turkey Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Tracing Lines on a Turkey

November 9, 2023 By Deirdre

These fine motor pages invite children to trace lines on a turkey’s feathers. Some of the lines will be easy to trace and others will be more challenging. Each line begins with a black dot. That should make it easy for children to know where to start. The tracing lines pages are full sized. That will make the line big enough younger children to trace.

Once children have traced all the lines on each turkey’s feathers, they can color the turkey. If you want your children to color the various parts of the turkey a specific color, you can have them place a dot of that color in the specific area.

Getting the Turkey Pages

First, you will need to download the set.

Tracing Lines on Turkeys Pages for Kids Download

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The set is an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

Third, you must go to your download file and open the page. You won’t have to hunt for it in your download file if you are.

Reusable or One Time Use

The pages can be laminated so that they can be reused. If you want to use them like a worksheet, just print them out and give them to your children to use.

Making the Turkey Pages Reusable

If you plan on using the pages over and over again, you may want to laminate them. Below I have suggested products that you may want to use to cover them.

The links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. My Amazon Picks

Scotch Brand PRO Thermal Laminator, Never Jam…$54.68~~$128.93~~ (11154)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 100 Count-P…$15.98~~$24.68~~ (63556)

Scotch Thermal Laminating Pouches, 200- Count-…$27.99~~$42.99~~ (23612)

Hammermill Printer Paper, Great White 100% Recy…$17.00 (4917)AllAds by Amazon

Exploring the Tracing Lines on a Turkey Pages

While the pages can be placed in a center to explore, you may want to have your children work with a group to each trace a line.
The page can be turned until one lines horizontal. Children can trace each line horiztonally rather than vertically.

More Turkey Activities

Turkey Cup Stacking Challenge Cards

Thankfulness Turkey

Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge

November 2, 2022 By Deirdre

This Thanksgiving Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge invites children to stack cups following the picture directions on the challenge cards. The turkey that are upside down represent a cup that is stacked upside down. However, the turkey pictures that are right side up represent cups that are right side up.

Whether you decide for your children to explore the Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge at the kitchen table or in a learning center, they are sure to have fun. The set includes simple cup stacks and more complicated. You can decide which cards are best for your kids.

Getting the Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge

First, you will need to download the set.

Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge Download

Second, if you don’t have Acrobat Reader you will need to download it. The algorithm page is an Acrobat Reader PDF file.

Third, you must go to your download file and open the page. You may be asked if you want the file to open right after downloading it. You won’t have to hunt for it in your download file if you are.

Exploring the Turkey Cup Stacking STEM Challenge

Explaining the Turkeys

While most children will look at the upside-down turkey and know it means the cup is upside down, others may be confused. The upside-down turkey’s head is narrow. Its base is wide. There may be children that think that means the narrow cup base goes on the bottom. Please take a moment to explain this to them.

If they end up building structures that are the opposite of the card, you can decide if you want to correct them. It may be important to you that you build it just like the card. It may be important that they just practice cup stacking.

Cup Stacking Challenge Card Cup Recommendations

While you can truly use any type of cup that you like, it would be best to use cups that have sturdy sides. It will help the tall structures stay up. The cups you choose to use do not need to be expensive though. The size of the cup doesn’t matter either. I think small cups like shot cups work can well as tall cups. Small cups are easier to store.

More STEM Challenges

Ski Lift Paper Plate Craft

Woodland Animals Pattern Blocks Mats

Hay Bale Kicker STEM Activity

Thanksgiving Bonus Activity for Kids -STEM-Brick-Challenge-Task-Cards-for-Thanksgiving Download

Thanksgiving STEM Activity- Create a Turkey Hideout

November 4, 2021 By Deirdre

This Thanksgiving STEM activity invites children to create a turkey hideout. Turkeys like the one found in the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving get nervous around Thanksgiving. They don’t want to be served on a table to a family or group of friends on Thanksgiving. The turkey will need a hideout to stay safe.

