Ten Great Ideas for Thanksgiving! (Freebie Alert!)

Here are TEN GREAT IDEAS for your little ones for Thanksgiving, and most of them are FREE!  I hope you enjoy this little "round up!"  :)




Also, check out our newest little video of me reading our new Opposite Rhyming Songbook to my little friends in Mary's first grade class!  It came out SO cute!!!  I LOVE this little book!




1.  Here is the a little printable reading book that I made a few years ago with a November/fall theme!

I wrote it to help my kids practice their sight words.  I gave each child an index card with certain sight words on it that were each colored a certain color.  So then I had them find and color their sight words throughout the book.  For example, they had to find all of the word "like" and color it red on every page in their little books.  Then they had to find and color the word "my" yellow through out the book, etc.








2.  Turkey Feathers Matching Sets - Freebie!

For this one, you just print out the turkeys and glue them on to some small paper plates.  Then the kids put the correct number of clothespins with feathers to the plate.  (I used a hot glue gun to attach real feathers to the clothespins to make it a little more fun.)




Click here for the free download of the master with the numbers on the turkey bodies.  By the way, one half ounce bag of feathers was enough for the 55 feathers needed for all of the turkeys, 0-10.





3.  Pumpkin Patch Counting Worksheets Freebie

I love these little pumpkin patch worksheets!  Using the worksheets is simple, but the kids really need an adult or an older student (like a fifth grader) with them to make it work.  They choose a number on a pumpkin to try to build, and count that many pumpkins into their ice cube tray.  Then they raise their hand for the helper or teacher to check and see if they counted correctly.  If so, then they receive a crayon and may color that ONE pumpkin.  Don’t give them any crayons at all until they finish counting out the pumpkins correctly and tell you how many they have.  After they color that one pumpkin, then they must give that crayon back while they build another number.  Then they raise a hand and the activity goes on, etc.




Kids build the numbers into the tray and then raise their hand to have someone check and see if they counted right. If they adult agrees that they counted correctly, they can color in that pumpkin. Downloadable freebie has three pages that cover numbers 1-30.

I use the worksheets with some little pumpkin ice cube trays that have ten slots each in them.  I got them at the "99 Cents Only" store right before Halloween!  I also bought some “Pumpkin Table Scatter” at Target in the dollar section in October.  I think that the Table Scatter is meant to be a decoration, but as soon as I saw it and that there were 125 pieces in each one, I knew that they were REALLY meant to be counters for me, LOL!  So I bought two of them and then decided to use them with my Pumpkin Patch Counting Worksheets.






4.  November Graph Free Download

This is a graphing worksheet with a November/Thanksgiving theme.  Enough said? There are lots of other graphs posted as free downloads on this blog as well.  You can search the blog using the search box on the upper right side to find more.




3.  Barnyard Bang Game:  (Download for purchase) $4.00

This game ties in well with Thanksgiving, since it includes a turkey that is trying to escape becoming the farmer’s dinner!  It helps kids practice sight words, color words, alphabet, the numbers 0-30, ordinal numbers, and sorting. Includes blank cards so that you can modify the game to include your own sight words, etc.




It's Barnyard Bang: A fall/Thanksgiving themed game from HeidiSongs!

The game includes enough cards for you to print it out as a math game as shown in one picture, or as a language arts game as shown in the other picture.

The game is played like this:  The teacher gives each child a card in turn.  If the child gets a question card, he must answer the question or identify the number or word.  But if the child receives an activity card, then he or she gets to do that activity!  Some of the activities are shown in the picture below.  The children love this game, and it is a fun way to drill and practice these basic skills.




4.  Turkey Tails Sight Word Game (or Alphabet Game)  Freebie

I have used this resource in two different ways.  The first way is to use it as an independent center and have the children clip clothespins with letters written on them onto the turkeys.  In this case, I glue the turkeys down onto paper plates.  For sight words, the children can focus on the individual letters in each word and spell the words by clipping the letters onto them.  For the alphabet, the children can match the upper and lower case letters by clipping them onto the turkeys glued onto paper plates.




The second way I have used this resource is by making a game out of it.  In this game, the children all chant:

"Turkey tails, turkey tails!
One, two, three!
Turkey tails, turkey tails!
Where could it be?"

Then they take turns searching for the words "Happy Thanksgiving" by selecting a word or a letter and looking underneath it.  It's fun- but watch out, because they peek!  I prefer to put the turkeys on a pocket chart rather than on a table; it seems to be easier to keep them from peeking that way and it keeps the game fun.  Also, last year I decided to make a little black Pilgrim boy hat out of construction paper to place under the turkeys rather than the "Happy Thanksgiving" words that are included in the download- but if you want that, you'll have to figure out how to do that yourself because that's not in the file!


