Theme: Turkeys


Focus of the Week: Our theme series focuses on one letter, one shape and one color each week. I put together and printed this printable mostly for my two. I hung it in our craft room and would often point to the letter, shape and color for him to identify throughout the week.


November Themes: My boys (ages 2, 4) go to preschool twice a week, so I planned our activities for the off days - Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I printed a monthly chart (link to come) as a way to keep organized and stay on track. However, some weeks we just do activities as we go. Here's the first week at a glance:



MONDAY:

Color Activity (Feather Turkey): After coloring a turkey coloring page, we glued feathers onto the turkey's tail. My two really loved the feathers (picture bottom). 


Shape & Sorting (Turkey Shape Sort): I thought these turkeys were so cute, I couldn't resist paying the $3 for this Turkey Shape Sort by Jennifer Hier. Draw a feather and match it to the correct turkey. Great color, shape and sorting review.



Sensory (Play Dough Turkeys): If you're looking for the most AMAZNG play dough recipe, I have one. It's super soft, the perfect consistency, and stores six months. We made brown play dough and added googly eyes, oval cookie cutters (our shape this week), feathers, beaks (foam), and gobblers (red beads) to make an open ended turkey. I love this picture of my four holding his turkey. He's a pirate turkey, that's why he has an "eye patch". We played for about an hour.




WEDNESDAY:

Art (Paper Plate Turkeys): I have the best baby sitter. Every time she comes to my house, she makes a craft with my kids. Can you see why I love her so much? She helped the boys paint a paper plate brown and glue everything on to make a cute turkey!


Numbers (Clothespin Turkey Counting): My boys often love number activities. This one was a winner. My four worked on simple Turkey Feather Addition from Classroom Freebies (picture top) and my two did Turkey Clothespin Counting from Childcare Land (picture bottom).



Science (Oil & Water Discovery Bottles): My boys and I had a lot of fun making these. Discuss how oil and water are both liquids, but that some liquids don't mix. We mixed water and milk together first as an example of liquids that do mix. Add oil and water into your discovery bottle. We also added glitter and little sequins. Place the lid on the bottle and have your child shake it. Watch the oil separate back out from the water. For the turkey theme, you can talk about making gravy from the oils from a cooked turkey.


Gross Motor (Turkey Tag): Grab yer feathers, stick 'em in yer terkeys and run! This game made every one of us laugh our heads off. Choose one person to be the farmer. He's trying to pluck his turkey for Thanksgiving. He will chase everyone, trying to grab the turkey feathers. Once all the tail feathers are plucked, the turkey becomes the farmer OR mom and dad can be the farmers all night. ;) Idea from Babes, Tots & Kids. 



FRIDAY: 

Fine Motor (Turkey Feathers in a Colander): We stuck feathers into a colander for our fine motor activity this week. The turkey clip art is from A Dab of Glue Will Do.



Letter (Corn Kernels & Turkey Letters): Another sensory bin for the win! My boys played with this all weekend and into the next week. In this bin - corn kernels, turkey letters, turkey food (grasshoppers, acorns, spiders), bread pan, funnel, scooper. As we played, we identified letters (for my two) and letter sounds (for my four) before matching the turkey letters to our file folder.



Treat (Turkey Rice Krispies): My boys helped me make the rice krispies and I helped them form their turkeys. We added toothpicks and fruity cheerios for the tail feathers. Why not add some fine motor while we're at it? The beak is frosting from our halloween oreos and the eyes are also frosting from a frosting tube.



Outing (Turkey Hunt): If you didn't already know my husband is great for sticking feathers in his pants to play turkey tag (pictured above), check out what he did with our sick kids while I was at church. We have wild turkeys all over our neighborhood and my four has been dying to go on a turkey chase. 




Turkey Booklist: And of course, we read often throughout the week. We mostly read before our quiet times each day, but we occasionally read during a meal or random time during the day. I placed these books on hold at our local library a week in advance and we enjoyed reading them this week as we learned about turkeys:
  • 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston
  • Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley and Joe Cepeda
  • I'm a Turkey! by Jim Arnasky
  • A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman
  • This is the Turkey by Abby Levine
  • The Thanksgiving Surprise by Peggy Archer
  • Turk and Runt: A Thanksgiving Comedy by Lisa Wheeler
  • A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
  • Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano and Lee Harper
  • Who Will Carve the Turkey This Thanksgiving? By Jerry Pallotta

Note: We FINALLY started week one of our beginning reading program for my four. We learned a new sight word ("a") and worked on handwriting, rhyming, beginning sounds, and teen numbers this week. This program is very outlined and takes 15 minutes or so per day. We plan to do it right as my two goes down for a nap. 

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