Thanksgiving Archives - Page 2 of 2

Thanksgiving Science Activity – Sink or Float

November 12, 2013 By Deirdre

There are so many fun objects associated with Thanksgiving. JDaniel and I took some outside to explore in his water table on a beautiful fall day last week. The focus of this Thanksgiving science activity was sink or float. “Which of these objects associated with Thanksgiving are going to float and which of them will sink?” I asked him.

What objects did we use for this science activity?

Turkey cookie cutter
wire whisk
pumpkin shaped silicone cup
plastic napkin rings
metal measuring cup
small squash
plastic measuring spoon

Thanksgiving Science Activity- Sink or Float

It was interesting to see what sank and what floated. One type of plastic napkin ring sank and one floated. The silicone cup without water in it floated. When it was filled with water, it sank. Several things we thought were the heaviest and would sink did. The metal measuring cup and squash sank right away as did the wire whisk.

He played for awhile and I just enjoyed watching him test out objects and enjoy water play.After giving JDaniel time to play with objects in the water, we talked more about his findings.

I asked him the following questions:

Did the color of the object matter?
Does material the object made off matter?
Did having a hole in an object help it float or sink?
Does it matter if the object is solid?
Will an object that allows water to follow through it sink or float?

Doing This Science Activity in Other Settings

While JDaniel and I were together for this experiment, I think that leaving the objects out at the water table as an invitation to learn would have been fun too. In a classroom setting I think children would talk amongst themselves about what they were finding. Exploring sinking and floating would be wonderful in a variety of settings.

My Insights

I love talking through science experiment outcomes with JDaniel. It helps him understand what he is understanding about science and his thoughts on what we are doing in general. There is just something wonderful that happens when we are together exploring concepts. This Thanksgiving science activity on sinking and floating allowed for that.

If you like this science activity, here are more science activities you will love:

Exploring Turkey Basters

Planting a Pumpkin in a Pumpkin

Recycled Planter on a String

{Healthy Snack} Fruitful Turkey

November 11, 2013 By Deirdre

Heathly Snack- Fruitful Turkey: Great Fine Motor Activity

JDaniel has enjoyed food creations I have made for him for several years. Recently he helped me create a healthy fruitful turkey snack filled with fall fruits. Creating turkey feathers by putting the grapes on to the straws also turned out to great fine motor activity along giving us the opportunity to review several math concepts.

How to Make a Healthy Snack Shaped Turkey

Supplies:1 fruit strip2 raisins2 dabs of frosting
2 mandarin oranges1 Bosc pear1 yellow fruit flavored marshmallow1 bunch of red grapes1 bunch of green grapes1 bag of coffee stirring straws

Directions

Preparing the Healthy Snack Fruit

I made the turkey’s head ahead of time. The first step was to cut a red fruit strip into a peanut shape for the turkey. Two dabs of leftover frosting were placed on the fruitful turkey’s head to represent the whites of the turkey’s eyes. A small brown raisin was placed on each dab to represent the turkey’s pupils. A small section of the yellow marshmallow was cut to resemble the turkey’s beak.With the head ready I set out the grapes, mandarin oranges, pear and coffee stirring straws for JDaniel to work on. He decided where to place the fruit strip head and mandarin orange feet on and beside the pear. With those in place JDaniel started on the turkey feathers.

healthy-snack-fruitful-turkey-putting-fruit-on-straws

Constructing the Healthy Snack

The coffee stirrers were easy to thread the grapes onto. JDaniel tried to push the stirrer through the hole at the base of each grape and then to pull the straw through. I asked him to try to put the grapes on in a AB pattern. He has worked a lot with patterns and had no trouble completing that request.

Threading the grapes onto the stirrers was a great fine motor activity. JDaniel had to work on focusing, counting the number of grapes on each straw along with patterning.

When he had finished loading the stirrers with grapes, he arranged them around the pear. Some of the sat on the plate and others JDaniel pushed into the pear. The straws filled with grapes were hard to push into the pear so, laying them beside it worked best.

We both sat back and took in the wonderful creation we had created together for a moment or two. Then the turkey’s head and feathers quickly disappeared. The pear went into the fridge for later along with some of the grapes. I am so glad I was able to take a picture of it before the healthy fruitful turkey snack was deconstructed.

You will find more healthy snack and creative ways to serve food on my Food Creations board on Pinterest.

Do you have favorite fall snack?

My Posts From Other Blogs – Fall Crafts and Actvities

November 22, 2012 By Deirdre

Today I am taking the day to enjoy time with members of my extended family. The Smith clan is in South Carolina this year for a family reunion and a time give thanks. I hope you enjoy looking for this wonderful collection of fall crafts and activities.

I am giving thanks that they everyone from out of town is staying at the amazing Embassy Suites hotel and that almost all the food is catered. Our Cape Cod house would have been filled to its rafters if everyone had tried to dine at our house.

