Run Turkey, Run!

Gathering Activity: Turkey Hats

We made these adorable turkey hats from Lindsay Blogs.  I love the way they turned out, and as you can tell, so did the kids!  Each hat was unique! You can follow the link to get full directions.   

Circle Time

We read Run, Turkey Run by Diane Mayr.  It is a fun story of a turkey who hides from the farmer on Thanksgiving Day.  After each new hiding place is discovered by the farmer, the children had a wonderful time shouting along with the book "RUN, TURKEY, RUN!"  He finally finds reprieve in a forest of pine trees, until the farmer and his family go to find a Christmas tree.  Of course, he gets away again. 

We also sang one of our favorite Thanksgiving songs, "Mr. Turkey. "

"Said, Mr. Turkey, I want to play. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.
But soon it will be Thanksgiving Day. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.
Folks all say that means great fun, but I think I'll run, run, run.
And hide until the day is done. Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble, Gobble."


Art Activities:

1-Popcorn Turkeys 

We were inspired by this fun idea for turkeys at Everything Preschool.   

Materials Needed:

Rubber Glove (Clear)

Small squares of Multicolored Tissue Paper

Popcorn
Googly Eyes
Glue

 

Directions:

For 3 year olds, this is definitely a mom and child activity.  Using a clear rubber glove, the child stuffed the four fingers with colored tissue paper and stuffed the thumb with red, while the moms held open the gloves. 

Then the children filled the palm with popcorn while the moms held open the gloves.

Then Moms tied the bottom, like you would tie a balloon. 

Last step was to add an eye on each side.

We had children stuff turkeys in two different ways.  Some mixed all the colors together, and others kept each finger an individual color.  Both ways turned out cute.

 

2-Turkey Feathers in Playdough

Our next activity was a more open ended activity.  We were inspired by this activity at Teach Preschool.  We handed each of the children  ball of brown playdough and feathers to explore.  They knew just what to do!  

 
A few of you asked what we do with younger siblings.  Here is a great pic showing a little brother joining in our fun. 

Snack:  Apple Turkeys

The children loved making these adorable turkeys.  I made these my very first year teaching, and can't remember exactly where I got the idea from then, so many years ago.  But our children sure loved making and eating these! 
Games:Hide the Turkey Game

“Hide the turkey, hide the turkey,
in the trees, in the trees.
Don’t let farmer find him, don’t let farmer find him.
Hide turkey, hide turkey! “

Materials Needed: 4 boxes with a picture of a tree taped on and a toy turkey.

Directions: Choose one child to be the "hider."  Choose another to be the Farmer.  The farmer leaves the room. Sing the song. The "hider" places the turkey in one of the boxes. 

The farmer returns and searches in each box until she finds turkey.

Then all of the other children yell “RUN TURKEY RUN!”  The person holding the turkey runs around the room back to his spot. 

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!  I am grateful for you and for your support!  Thank you for reading about our adventures each week! 

Cindy Moo

Our activities this week were inspired by the book Cindy Moo by Lori Mortensen. 

Gathering-Cow Spots 
(One to One Correspondence and fine motor skills)

We printed off plain white cow coloring pages for each child, and drew 10 circles on the cow. 

We gave each child 10 black buttons to place in the circles. 

We did not glue down, because we wanted to let them take the buttons off and then do it again. 

Our Circle Time and Book Review

Cindy Moo by Lori Mortensen is a beautifully written and illustrated rhyming book.  It tells the story of a cow who is determined to follow in her ancestor's footsteps, and jump over the moon herself.   She tries and tries again.  Others tell her to give up, but she refuses.  In the end, she finds her own unique solution to her problem and achieves her dream.  I love the life lessons it teaches.  I love the flow of the language.  And I am absolutely IN LOVE with Cindy Moo with her pink bow and her positive attitude.  This is one of those books that the Mommies enjoyed as much as the children.  We checked ours out of the public library, but it is one I would not hesitate to purchase and add to our home library. 

We had learned the poem “Hey Diddle Diddle” previously at Mommy and Me, so we sand this again today. 

