Carter everyone has different taste and likes things to look differently and it was okay for Jake's to look different. Then we talked about how it's not nice to tell someone they aren't doing a good job and saying that might hurt their feelings. Jake wasn't phased but it was good to have the opportunity to discuss being polite and having nice manners. All the kids really enjoyed making them. Carter even asked to do another one. He was so proud to tell everyone it was called a cornucopia! He was curious what they were so we talked a little bit about how they stand for having lots of something and they are used around Thanksgiving time to remind us to be thankful for all the food and other things we have.
- At school Carter made an adorable little paper bag turkey. I'm not sure where the idea for paper bag crafts like this comes from but it is super cute! So far they've made a paper bag apple, pumpkin, and turkey. I'm sure Carter enjoys filling the bag to make it stand up on it's own.
- There aren't as many different things to make out of handprints and footprints for Thanksgiving as there are for other holidays. Last year we made turkey footprints. This year I decided to make turkey handprints like what I had done with Carter a few years back again so Elise would also have a handprint turkey. I saw a cute idea for making a pilgrim boy and girl out of a footprint and may try that next year. I just opted for the turkeys this year because they are easy, only using one color of paint. Next year Elise will be older and hopefully more laid back when it comes to crafts so we can try something more difficult with multiple colors. This was the first time I noticed in their handprints that Elise has chubby baby fingers but Carter now has long, thin big boy fingers. I almost cried when I first noticed it! I looked down initially and thought I must not have pushed Carter's fingers down hard enough. Then I realized he is just thinning out and becoming a big boy!
- Carter made an adorable turkey shirt at school. He was supposed to wear it for their Thanksgiving Feast the Tuesday before Thanksgiving but he got sick and stayed at home. Since he wasn't there for the feast we didn't get his shirt until after Thanksgiving. It is so darn cute! I love how they used both a footprint and handprints! They are definitely very brave using fabric paint in a classroom with that many kids around!
Carter's adorable shirt! - We decorated toilet paper rolls to make them look like a turkey. Last year I cut the pieces out of construction paper and had Carter glue them on. This year I drew a face on my toilet paper roll and showed it to Carter. He then drew his own turkey face. When we were done we taped feathers onto the rolls so we could take them off when we were done playing with them and re-use them.
- The obvious one here is our Thanksgiving dinner. The kids got to eat lots of foods we don't have very often. Carter was so excited about having "different turkey" since we normally have ground turkey or sandwich meat. He ate multiple helpings too which is huge for our boy who doesn't eat a whole lot of meat! Elise was all about the sweet potatoes and focused almost entirely on eating her meal in sweet potatoes!
Group picture before we got all the food out of the kitchen. 
Elise eating a big spoonful of sweet potato.
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| Carter loves doing things by himself and was so proud to butter his own roll with the special butter dish. |
- After we read the Scholastic News articles about pilgrim children and American Indian children we pretended to be children from back in the day of the first Thanksgiving. Carter loved trying out games similar to what they would have played.
- I sang and acted out a turkey song and tried to get Carter to act it out along with me but he wasn't interested. It went like this:
I have a turkey, big and fat.
He spreads his wings...
And walks like that.
His meal of corn he would not miss
And when he talks he sounds like this...
- We also enjoyed doing the Turkey Pokey. It was the same as the Hokey Pokey, but with the words changed a little bit to make it about turkeys. Carter did it with me multiple times at home and Elise would copy us, putting her body part in after we were already done. Then she'd continue spinning around in circles for quite a while after we moved on, it was so cute! Both kids were really fussy at my parents' house after naps on Thanksgiving so I randomly started singing and dancing the Turkey Pokey and they loved it!
You put your right wing in.
You put your right wing out.
You put your right wing in ,
And you shake it all about.
You do the turkey pokey
And you turn yourself around,
That's what it's all about.