The instructions for a turkey hideout recommend using a small box or milk carton. A box or carton doesn’t need to be used. Before you start this Thanksgiving STEM activity, you can brainstorm other containers your children can use. Other containers that would be perfect for this activity are probably in your recycling box!

Getting Ready for the Thanksgiving STEM Activity

Downloading the Building a Hideout Set

The STEM activity is a PDF. When you download it, you will need to open it with a PDF reader. Acrobat Reader is a popular reader that you can download to use. You probably have it on your computer already.

Thanksgiving STEM Activity- Create a Turkey Hideout Download

After downloading the set, you can decide what pages from the set you want to use.

Gathering the Thanksgiving STEM Activity Building Supplies

The planning page recommends the following materials:

Small Box or Carton
Tape
Glue
Small Sticks
Scissors
Construction Paper
Leaves

You can really use any materials you have available to you. The supplies on the list are just suggestions.

Planning for the Build

The planning page asks children to draw what they think each side of their hideout will look like. The actual hideaway may end up looking a little different than the picture. That is okay. Children need to learn that plans can get altered during a build. They can go back and revise or change their pictures on the planner when the building is complete if you want them to.

More STEM Building Activities

Houses for the Three Pigs

Learning Letters with Crayons

Building Pulleys

Thankfulness Turkey Activity Set

November 18, 2020 By Deirdre

When my son was little we made a gratitude turkey with construction paper, a basket, and some clothes pins. That activity inspired this thankfulness turkey set. With this set, your children can explore various things they can be thankful for as they add feathers to a turkey. The set includes a turkey head, blank turkey feathers, labeled turkey feathers, and a page of areas you can be thankful for.

Getting Started with the Thankfulness Turkey Activity Set

Downloading the Set

You can download the Thankfulness Turkey Activity for Kids After that you will need to open it with a PDF reader. If you have Acrobat Reader available, it would be a good one to use.

Gathering the Supplies Needed for the Activity

You will need the following supplies for the thankfulness turkey activity.

The Thankfulness Turkey Activity for Kids
Clothespins
Glue
A Basket or Bowl

Getting the Basket or Bowl Ready

You will need to cut out the turkey head and attach it to a clothespin with glue. Then you will need to clip the turkey head to a small basket or bowl. Once the head is in place, you are ready to work on the feathers.

Deciding on the Feathers

You can use the feathers that already have areas to be thankful on them. The other choice is to have you or your children decide on areas they are thankful for. There is a page listing areas of thanks in the set. However, you can have your children come up with their own areas. Once you have come up with ten areas, you can write those areas on the blank feathers.

Getting the Thankfulness Turkey Feathers Ready

Before you start attaching the feathers to a basket or a bowl, you will need to glue them to clothes pins.

Attaching the Feathers to the Turkey

There are several ways you can have your children attach the feathers.

First, your children can attach each feather as they discuss why they are thankful for the word their feather displays.
Second, you can attach all the feathers and point to each feather as you discuss it.
Third, you can have your children pick the feathers they are most thankful for. They can then share why they are thankful for those areas.

Why Not Read About Thankfulness

After completing the thankfulness turkey activity, you may want to read a book about thankfulness or thanksgiving. Below you will find a collection of wonderful books that feature those themes.

The links below are affiliate links.

If you like this activity, here are some more Thanksgiving activities you will love.

Do Cranberries Sink or Float Thanksgiving Science Experiment

Cranberry Sink or Float Activity

Let's Make a Unicorn STEAM Turkey Disguise Project - Actually children can design a variety of disguises for a turkey. This printable set includes a turkey template, planning document and idea chart.

STEAM Disguise a Turkey Activity Set

Turkey Coloring Pages and an Algorithm Activity

November 6, 2018 By Deirdre

Last week I shared with you a set of Thanksgiving coloring pages and algorithm activities. Due to the number of steps in the algorithms, older children will probably enjoy them more than younger children. Younger children will enjoy this turkey coloring pages and algorithm set. The first turkey coloring page walks children through how to make a simple turkey. The second coloring page invites children to illustrate a scene from the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. If you are participating in the Hour of Code, these coloring pages will introduce your children to coding.