If you have stopped by for a moment or two of your Thanksgiving downtime, here are some of the posts I have shared on other blogs and websites this month as well as some of my old favorite from this blog.

The other blogs and websites represented are Kiwi Crate’s The Studio and Kids’s Activities Blog this month.

Here are the Fall Crafts and Activities:

A yummy Turkey Bento Lunch with apple feathers and frozen yogurt Thanksgiving molds was served to JDaniel two weeks ago for lunch.

JDaniel and I made a delicious Pumpkin Smoothie. It was smooth and just a tad spicy according to the JDaniel.

One morning for breakfast JDaniel had Apple Cider Pancakes. My husband keeps asking for me to make more the ones I made for him disappeared too quickly he claims.

The final picture in this collage isn’t food related, but we did have fun with the owls in it. They were for a post called Owl Craft for Skip Counting. We counted by ones as we counted their beaks, we counted by twos when we counted their eyes, and we counted by threes when we counted their claws.

A turkey activity for preschoolers and others to work on spatial terms like above, below, and over was created with feeling. JDaniel was told to place the small red feather on the large green one. Then we were asked to place it beside the large red feather. We had a great time making various turkeys with this activity.

Beside it is a turkey JDaniel created. His feathers were created by painting in a salad spinner.

JDaniel and I did our November shopping for our local food bank using a word and picture guide I created that displays food the food bank really needs.

We worked on symmetry while creating a found art object or centerpiece. JDaniel loved collecting the objects to create the project with.A paper boat was used to create a really simple Mayflower craft! I love how the ruffled edge of the plate looks on the sails.

Here are some of our fall crafts and activities :

JDaniel and I made two paper plate turkeys. They were a part of a post called Read.Explore.Learn.- Trouble at the Tappleton’s.

I made the turkey bowling pins for JDaniel when he was two and a half. The turkey’s bodies were made of his hand prints. The post was simply calledRead.Explore.Learn.- Thanksgiving

We made the turkey treat bag to take to our local fire station. We filled the bag with cookies. The post the bag was featured in was called Read.Explore.Learn.- The Firefighter’s Thanksgiving.

Our thankfulness tree spent last Thanksgiving on our kitchen table. It is filled with leaves that list things we are thankful for. The post that featured the tree is called Thanksgiving for Kids: Being Thankful.

The muffin tin meal on the top of this collage features a turkey and all different foods a turkey would eat. The post was called Muffin Tin Monday- Turkey’s Food Pyramid Meal.

The muffin tin meal on the bottom features a stuffing turkey, the best sweet potato casserole, and turkey divan with a turkey biscuit on top. The recipe for the sweet potato casserole is included in the post. It really is wonderful. The post is called Muffin Tin Monday- Thanksgiving with Sweet Potato Casserole and More.

I made my guys a Breakfast Turkey last year. They loved the pumpkin spice pancakes, bacon, and sausage.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Kids- Gratitude Turkey

November 13, 2012 By Deirdre

This past Sunday I was teaching a lesson on gratitude and thankfulness to my Sunday school class of kindergartners. We were looking at how filled with thanks giving the Israelites were for all that had been given by God.

When I was brainstorming about how to help the children bring home the concepts I was teaching, the wonderful list of 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude on Inspired By Family Magazine came to mind. The list is filled with everyday items and concepts that children or anyone can be thankful for.

Why I thought couldn’t I create a turkey with feathers displaying each of the concepts covered on the list?

I created paper plate turkey head and placed it on a clothes pin to clip to the front of a basket. Then I gathered together construction paper, clothes pins, and markers to create the feathers.On each feather I wrote one of the concepts on the 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude. I change a few of the terms of their list to words I thought the kindergartners would know. Emotion was changed to feeling for example.When the children arrived in class, we talked about Thanksgiving and what it meant to us. We then talked about the story of the week on gratefulness and I pulled out our gratitude or thanks giving turkey. The thanks giving feathers were spread on floor and the children were invited to come up one at a time to select a feather and tell what they were thankful for.

They nodded their heads in agreement for most things as other children shared. They all agreed that the time of day they were thankful for wasn’t bedtime and the new baby giraffe at the zoo was everyone’s favorite animal. It was fun to hear their answers.

I can’t wait to do this with another group of students. Maybe JDaniel’s preschool teacher will let me share the activity with the class.

Until then I will be putting this thanksgiving or gratitude turkey out on our kitchen table. We will be giving thanks for each of the concepts covered on the feathers. Maybe my husband, JDaniel, and I can pick a feather each night to add to the turkey basket turkey.

The link below is an affiliate link. It was put there for your convenience.

Thanksgiving Kids Book

I love the tie children’s book to activities that we do. I can across a wonderful book to tie to this lesson called Thanks for Thanksgiving. This amazing book by Julie Markes points out that we have things everyday to be thankful for. What a wonderful lesson to share with kids at Thanksgiving time or any other time during the year.

Warning: This isn’t a story as much a a wonderful book that shares reasons for gratitude.It is just a great Thanksgiving kids book.