We have so much to be thankful for this year with another little turkey joining our family last month! November has flown by but we kept busy between the baby snuggles with our new Tot School Thanksgiving theme these past few weeks.
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Here were our plans for our Thanksgiving theme:
And here are the details for each activity:
Here are our favorite Thanksgiving books that we used to begin each day: How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace
The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
Ten Thankful Turkeys by Angela Muse
Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey by Lucille Colandro
Light Table Turkeys:
Aubrey started Thanksgiving week learning about shapes, colors, counting and symmetry with this turkey building activity. I printed a turkey body and taped it to our clear tray on top of a light pad (aka our cheaper version of a light table). Then I gave her a bin full of translucent pattern blocks to create feathers for the turkey. As she played we were able to incorporate so many different skills. We talked about the colors and shapes she used, practiced counting the number of blocks, sorted colors, tried to make patterns, and discussed symmetry.
Turkey Dot Stamp Page:
Next, we used our Do A Dot Art! Markers for fine motor practice. Aubrey focused on placing one dot in each circle on the turkey. This helps her build one to one correspondence for counting as well.
Turkey Feather Sticker Sort:
Peeling stickers is a great fine motor skill (especially for long car rides and restaurants!). For this sorting activity I printed colored feathers, then gave Aubrey small dot stickers to sort, match and cover each feather.
Turkey Feather Number Order:
For our next fine motor activity, Aubrey worked with pinching clothespins. She clipped the number feathers in order around the turkey body starting on the left side and working all the way around the body.
Marble Paint Feathers:
For our last fine motor activity Aubrey created this marble paint turkey. First, she painted a paper plate brown. Next, I covered the bottom of a shallow tray with shaving cream. Then, I added a few drops of liquid watercolor. Aubrey used a paintbrush to swirl the colors together then gently stamped 2 feather pages on top of the shaving cream. I helped her use a popsicle stick to scrape off the excess cream.
After those dried, Aubrey cut out the feathers and face pieces, glued the cut outs to the face, and attached the feathers behind the paper plate.
Thanksgiving Food Sort:
For our first gross motor activity we focused on sorting by color. I set up bins with colored turkey labels on each one. Then I gave Aubrey a bin full of different colored play food and she ran each one across the room to feed each turkey the correct color.
Turkey Hokey Pokey:
We love a good you tube kids song around here, so when I searched for Thanksgiving songs and found this adorable Turkey Hokey Pokey video, I knew we had to use it this week. Aubrey was cracking up as she put her turkey wings, drumstick, etc in and out.
Musical Feathers:
This was another favorite activity of Aubrey’s. I printed feathers with numbers 1-10 on them, then laid them out in a circle. I put on some music and had her dance around stepping on each feather. Then I stopped the music and had her pick up a number and try to identify it.
Turkey Toss:
I found this cute fall tree door decoration at the craft store and thought it would be a fun way to practice color identification. I taped the tree to our door then added the colored leaves. Aubrey chose a colored feather card, identified the color, then tried to toss the turkey at the correct color leaf. Actually hitting the correct color was pretty difficult, but she loved throwing our stuffed turkey over and over again trying to hit the right leaf!
Turkey Wobble:
Okay I couldn’t resist one more fun video/song for our Thanksgiving theme. If you’ve never heard of Go Noodle or Koo Koo Kangaroo, you should just stop what you’re doing and go check them out right now. They have loads of awesome videos to get your kids dancing, moving, and having a great time. One of my favorite videos of theirs is the Turkey Wobble. It’s no secret my girls love learning new dance routines so this one was so fun for them. And its pretty hysterical to watch!
Thanksgiving Snacks:
Donut Hole Turkeys: For these yummy treats, we pushed 5 pieces of candy corn into the top of a donut hole for feathers and 2 pretzel sticks into the bottom for legs. Then we stuck 2 candy eyes, ½ an orange Reese’s pieces, and a piece of red gummy candy on the front of the donut hole with a dab of icing for the turkey face.
Turkey Pretzel Bites: To make these little turkey bites, I melted a few pieces of chocolate for 15-30 seconds then poured the chocolate onto pretzels (on wax paper) to fill centers. After the chocolate set a bit, we added candy corn feathers, candy eyes and Reese’s pieces.
Kix Corn on the Cob: This snack was easy peasy! I taped the pointy end of an icing bag down a few inches. Aubrey helped fill the bag with Kix cereal. Then I secured the bottom with a twist tie. Finally I wrapped the bag with a square of tissue paper and secured with another twist tie. This was a great snack to take on the go!
Rice Cake Turkey: This easy turkey was made with a mini rice cake, veggie straws for feathers, 2 pretzel stick legs, 2 candy eyes, ½ an orange Reese’s pieces, and a piece of red gummy candy on the rice cake for the turkey face.
Turkey Sandwich: This cute little turkey was my favorite for our last day of Thanksgiving week. I helped Aubrey skewer beef sticks and cheese cubes to make 6 feathers. Then we pushed the feathers into the side of an Uncrustable sandwich. Last we added candy eyes, a triangle of cheese and a red pepper to the top of the sandwich for the turkey face.
Thanksgiving Sensory Bin:
In this bin: brown paper shreds, Little People Thanksgiving Set
Thanksgiving Dinner Bin:
In this bin: popcorn kernels, plastic plates, bowls, cups, forks, and
play food
Cranberries & Water Play:
In our bin: cranberries, water, slotted spoons, cups and bowls
Turkey Play Dough:
On this tray: brown play dough, pipe cleaners, foam shapes, googly eyes, colored feathers
Build a Turkey Sensory Bin:
In this bin: popcorn kernels, turkey bodies, feathers, pipe cleaner legs
Want all of this week’s Thanksgiving activities for tot school? You can grab them here:
On my site : Thanksgiving Plans & Printables On TpT: Thanksgiving Plans & Printables
Or you can grab our entire year of themes and plans:
On my site here: Tot School Bundle On TpT here: Tot School Bundle
Then check out the rest of our 35+ themes on the Tot School Curriculum Main Page.
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