The links below are affiliate links.

If your children haven’t heard or read the book A Turkey for Thanksgiving, you will want to share it with them. It brings new meaning to having a turkey for Thanksgiving. Your children will love how the dinner turns out. I love to read a book to my children based on an activity we are going to do.

Before Starting the Algorithm Activity

You will need to print out one or both of the turkey coloring pages from the Turkey Coloring Pages and Algorithm Activities. They will download as a PDF. You can open it up with Acrobat Reader.

If you are having your children work on A Turkey for Thanksgiving coloring page, you will want to read them the book. You will also want to have them brainstorm what kinds of messages they want to display on their signs.

If your children are working on drawing a turkey algorithm, you may need to share with them what a wattle is. They may not be familiar with that term.

Starting the Turkey Coloring Pages

You will need to share with your children that an algorithm is the series of steps a computer works through to complete a task. They will be working through an algorithm displayed on Blockly blocks. (Blockly blocks are a coding tool created by Google. Blockly blocks are used by a number of Hour of Code sites including Code.org.) It will be great for them to know they are used on computers and not just displayed on these coloring pages.

Then you can walk your children through what they need to do on blocks one block at a time.

If you like this coding activity, here are some more you will love.

Little Miss Muffet Coding Activity and Printable

Coding Activity- Going on a Bear Hunt

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Algorithm Activity

Gruffalo Coding Sheet

Help the Pirate Find His Treasure

Computer Coding Free Printable STEM Activity

STEM Coding for Kids- Building Cup Stacking Algorithms

ABC’s of How to Read Binary with Printable

Thanksgiving Tangram Puzzles for Kids

October 30, 2018 By Deirdre

Tangram Puzzles are a great way for kids to explore shapes. Children will need to slide, rotate or flip shapes for them to fit into a tangram puzzle. This set of Thanksgiving-themed tangram puzzles features a Native American or Indian, a turkey, and a boat. Your children will have fun using homemade, printed or store-bought tangrams with these mats.

Links below are affiliate links.

Before your children explore the tangram puzzle mats, you may want to teach them a Thanksgiving-themed children’s book. Below you will find some of my favorite books with a Thanksgiving theme.

Getting Your Set of Tangram Puzzles

You can download the set of Thanksgiving Tangram Puzzle Workspaces and open them up with Acrobat Reader. The set was designed to be printed out on a color printer. If you prefer to print them out on a black and white printer, they will have feature a lot of grays.

You will also find a tangram pattern in the set. You can print the set onto Thanksgiving-themed scrapbooking paper or fall themed copy paper if you don’t want to make a set or use a store-bought set.

Exploring the Tangram Puzzles

There are a number of ways you could share these puzzles with your children. Below you will find a list of ways that I came up with. You may come up with other great ideas. If you do please take a moment and share them on my Facebook page or in a comment below.

You could place them in a center or put them out on the kitchen table for your children to explore one at a time.
You could have them explore all of the puzzles at the same time. Then they can decide which was the easiest and which was the hardest to do.
You could put them out on Thanksgiving Day. Your children could work on them while you are working on the Thanksgiving feast.
You could put them out a school Thanksgiving celebration for children to work on with their parents.

If you like this tangram activity, here are some more you will want to explore:

Halloween Puzzles for Tangrams

Fall Themed Puzzle Mats for Tangrams

Fox in Socks Puzzles for Tangrams

Challenge Cards for Tangrams

STEAM Turkey Disguise Project- Let’s Make It A Unicorn

November 16, 2017 By Deirdre

Your children will have fun designing a turkey disguise for the turkey on the template in this printable set. I chose to make my turkey a unicorn. Your children will have fun using a STEAM planning document and our list of ideas to come up with their own turkey disguises. It totally doesn’t have to be a unicorn.

