Kate's Turkeys

Paper plate turkey

T is for turkey

Shape turkey

Handprint sun catcher glittery turkey

 Pumpkin pie play dough turkeys

 Handprint turkeys

Kate helped me make these pretzel rod turkey treats.

Phew!  I think we've made enough turkeys for Thanksgiving already!

Turkey Treats

I made these special turkey Rice Krispies treats for the kids last week.  They disappeared faster than I could say, "Gobble Gobble".  Ha ha ha.

Fine Motor Skills Turkey

 I set out this pumpkin pie scented play dough turkey for Kate while I made her lunch today.  I made it by plopping together two balls of the dough, placing two googly eyes and a bead snood on the head, and sticking four pipe cleaners (cut in half) in the back.  I gave her some foam beads and showed her how to put them on the turkey's feathers (pipe cleaners).  She was absolutely delighted by this, and worked on it the whole time I got her lunch ready.

 Placing beads on pipe cleaners is great fine motor skills practice.  I wasn't sure if she would be able to do it, but she did great.  You can see the concentration on her face.

 She had a lot of fun with this and even added her fish bracelet to the turkey's feathers.

Veterans Day and Hiding Turkeys

 Reagan had some interesting homework assignments over the weekend.

First, we had to go to the Veterans Memorial Walkway in town and spend some time gathering information.  I remember doing this with Collin when he was in first grade and both times I have thought it was a great project.

Don't mind the outfit - we came right from gymnastics.

 She had to find two quotes by President John F. Kennedy.

Reagan had to use crayon to do a rubbing of a brick and she chose this one.  We couldn't find a brick with the name of anyone we know, so this is just a random selection.

 We did find Great Grandpa's name on the memorial for his service in World War II, so Reagan decided to add a rubbing of his name to her paper.  I was happy to see how proud she was of his service.  Six is really young to understand war and service in the military, so I can't say that she really understood, but she was happy to see his name there.  We have to go back because I didn't even think to look for the name of her Great Grandfather Killoran.

On a much lighter note, Reagan was also given the task of helping a turkey avoid the fate of becoming Thanksgiving dinner by creating a disguise to keep him safe.  Reagan had a similar assignment in Kindergarten when she chose to disguise her turkey as Rapunzel.  This year, she chose a clown costume.

There is definitely no turkey in sight at this circus!

Reagan enjoyed both of these assignments.  I like to see how proud she is of her work and I am thrilled that she takes charge of each assignment with minimal assistance from me or Dad.  She needed a little help with each assignment, but she was happy to do what she could on her own!

Edible Hand Turkeys

To make these edible hand turkeys, I began by popping some corn on the stove.  

I filled the fingers of food safe gloves with candy corn, chocolate candies, and the popcorn (wait until it cools) to resemble feathers.

I stuck a candy eye, a candy corn beak, and a squished piece of red candy (Swedish fish or Twizzlers work well) snood on the thumb with a little icing.  Then I fastened the bottom with a bread tie.  Easy edible hand "print" turkeys!

Salt Dough Turkeys and Ornaments

While C and R were at school yesterday, I made a batch of salt dough.  I used some of it to form salt dough turkeys following directions from The Artist Woman.

The recipe I used is:

4 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 cups water

I mixed the dough and then rolled it out to about 1/2 inch.  Then I formed the turkeys by using a biscuit cutter for the large circle and a small biscuit cutter for the smaller circle.  I cut the dough into the feather shapes and attached them with a bit of water; then I used a skewer to draw lines to make them look like feathers.  I also cut out a beak shape and rolled a sausage shape for the head; to attach the pieces, I just wet my fingers and stuck the pieces together.  The eyes are cloves that I stuck in before baking.  For more detailed directions, click on the link in the first paragraph above - The Artist Woman gave very detailed directions about how to form the turkeys.  I baked the turkeys at 300 degrees for about two hours.

When C and R came home, they painted the turkeys and then we applied a coat of Mod Podge.

We had a lot of salt dough, so we used Christmas cookie cutters to cut out some for ornaments.  I used a straw to make a hole in them before we baked them.  The ornaments were thinner, so we baked those at 200 degrees for about two hours.  C and R painted them once they were dry.  Here are a few of the ornaments they made:

Turkeys - the real kind!