Additional verses:
Left wing (arm bent as a wing)
Drumsticks (legs)
Stuffing (pushed out tummy)
Wattle (put fingers at chin to make the wattle)
Tail feathers (hiney)
Turkey body (whole self)
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| The kids watching me do the Turkey Pokey at my parents' house. |
- I saved the turkeys we made last year and we used them again to sing 5 Little Turkeys. We also used them to do the 5 Little Turkeys rhyme. Carter liked acting it out by moving the turkeys as I sang or said the rhyme. I made them both up last year. They are as follows:
5 Little Turkeys
to the tune of 5 Little Ducks
5 little turkeys went out one day,
under the fence and far away.
Farmer Brown said,
Hey, hey, come back!
But only 4 little turkeys came back.
4 little turkeys went out one day,
under the fence and far away.
Farmer Brown said,
Hey, hey, come back!
But only 3 little turkeys came back.
Continues on until no turkeys come back...
1 little turkey went out one day,
under the fence and far away.
Farmer Brown said,
Hey, hey, come back!
But none of his 5 little turkeys came back.
Farmer Brown said,
What will I do?
It's Thanksgiving,
and I want food.
5 Little Turkeys Rhyme
5 little turkeys sitting at the farm.
The first one said, "Is there reason to be alarmed?"
The second one said, "Oh no, I wouldn't worry!"
The third one said, "Well, I'm getting out of here in a hurry!"
The fourth one said, "We are the favored Thanksgiving treat."
The fifth one said, "We do have delicious meat!"
They all went running away from the farm.
They wanted to be safe from any harm.
- We sang a couple of songs I used to sing with my students in class. Carter really enjoyed them and would request that I sing them again and again and again. He started picking up some of the words and would sing along with me a little bit.
On Thanksgiving Day
Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb
Turkey is so good to eat,
Good to eat, good to eat,
Turkey is so good to eat,
On Thanksgiving day!
Friends and family gather round,
Gather round, gather round.
Friends and family gather round,
On Thanksgiving Day.
For all these blessings we give thanks,
We give thanks, we give thanks.
For all these blessings we give thanks,
On Thanksgiving Day.
I'm Thankful
Sung to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb
I'm thankful for my friends I have,
Friends I have, Friends I have,
I'm thankful for my friends I have,
and their families, too!
I'm thankful for my family,
Family, family.
I'm thankful for my family,
And my home, too!
Technology:- Carter enjoyed the Silly Turkey interactive book at Starfall here. I tried pulling it up on my phone again later and could only find their Silly Turkey app which cost money so we stuck with playing it on the computer.
- We also made a silly turkey at Highlights Kids here.
- We went to the Turkey Trot dressed in Thanksgiving clothes and our turkey hats. Carter liked seeing everyone dressed up, especially the announcer who was dressed as a pilgrim. Carter's shirt was a turkey holding a sign that said Eat Pizza. Carter was sick so he didn't enjoy it as much as he usually would. He did love that they had doughnuts and hot chocolate though!
- Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson
- Over the River and Through the Wood by Linda Ashman
- The First Thanksgiving by Linda Hayward
- Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit! by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
- Who Will Carve the Turkey This Thanksgiving? by Jerry Pallotta
- Turkey Day by Grace Maccarone
- Gobble, Gobble by Jo Ryan, Penny Worms, and Amy Oliver
- Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
- I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson
- Our Thanksgiving by Kimberly Weinberger
- Feeling Thankful by Shelley Rotner and Sheila Kelly
- In November by Cynthia Rylant
- Happy Thanksgiving, Curious George by Cynthia Platt
- One Is a Feast for Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox
- Too Many Turkeys by Linda White
- Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
- The Firefighters' Thanksgiving by Maribeth Boelts
- Hide-and-Seek Turkeys by Judith Ross Enderle
- Arthur's Thanksgiving by Marc Brown
They made a very cute shirt at school!
ReplyDeleteI know! I was so bummed his missed out on his Thanksgiving feast at school!
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