Art: Cindy Moo Clothespin Cow Craft 
(artistic exploration, fine motor skills, following directions, literacy connections)

I loved this cute cow craft I found at Busybee Kids Crafts. You can head there for complete directions.  We made our own, and added a pink bow so they would look like Cindy Moo.  

Don't you love our cute herd?  

Snack: Cow jumped over the moon snack & milk

We were inspired by this cute idea at Meet the Dubiens and created our own with tortillas, meat, and cheese! 

Activities

1-Jumping Over the Moon: 
(Gross motor skills, jumping, balancing, taking turns, cooperation)

I have a large white exercise ball and we allowed the children to take turns jumping over the pretend moon.  

2-Milking a Glove Activity
(fine motor skills, real life connections, sensory development)

This was one of my favorite activities when I taught kindergarten, and my little Mommy and Me friends loved it, too!  

We used white paint and a latex glove.  We poked small holes in each fingertip of the glove.

 We had three children share each glove and squirt the paint onto a plate.  It was messy and fun!

Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie

This week's fun was inspired by Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie by Mark Kimball Moulton.  It was also our Halloween Mommy and Me Book Club, so the children dressed up in costumes.
 

 

Gathering Activity: Pumpkin Pie Playdough 
(Fine motor skills, creative play, sensory play)

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp. cream of tartar
• 2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
•  yellow and red food coloring

*I always add the food coloring to my water before combining all the ingredients. 

*Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and stir over medium-low heat. Continue to stir until the mixtures reaches a good consistency. Remove it from the heat and knead it when it's cool enough to handle.  Store in an air tight container.

Circle Time
(Pre-literacy skills, rhyming, music, listening skills, language development, gross motor skills)

 
We read Miss Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie by Mark Kimball Moulton.  The pictures in this book are very sweet and remind me a little of Mary Englebreit's artwork, which I love.  There are no frightening pictures.  The story is written in a pleasing rhyme that is enjoyable to read aloud.  It is the tale of a kind witch who loves to plant pumpkins and make pumpkin pie to share with everyone in town on Halloween night.   The children all love to come to her home.  When asked her secret ingredient, she says she puts spiders and bat wings inside, which made our little ones giggle. 

 After our story, we enjoyed 3 different songs. 

First I shared the 5 Little Pumpkins Traditional finger play and flannel board story. 

 

We sang "5 Little Bats Flew Out One Day."

"5 little bats flew out one day, over the trees and far away.  When the Mommy Bat said "Eek ack come back."  Only 4 little bats came back."  Repeat until no bats.
"No little bats went out to play, over the trees and far away. When the DADDY bat said "EEK ACK COME BACK!" 5 little bats came flying back.   

And a favorite every year, "I'm A Little Scarecrow."  (sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot") The children stand with their arms straight out like a scarecrow.

"I'm a little scarecrow, filled with hay.   Here I stand in the fields all day.  When I see a crow I like to shout..."HEY! YOU CROWS, YOU BETTER GET OUT!" 

 


Art: Decorate Pumpkins
 (Creative exploration, fine motor skills, art, spatial reasoning)

We decorated pumpkins with foam stickers, ribbon, buttons, pipe cleaners, pom poms,  sequins, glue, and these adorable felt witch hats and pirate hats one of our talented moms made!  I loved them!  

 


Snack - Mini Pumpkin Pies
(Communication, making connections with literature, self-help skills)

 
Of course we had to eat pumpkin pie with our story.  These were the perfect size. 

Activities
(Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, Cooperation, Communication, Sorting, Listening Skills)
 
1-Pumpkin Toss and Roll

The children took turns tossing and rolling small plastic pumpkins into a basket. 

2-Making Fiona's Stupendous Pumpkin Pie Game 

 
I placed one large plastic cauldron in the center of the room.  I then scattered several objects around on the floor of different ingredients (pumpkins, eyes, spiders, worms, etc.....) 

I called out the name of one of the items and had the children run and find that item on the floor and place it in the pot.

  Then they returned to their places.  I had enough of each item that every child could do each one.  This game didn't last too long.

   It ended up with the children playing and sorting all of the objects together.  Which was also very fun.   I think that is one of the most important part of teaching children, allowing them to take the game where they want it to go.  

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