Let's Talk Turkey (Thanksgiving freebies!)

Have I mentioned that my favorite thing to do is read aloud? Seriously, my ideal class would be made up of children who magically sit still for as long as I want to read to them! Instead we usually have to get up and get our wiggles out between each book, and I still have little ones checking out the hallway action or collecting lint from the rug! However, Thanksgiving is one of our favorite times of the year and there is a whole flock of books that can hold even then squirmiest child's attention. Here are some of my favorite read aloud for Thanksgiving - just click on the pictures to be taken to their page on Amazon (if you buy through my Amazon link I get a little bit of change that might eventually add up to enough to buy some more books for my classroom!)


I always use "'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving" as the lead up to our "Disguise a Turkey" homework project. I wish I had taken pictures, because I've had some adorable turkey disguises in the past. Oh well, I'll have to make sure to take some this year! Here is the turkey and letter that I send home for this project.

During the 2nd quarter we are also concentrating more on story elements - beginning,middle and end as well as setting, characters and problem. Here are some turkey-themed sheets that can be used with any of these books (or any other Thanksgiving books you happen to have!)
Turkey Beginning Middle End

Story Elements

In addition, I made up a game quite by chance one year and my kinders loved it! In our housekeeping center I always add some paper plates and a table cloth to match our themes. During Thanksgiving I had cute little paper plates with turkeys on them.Then I took a Pringles can lid - any plastic lid would do -  and glued on an image of a farmer. Kind of like this one:

I'm not sure what I originally intended to do with the farmer, but eventually we ended up with this game. I have the children sit in a circle and start passing the turkey plate. After a few moments head start, the farmer starts "chasing" the turkey around the circle! This is NOT a quiet game as the children squeal and laugh as they try to figure out how to pass the turkey plate from hand to hand  more quickly than they pass the farmer. I always had a few little boys who took delight in speeding up the farmer lol! This was always a great energizer for those late afternoon slumps. The game ends when the farmer catches the turkey or when the turkey has made 3 rounds of the circle without getting caught.

I also love to bring out my "friends" during November. These are great for retelling stories or having the children make up their own. I especially love the Audubon birds since they make realistic bird sounds and the children love to hear the turkey call. I am huge fan of Webkinz. My own children have quite a few and love playing the games online. I have a work order in to have a tech come download the Flash program so I can access the site on my Smartboard. Many of the games are educational AND I think it would be a great motivator to be able to play a few games at the end of the day.



Here's a fun November Math Unit too: it's 9 activities/games that focus on Base Ten blocks, addition, adding coins and counting by 2's,5's and 10's. If you'd like to check it out, click the picture!

If you want to see even more Thanksgiving TPT units check out this post at The ESOL Odyssey: