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Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day, we have a family tradition. We play the "Turkey Games." It's basically a bunch of games and friendly competition amongst our family and friends of all ages. As the table is being set and Thanksgiving dinner is cooking, it's a really fun way to spend time together. This year, we're trying out a new event: Turkey Bowling. My kids had a blast creating and playing this DIY game. Plus, the scoring brings a little math and learning to the fun. Strike!

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For our turkey bowling pins, we made paper feathers. If you have feathers on hand, you can simply use those. First, cut the paper into a rectangle. The length will be the height of the feather which you'll glue onto your bottle. So you might want to size it up against your bottle. Then, fold the paper in half and cut out half of a feather shape so that you have a feather when you open the fold.

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Now you're going to make the barbs of the feather. With your feather folded, cut at a slant into the middle, along the edge. Don't cut all the way through. Keep making cuts all the way down.

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When you open up the fold, you have your feather! I have to admit that we found this to be rewarding. The fringing makes the feather look pretty cool. We were making a set of 6 pins with 4 feathers each. So we repeated the steps for each one.

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Then we cut out the shape of the turkey's head/neck, beak, and wattle.

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Glue the pieces that you cut out as well as the googly eyes onto the bottle.

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To complete your turkey, flip the bottle over and glue a set of feathers onto the back.

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Now grab a ball, and you're ready to bowl! On top of playing, my kids created a scoreboard to keep track of everyone's points. (I loved this because it's a way to bring a little math to the fun.) Hope you have as much fun as we did with this game!

paper in fall / turkey colors

Wiggle Eye Set

bottles (6)

Scissors

Glue

ball

feathers

Turkey Bowling

gratitude project

art project

handmade cards

Thanksgiving always gives me warm fuzzies. The family gatherings, the irresistible comfort food--it makes me smile just thinking about it. When my oldest son was born, I decided to start an annual tradition that would make this holiday even more memorable. Every year, we paint handprint turkeys onto blank notecards and then add the words "I'm thankful for you!" Inside each card, we write a personalized message to the recipient sharing one reason they are special to us. We are fortunate to have wonderful friends and family and it always feels so good letting them know how much we care.

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Hands-down, the first step is always my son's favorite. He dips his hand into brown paint and smears it around with a paintbrush to make sure that every inch is coated.

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Then he carefully presses his hand down onto the paper. To help ensure that the handprint transfers well, I gently press down on each of his fingers too. 

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After the paint has dried, my son glues a googly eye on top of his thumbprint...

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... and an orange beak for the turkey's nose and a red wattle under its chin.

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And for a finishing touch, I carefully add the words, "I'm thankful for you!" to the front. Our homemade cards are complete and ready to be personalized. 

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When it comes to kids' activities, I have two great loves. First, I'm crazy about teaching children how to read. (I founded a website devoted to playful early reading activities, after all.) And second, I have a thing for holiday projects. No matter what the reason, I love any excuse to celebrate. So I'm always thrilled when I have the chance to combine my favorite things in one fun-filled activity. This "'T' is for 'Turkey'" project is a crafty way to enjoy a little Thanksgiving entertainment AND teach children about the letter T at the same time.

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First things first. You'll need to gather some supplies. Don't let the list fool you though. It's much easier to prep everything than it might seem. From start to finish, it took me about 10 minutes to collect the supplies and cut all of the parts out of construction paper. Since my oldest son is almost 3, I prepped everything for him but if you are working with older kids, this would be a great chance to help them practice cutting with scissors. 

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Now the fun begins. I laid down the letter {T} in front of my son and explained that it makes the sound /t/. We had fun brainstorming all kinds of words that start with that sound: turtle, Uncle Todd, toes... Then I added one more word to the list: TURKEY! With an excited smile on his face, my son began building the famous Thanksgiving mascot on top of the letter {T}. I followed behind each of his steps gluing down the turkey parts.

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With the turkey's body, legs, wattle, and beak in place, we were ready to add the colorful feathers. This was a great chance to sneak in a little patterning practice so I helped my son lay the feathers down in red - orange - yellow order. 

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Then he slid the feathers underneath the turkey body. As you can see, our pattern fell apart at this point but we decided that having a bright and colorful turkey was more important than keeping the pattern in the correct order. (My 3-year-old always does a wonderful job of reminding me not to sweat the small stuff.)

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And voila! Our T is for Turkey was complete.

construction paper (orange, yellow, red)

construction paper (black)

construction paper (brown)

googley eyes (2)

"T" is for "Turkey" Paper Craft

food animals

food play

savory snacks

Create a new Thanksgiving tradition with a turkey the kids can carve! This cute turkey is made with just popcorn and tissue paper and takes mere minutes to create. 

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Air-popped popcorn is a must for this project--otherwise, the tissue paper gets very greasy and not so pretty. 

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Lay two sheets of the tissue paper down on a flat surface and put most of the popcorn in the center, about 6-7 cups. My children enjoy doing this with little scoops. 

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Next, fold the sides and ends in to make a rectangle shape for the body. I held the folds while the kids placed the tape. 