5.  Turkey Color Words Worksheet Free Download

This activity is really for both the teen numbers 10-13 and for the color words, too, because it is a color by number worksheet.  I decided to focus on the numbers my kids needed the most and created a worksheet just for them.  :)



6.  Dinner’s Ready Singable Book Project (Download for purchase)  $4.00

In this "Singable Book," the children sing about and learn the vocabulary of a typical American Thanksgiving dinner.  Of course, it rhymes, too!  Plus, it’s got this really neat hidden pocket in the last page with a secret dinner plate inside of it that one child told me is “out- STANDING!”  I like this project because it is SIMPLE and easy enough for everyone to do well and get it right.  :)






7.  Pilgrim Boy and Girl Color Word Worksheets- Free Download

Here are a couple of color word worksheets with pilgrims on them!  Your kids will get to trace the color words as well as color the objects the correct color.  There's one for boys and one for girls!  Since part of it asks the kids to color in white, I usually copy this one on blue or green copy paper so the white will show up.



8.  Decorate a Turkey Homework Assignment Free Download

I always send this turkey home with at least a week’s notice for the children to decorate it and then bring it in to share.  The sheer variety of what I get back is simply astounding!  And I always tell them that simply coloring it is fine, just in case I have a family that cannot do more.  I still want all of the children to have a chance to share their turkeys, no matter how much effort appears to have been put into them!




9.  Thanksgiving Guided Drawing Free Download

Want to know how to show your children how to draw those pilgrims?  This download will show you step by step exactly how to do it!  It even tells you how to describe the steps to your kids.  Most kids are very successful with guided drawing!  Just put those who are especially anxious right at your feet if you can, so that you can help them along if needed.  Or, assign them a peer helper to get them past a rough point, which is usually just a diagonal line or two.

Want more guided drawing lessons?  Use the “Search” feature on the upper right side of this blog and put in the words “Guided Drawing.”  A whole variety of them should come right up!








 




Well, there you have it!  Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving! :)

-Heidi


P.S. Don't forget all our videos are available to STREAM on UScreen, FREE for the first 30 days! It's an awesome way to bring some EASY, active learning to your students during this time, and they can always cancel right before they are ever charged, like on day 29! Check out the info page on our website for more info!




----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, and follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul...
Read more

Combining Holiday Traditions Around the World & STEM!

Image
Have you ever thought about combining your social studies topics with science or STEM projects?  Well, that is what I have been trying to do this year, and in this post I am going to tell you about a few of the ideas I have for December!  We won't have time to do them all, but I wanted to just throw them out there so that if any of you want to try them, you'll have time to make it happen. Sound interesting?  Read on to find out more! It turns out that giving STEM projects "a theme" really isn't that hard; it's really a matter of thinking creatively as you plan them and giving them a different name than you might have otherwise.   So this is my method.  I start browsing around on Pinterest and online to see if I can find a fun STEM project that catches my eye. I search under terms related to that holiday or event.  For example, for December I searched under STEM or science and then added some keywords like tree, sled, snow, candle, etc.   ...
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they...
Read more

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas Freebies and Book Review!

Image
Hello, and and happy holidays!  Here is my latest holiday offering for all of you fans of Pete the Cat.  I have THREE FREE DOWNLOADS for you! These include a color by number worksheet that is printable in two different levels, a word family worksheet, and a little “Pete’s Christmas” easy reader, too!  I hope you enjoy them, because they took some time to create. If you have not yet read this newest book in the Pete the Cat series, you will not be disappointed!  However, it’s not the usual Pete the Cat fare offered up by the author, Eric Litwin.  In my opinion, the previous Pete the Cat books were popular with young children probably for their simplicity, repetitive patterns, surprise endings, up-beat messages, and fun illustrations.  This Pete the Cat book is different, but equally good. The text of the book is written to mimic the Night Before Christmas poem by Clement C. Moore.  It includes only one short repetitive ref...
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the m...
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a differen...
Read more

A Twist on the Headband Game!

Image
Here’s a fun, new, twist on the classic Headband Game that makes it reusable and adaptable to any subject and any level!  AND it gets the kids up and moving as they learn, so that’s an even greater bonus!!!!  This awesome idea was suggested by a participant in one of my workshops when I presented the Sight Word Headband Game and wondered aloud how to make this adaptable to kids in higher grades that learn their new words much more quickly.  So I tried it out myself, and voilá!  It worked out great!  My own class has done this now a few times and they LOVE it! So here is how it works; I’ll remind you of the my original version first.  With the original  Sight Word Headband Game , I wrote a word on a strip of paper and formed it into a headband.  The kids all put one on, and then walked around the room and wrote the words that they found on their friends’ heads next to their friends’ names on a sheet of paper. Now with this ...
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask ...
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the wo...
Read more

Teaching CVC Words: What to Do When They Are STILL NOT GETTING IT

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you several new things to try with children that just can't seem to sound out words, even after MANY different interventions have been tried!  So for those little sweeties that are "just plain stuck" on the road to learning to read, here are a few more things to try or to think about.  The inspiration for this post came from the question from a reader below.  Hope it is helpful! Question: I really enjoy using your songs and activity ideas in my kindergarten classroom each day. I wanted to seek your advice for a couple of my readers. They have phonemic awareness skills in place and can segment a CVC word independently, but they are unable to blend it into the word independently. If I segment the word for them, they can blend it just fine. I use the Elkonin boxes, manipulatives, etc. to help, but still they are not really making progress and they are the only ones who are unable to demonstrate this skill in my class. ...
Read more