Yesterday afternoon, I was standing at the kitchen sink filling a pot for pasta, when I looked out the window and saw a turkey.  It took me a minute to realize that it was a real live turkey.  I didn't even turn off the water!!!  I just grabbed the camera and ran outside.  The turkeys started to take off when they heard me, and it was gloomy, rainy weather, so my pictures aren't great!

Don't they know they should be hiding?  Ha ha!

Turkeys!!!

I made C and R an apple turkey for their after school snack yesterday.  To make the feathers, I put grapes, Craisins, and Cheerios on toothpicks that I had stuck into the apple.  For the head, I stuck a marshmallow on a toothpick and used icing to attach candy eyes, a piece of a candy corn for the beak, and a Craisin for the waddle.

While they ate, I read A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman.  The people of Squawk Valley need a turkey for their Thanksgiving feast, and they decide to advertise for a "model" turkey to pose during a turkey themed arts and crafts fair.  They hope to trick a real turkey into showing up and then becoming the main course!  The turkey that shows up outsmarts everyone in the end!

Later in the day, C and R drew their own turkeys using the crayon/marker resist technique from Pink and Green Mama.

Drawn by C

Drawn by R

Definitely NOT a Turkey!!!

R was given a special homework assignment.  Her classroom friend, Tom (not a turkey!), needed a disguise (I can't tell you why because that information is classified and confidential) and R agreed to help him out.

Originally, she planned on disguising him as Rapunzel, but once she got started, she decided that the disguise is Goldilocks.  She drew one of the three bears in the corner.

C had the same assignment in Kindergarten; he made Tom look like Wolverine.

Roll a Turkey

I found a fun Roll a Turkey dice game at Little Giraffes.  To play, you take turns rolling a die (each number on the die corresponds with a turkey body part) and then draw the body part on your paper.  The first one to finish drawing a turkey is the winner.

Click here to download the mat.  Wouldn't this be fun to play on Thanksgiving?

Turkey Story Hour and Easy Thanksgiving Place Card Holders

I hosted a fun Thanksgiving story hour at our favorite local coffee shop.  The theme was turkeys!  We read two turkey books:

• 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston - a fun rhyming and countdown book about ten silly turkeys on a fence
• Setting the Turkeys Free by W. Nikola-Lisa and Ken Wilson-Max - a young boy's handprint turkeys take on a life of their own and he has to save them from Foxy the fox

Usually, we just read books and make something fun, but this month I added a few turkey songs that I found at 1+1+1=1.  There is also a printable there for this super funny turkey with feathers that can be added to his back.

I printed it out, laminated the turkey and the feathers, and then hot glued clothespins to the back of the feathers.  I gave each  child a feather and when I said the color of the feather he or she was holding, he or she came up and clipped on the feather.  The kids really seemed to enjoy that.

Our craft was a turkey place card holder.  To make one, you need:

• one coffee filter
• washable markers
• spray bottle with water
• one clothespin
• a tiny bit of red craft foam

Directions:

1. First, use markers to color the coffee filter.  Just scribbling is fine and you want to leave some areas uncolored.  Also, using different colors will create prettier turkey feathers.
2. Once you are done coloring, spray the coffee filter so that it is damp.  This will make the colors run - so pretty!  Lay it on paper towels to let it dry.
3. On the end of the clothespin that clips, draw eyes and a beak.  (You could use googly eyes, but you need the really tiny ones and we only had the big ones.)  It's important that you draw the face on the end of the clothespin that clips so that it can hold your card!!!!
4. Cut a snood out of the red craft foam and glue it onto the clothespin.  You could use construction paper.
5. When the coffee filter is dry, fold it in half.  Now you have the turkey's feathers.  Glue your clothespin turkey to the feathers.  You want the clothespin to stand up, so position it so that the coffee filter is even with or a tiny bit above the bottom of the clothespin.  
6. I folded index cards in half and stuck them in the clip part.  You can write names on the cards for place card holders, or just make one and write "Happy Thanksgiving" or draw a thumb's up like R did. 

I forgot my camera (grrrrr...) so I didn't take any cute pictures of my story hour friends this month!  My friend, Robin, was kind enough to take a few pics of the kids but because I wasn't taking pictures, I forgot to get permission from the other moms to post them.  (Scatterbrain this month!)  So, I only have two photos that I have permission to post.   

Thank you to all of the moms and children who attended story hour, and super big thanks to Cuppers Cafe for providing a great space and free hot chocolate for all of the kiddos!

I am linking this to stArt at A Mommy's Adventures, Read.Explore.Learn at JDaniel4's Mom, and What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.