Building Background

Below you will find fun turkey-themed books. It would be fun to read one of them to your children before starting this activity.

How to Catch a Turkey shares the story of a turkey that get loose during the Thanksgiving play.

Once a turkey finds that he is for dinner, he comes up with various disguises to hide himself in the story Turkey Trouble.

Turkey Disguise Project

Getting Ready

Downloading the Project Pages

You will need to download a copy of the STEAM Turkey Disguise Project. It includes the disguise planning document, the turkey template, and a disguise idea chart. All of the pages in the set were designed to be printed on a black-and-white printer.

Gathering Decorating Supplies

Here are some supplies you will want to put out for your disguise designers:

Crayons
Markers
Scissors
Fabric Scraps
Construction Paper or Colored Cardstock
Buttons
Glue
Ribbon
Bits of Nature Gathered from Outdoors (Twigs or Leaves)

Planning The Disguise

Before your children create their disguise, they will need to plan it. I worked on the unicorn design several times before picking up a pair of scissors. The planning document in the set has ample space to draw a costume or disguise.

Creating the Disguise

Your children may create a costume that covers some or all of the turkey. It is up to you or them to decide how much of the turkey they want to cover. You can also decide just what supplies you want them to use.

If your children decide not to cover all of their turkeys, they will need to color the parts of the turkey that will be shown.

When they are ready, they can start constructing the turkey’s disguise.

How I Made the Unicorn

The unicorn I created was made of three pieces of white cardstock. It has a head, horn, and body section. Once they were cut out, each piece was outlined with a gold or silver marker.

The head was made big so it would cover the turkey’s head and some of its feathers. The nostrils of the unicorn are the eyeholes for the turkey. I wanted his eyes to show through from the back.

The mane and the tail were created using a variety of curled ribbons. The ribbon was glued to the back of the unicorn.

After coloring the turkey, I dressed him in his disguise. Your children don’t have to color the turkey if they don’t want to.

Here are some more turkey disguise ideas:

Box of Popcorn

Astronaut in Outer Space

Baseball Player

Minion

If you like these turkey crafts here are some more you will like.

Paper Plate Turkeys

Potato Masher Turkey

Paper Lantern Turkey

Here is another STEM/STEAM activity to explore:

Thanksgiving STEM Activity- Create a Turkey Hideway

Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids- Paper Plate Turkeys

November 9, 2015 By Deirdre

Last week I shared with you a quirky paper plate turkey that JDaniel and I made several years ago. Today I want to share with you a fine motor paper plate turkey we made along with ten other awesome paper plate turkeys made by others. You will find that they have two things in common. They look like turkey and they made with paper plates. Each is unique, fun and would be easy for kids young and old to make.

Fine Motor Paper Plate Turkey

Children will used a variety of fine motor skills to create this paper plate turkey. They will grip and punch holes in using a hole punch. Children will cut out a portion of the paper plate. They will also thread pipe cleaners through the hols and twist them so they will stay in place.

How to Make the Fine Motor Paper Plate Turkey

You will start by cutting out the section of the plate that would display the turkey’s head and feet.

Then use a hole punch to create an arc of holes around the edge of the plate.

Pipe cleaners will then threaded up one hole and thread down a near by hole. Before twisting them in place the pipe cleaners will need to be pulled out of form an arch. The goal is to create feathers. Your children may arrange the feathers away they like.

When the feathers are in place on the turkey, you will need to cut out the turkey’s head, facial features, and feet.

Then glue the construction paper turkey parts onto the paper plate.

