Kindergarten students are complete turkeys during the holidays! That’s why it’s the perfect idea to teach your little all about turkeys during the month of November. If you’re anything like me and love a good Thanksgiving book, here’s some turkey book ideas along with an activity or two to help you plan the perfect Thanksgiving activity.
Book ideas
Turkey Trouble is a great book to engage your kids. It’s about a turkey that doesn’t want to be eaten for Thanksgiving. He dresses up as other animals on the farm so the farmer can’t find him. It’s actually quite funny because he looks NOTHING like the other animals. Your kids will love every single page. We make predictions on what we think will happen at the end of the book. I’ve never had any correct guesses, but it really gets them thinking. If you can’t find this book locally, grab it on Amazon, read it with Kindle Unlimited or show the book being read aloud here.
Another great Thanksgiving activity idea is How to Catch a Turkey. You can also find this one either locally (I got mine in Target) or on Amazon here. This story is about a turkey that gets loose in a school and everyone is trying every single way to catch the turkey. He doesn’t want to be catch. We stood mid-book and discuss how the principal, students, teachers and anyone else at the school can catch the turkey. After finishing the book, we discuss ways that we would have tried to catch the turkey. This leads us into our turkey craft.
In the past, I’ve allowed my students to write how they would catch the turkey. I’ve either let them dictate and I type or I’ve had first graders that were able to write it all out. Another idea would be to give the blank writing template, let them record each other saying how they would catch a turkey and turn their video into a QR code. You can easily print the QR codes out and adhere them to the blank writing template. Such another fun idea that still allows them to complete the activity without struggling with writing what they want to say. We upload the video to Seesaw for parents to check out as well. I also use Seesaw as a digital portfolio and for assessments. You can check out how I use it over on this post.
Math and Literacy Centers
Our math and literacy centers also have turkey inspired games which is a great Thanksgiving activity to tie in. We play these turkey ten frame games. I use them like write the room and tape the cards around the room. My students have to hunt the room for all the cards. Super easy to use. We also will be using the Thanksgiving themed parts from my Centers for the Year.
Happy Thanksgiving!
