Storytime - Thanksgiving

Books

This is Thanksgiving by Harriet Ziefert

Toddler 

Thank You, Thanksgiving by David Milgrim

Toddler

Thanksgiving by Brenda Haugen (non-fiction)

Preschool

I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

Preschool

I told a version of this story on the felt board. The clip art images were downloaded from Lil' Country Kindergarten.

Songs/Rhymes

Did You Ever See A Turkey?

Sung to: "Did you ever see a Lassie"
Did you ever see a turkey a turkey a turkey
Did you ever see a turkey go this way and that
Go this way and that way and this way and that way
Did you ever see a turkey go this way and that?

--PreschoolEducation.com

Hello Mr. Turkey 

Sung to: "If You're Happy and You Know It"
Hello, Mr. Turkey how are you?
Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you?
With a gobble, gobble, gobble,
And a wobble, wobble, wobble.
Hello, Mr. Turkey, how are you?

--PreschoolEducation.com

Felt Board

Turkey Feathers

The template and activities were from Felt Board Fingerplays by Liz and Dick Wilmes (Elgin, IL: Building Blocks, 1997). For more information about the two activities, see my Thanksgiving Flannel Friday post about them.

Crafts

Toddler

Pumpkin Pies. Materials: a quarter of a paper plate, one cotton ball, cinnamon, brown construction paper pie crust, tape, glue, and crayons. Glue the pie crust to the piece of pie, then glue the cotton ball (whipped cream) to the pie, and add some more glue. Sprinkle cinnamon on their pies. They smell delicious! *Disclaimer: I did not anticipate that the toddlers would 1. try to eat the cinnamon or 2. put the plate right up to their nose to smell it, resulting in cinnamon smudged noses. The idea came from Little Family Fun.

Preschool

Turkey Puppets. The idea for the craft and the template came from All Kids Network. Instead of using a paper plate, we used small brown paper lunch bags. Materials: paper lunch bags, construction paper pieces, googly eyes, glue, tape, and crayons. This craft could also be used as a centerpiece for a table (put a toilet paper roll inside the turkey so it can stand up on its own).

Flannel Friday - Thanksgiving

It's Flannel Friday and almost Thanksgiving! We had a great time in storytime today with these very cute Thanksgiving flannels.

This flannel can be used for two different activities. The songs and template comes from the book Felt Board Fingerplays by Liz and Dick Wilmes (Elgin, IL: Building Blocks, 1997). I made seven feathers of each color and two turkeys.

The first activity is a matching game. Two turkeys were placed on the board, one with feathers and one without. I gave each toddler a different color feather (red, yellow, orange, green, and brown), then sang the song. At the end of the song, I asked, "Who has a (color name) one? Add it now." The toddlers with that color feather added it to the bare turkey.

The second activity is a guessing game. I put one turkey with all of its feathers on the board, then placed another set of feathers above the turkey. I sang the song and changed the last words to, "Which one is missing? Guess it now." We went through each feather to find the missing color. They usually had it guessed the minute I turned the board around, but they helped silly Miss Mollie figure it out.

The last flannel activity is a retelling of Alison Jackson's I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie. The clip art is from Marlana's site Lil' Country Kindergarten. The link also provides other activities to go along with the story. I told this story to my preschool class, and both parents and children were silent through the whole story, something that doesn't happen often.

This week's roundup is hosted by Cate at Storytiming. She's requesting that participants comment on her post on our Facebook page with a link to their posts.

To see past roundups or the future schedule, head on over to Anne's blog so tomorrow. And as always, our Pinterest page will show the pictures from this week and weeks past.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!