More Paper Plate Turkey Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

Paper Plate Turkey Using Tissue Paper by Crafty Morning

Painted Paper Plate Turkey by Happy Hooligans

Paper Plate Turkey Craft with Hand Print Feathers by I Heart Art n Crafts

Paper Plate Turkey Puppet by Coffee Cups and Crayons

Plump and Perky Turkey by I Heart Crafty Things

Fun Turkey with Real Feathers byABC Creative Learning

Easy Paper Plate Turkey by Fantastic Fun and Learning

Paper Plate Shape Turkey Craft by Toddler Approved

Paper Plate Turkey Craft with Coffee Filter Feathers by A Little Pinch of Perfect

Paper Plate and Ribbon Turkey by Glued to My Crafts

Second Grade Worksheets – Exploring a Number

October 13, 2015 By Deirdre

My son has learned so many different ways to write or illustrate numbers in second grade. I thought it would be a lot of fun to create Second Grade Worksheets- Exploring a Number that would display a few of those different ways. I also included a box for him to tell me if a number is even or odd. It came out so well that I thought I would share one of them with you.

Since it is October I placed lines through the inside of a pumpkin. These lines created spaces that could be used to display the various ways a number can be written. Each space is labeled with the way he needed to write each number.

Some of the ways can be done super-fast and don’t take up much room. Others take longer. My son had to think about how to fit those displays of a number in the space given. Thankfully we did this worksheet in pencil. Writing the selected number in tally marks had to been rethought out. The tally marks were too far apart and had to been drawn in closer together.

We worked on the following:

Tally marks
Number in words
Number
Base ten blocks
Expanded Notation
Even or Odd

After making a colored pumpkin worksheet I made four other second grade worksheets. There are three fall themes in the set. I made a black and white version of the pumpkin, turkey and leaf. Just for fun there is a colored version of the pumpkin and turkey. Many of you will want to print out a copy of the colored versions if you don’t need a number of them. If you need a lot of copies of these second grade worksheets, the black and white versions are available.

If your children are working on different ways to display numbers, please feel free to add a new section to the pumpkin.

Your children don’t have to work on the same number. You can have them pick out their own one or two digit number.

Here some other wonder second grade worksheets:

Autumn Math Worksheet from Living Life Learning

Scrabble Math Addition from the Measured Mom

Reviewing Skills from 3 Dinosaurs

Roll and Cover Indian Corn

Roll and Cover 3 Dice Ladybug Math

Arts and Crafts for Kids- Potato Masher Turkey

November 14, 2014 By Deirdre

Kitchen tools can make great painting tools for arts and crafts for kids. We create this turkey craft using a potato masher. The masher added a lot of texture to the turkey. It was lots of fun to make. I think you will like creating a mashed turkey for Thanksgiving too. I have titled this preschool activities, but I think older children will enjoy it too.

Arts and Crafts for Kids- Potato Masher Turkey

The trickiest part of doing this arts and crafts for kids project is that after you paint with each color you have to clean the potato. If you have more than one masher per child or per color, it will make it a whole lot less tricky. For the rest of this post let’s assume you have more than one masher.

There are several ways that you can apply the paint to the potato masher. If you want to eliminate a lot of paint dripping, you can paint the paint onto the potato masher with a paint brush. If you want to complete the craft a little bit faster, you can have children dip the potato masher into a tray of paint. (A tray will be much easier to dip the paint into or onto than a bowl would be.)

This arts and crafts for kids project can be created in a center by one child at a time or in a group setting. The group could move around a table that has stations with specific color and a masher in them. The members of group could also pass the trays and mashers. I think it would be easier for the children to move.

We started by painting the feathers first and then the body. By doing the painting that way we ended up some of the color from the feathers showing through the potato masher painted holes in the head. If you don’t like that look, you can have your children pain the head first.

Painting the beak and waddle onto this Thanksgiving craft head didn’t work for us. The tempera paint we tried just didn’t show up. We ended up cutting a beak and waddle out of construction paper. Then we glued them on. You may want to explore beak and waddle painting with the paints you have available to you. They may show up well on the turkey’s head. ( Sometimes arts and crafts for kids require experimenting.)

When it has dried, I think this would be a wonderful Thanksgiving place mat (If you use it as a place mat, you may want to laminate it.) It could also be used as a wall display or door decoration. Your Thanksgiving guests will probably enjoy getting to see this arts and crafts for kids Turkey.