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A little tip I have for tape use with little ones: place pre-cut tape pieces  along their arm before they start taping. This alleviates a lot of tape-tearing frustration for them. 

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For the great big turkey legs, cut your last two sheets of tissue in half and divide the remaining popcorn between the two sheets. 

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Roll the tissue together to look like a lollipop. Place some tape on the back of the turkey leg as well as along the bottom of the leg. 
Emma thought running around the yard with a turkey leg was pretty funny. 

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Connect the legs to the body with tape on the bottom side of the turkey that will not show. 

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Once everything is in place, you can flip your turkey over and place on a serving tray for an authentic effect. We used a kid's knife for the carving, but the tissue is so easy to cut through that a plastic or butter knife will work too. This has become such a fun Thanksgiving tradition that the kids definitely look forward to. Last year, the whole family gathered around as Emma carved her turkey. It was a very proud moment for her!

air-popped popcorn (8-10 cups)

tissue paper (4 sheets)

masking tape

Popcorn Turkey

painting

Turkey crafts are always so darn cute. I don't know if it's all the feathers, the gobbler, or the fun colors, but we can't get enough turkey creations especially come November. When my daughter first came face-to-face with a real turkey, she cried. I think she was expecting something much more darling like our doily turkey....real turkeys--not so darling! So if you want an adorable little turkey, stick to this fun doily craft. 

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Then paint your doily however you'd like. You can also paint the clothespin if you want to.

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Once everything is dry you can gather some materials for the turkey face. We used a piece of felt for the beak, dried corn for eyes (very festive), and a feather for the top of the cute little turkey's head.

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Fold your doily to the size of the clothespin and glue the clothespin right in the center.

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Next, add a face and any other fun turkey additions you can think up. We thought a red feather on top of his head was a must!

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There you have it! A colorful, adorable, nothing-like-a-real-turkey turkey. Gobble, gobble!

clothespin

doily

watercolor paint

Felt

Doily Turkey

treat

The holidays are upon us, and  it can be inundated with lots of sugary treats for the kids.  Here's a great alternative that a friend of mine told me about. 

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We first followed the directions on the bag of popcorn kernels we had purchased to pop our popcorn. We added some oil to our pan and popped a half cup of popcorn at a time. I completely forgot to have the lid to the pan ready to go and the kids had a great time watching popcorn flying out of the pan while I scrambled to get a lid. Sometimes the simplest mistakes can bring out the best memories. (To keep this activity very safe, the grownup can make the popcorn ahead of time.)

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After we finished popping our popcorn, we added some salt for flavor and set the popcorn aside to cool.  We then grabbed our box of food-service gloves and added our colored goldfish into each slot for the fingers.

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Next, the kids worked together as a team to add the popcorn. 

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And finally, we cut some pipe cleaners in half and tied off the bag using an orange pipe cleaner for the turkey's feet.  We then attached a red pipe cleaner at the base of the thumb to make the turkey's wattle.

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Here's our Thanksgiving turkey bag. Gobble gobble! 

goldfish crackers

popcorn kernels

food-service gloves

pipe cleaners

salt (optional)

Glove Gobbler Treats

learning game

numbers

math games

math

useful craft project

My son loved making these cute foam turkeys, and I was so surprised at how much time he has spent counting because of these little gobblers.  Every day for the past week, he has asked to pull them out and practice his counting.  Even his baby brother is counting along with him!  And since they're made of foam, they'll last well past Thanksgiving Day!

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This project was a great way for us to use up some of our scrap foam. We couldn't find any foam 0s, so we ended up using glitter glue for our "0" and "10" turkeys. 

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My son traced the baby's shoe on brown foam to get a rough outline for our eleven turkeys.  Then we cut out our turkey bodies.

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We cut orange triangles out of orange foam for beaks. Then my four-year-old glue the beaks, googly eyes, and numbers (from 0 to 10) on the turkeys.  

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While the turkeys dried, we cut out feather shapes from the brown, red, orange, and yellow foam.  Since we were using scraps, the feathers ended up being different lengths.  All the cutting was great fine motor practice for my son, and my toddler had a great time picking up the feathers and putting them into different piles.

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Once the turkeys and feathers were ready, we got ready for some math!  First, my four-year-old put the turkeys in order from 0-10.

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Then he put the correct number of feathers on each turkey.  After that, he was ready to take a break and do something else.  I was surprised when he said he wanted to draw his turkeys and write the numbers.

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Later, we did some more turkey math.  I pulled out two turkeys and had him put the feathers on.  Then we compared them to see which one had more.

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We added feathers to see how many feathers two or three turkeys had altogether.  After doing this a few times, my son wanted to see how many feathers were in all of the turkeys!

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I was so impressed by all the number sense he gained from this activity.  At one point, he looked at his older brother and said, "Zero means that there are no feathers."  The best part is that now we have a bag full of turkeys and feathers for my younger son to pull out while his big brother is working on his homework.  

10 cool turkey projects for kids

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