Honey Pot is 3 years and 6 months old
Little M&M is 20 months old
Books
Most of the Thanksgiving books had been checked out of the library by the time we got there for our theme. So I bought one! I purchased Thanksgiving Is For Giving Thanks, by Margaret Sutherland. Such a cute story that focuses on what the holiday is really about, in a way that kids this young can understand. We love it!
Toddler Turkey Craft
While his big sister was at preschool, Little M&M did his very first glue craft! The idea comes from a blog called momstown. I wanted a simple, toddler-appropriate craft. First I printed out some turkey clipart. Then I supplied Little M&M with a brown marker with which to color it.
I helped with the beak and feet. (Remember, little ones are much more inclined to continue in their crafts if mom is participating too!) I gave Little M&M the glue, knowing he wouldn't really know what to do with it, but wanting him to feel like he's taking part in this.
Then I spread some glue along the turkey's back for the feathers. And he and I stuck some feathers on.
Super cute! It's hanging up at the bottom of the stairs, and every time we walk down he likes to point it out as his turkey. Love it.
Candy Corn Math
This idea comes from No Time for Flashcards, and the corn clip art from Thrifty Scissors. I used the number puzzle pieces from our Lauri Puzzles, as I have many times. Then I pulled out some leftover Halloween candy that we bought on sale.
Honey Pot had no trouble identifying the numbers, and adding that many candy corns.
We did this a few times with various numbers. She didn't recognize the number 10, so I think we'll start focusing on our double digits from now on! So proud of my big girl.
Preschooler Turkey Craft
I found this idea from Surviving a Teacher's Salary. We've had these craft sticks for so long, and I've been wanting to use them. This seemed like a perfect craft for them! First I printed out some clipart of a feather-less turkey. Then Honey Pot colored it in, staying in the lines completely!
Then I cut it out, and she glued it onto a piece of construction paper.
We kept the neck and head unglued, so that we could tuck the craft sticks behind it. I often held the craft sticks down for her while she added glue, but otherwise I let her do this all by herself. She glued the craft sticks on in a pattern. She hasn't done too much work with patterns, so this was a challenge for her. A good one! With some help, she was able to remember which color comes next in our pattern.
When it was all done, I asked her to name things for which she was thankful. Then I wrote those things onto the craft sticks. Here is the final product. A few things she mentioned:
- Mommy, [Little M&M], Daddy
- Christmastime
- Blues Clues
- Leaves falling down
- Macaroni and Cheese
- Pizza
So in love with this!
Thanksgiving Worksheets
Our first worksheet for this unit comes from Education.com. She loves tracing dotted lines! She does a pretty good job of it, considering she doesn't hold her pens right yet.
The next worksheet is from All Kids Network. I would have printed more of these, but didn't want to use up too much paper. This was a hit! I love how it allowed her to actually write the number three! We'll be doing more of these!
Also from All Kid's Network is this picture matching worksheet! She did well with this too.
Pumpkin Pie Playdoh
I believe we did this during last year's pumpkin/Halloween unit. Sweet-smelling homemade playdoh is always a hit. So we did this again. This time, Little M&M and I prepared it together. We used this recipe from Green Owl Art. Here is my handy helper in the kitchen.
All done cooking! Then we have to knead it!
Once it had cooled, we brought it up to big sister's room to play with her tools.
After preschool, during her brother's nap, Honey Pot got to play with the playdoh. I created a playdoh mat and laminated it for her. The first side is from Prekinders, where she needed to add feathers to the turkey.
Here is what I prepared, and I was pretty pleased with it...
But Honey Pot was so super busy, using her knife and cutting up tiny little feathers. This took a while.
Then, not even using half of the pieces she cut, this is what she came up with. LOL. Beautiful!
The other side of the playdoh mat that I created for her comes from the Parents website, which I found via Simply Montessori. I erased their words and wrote my own instructions, which ask Honey Pot to add Thanksgiving foods to her plate. She had fun with this!
Poor picture, as she was moving the hair out of her face, but here she is about to take a (pretend) bite!
Later, Honey Pot and Little M&M wanted to play with it again. So we brought everything back out, and it entertained them for quite a while.
This time I provided them with some mini pie pans, so they could make pumpkin pie!
The pans came with a cute little pie crust mold. What are they, turkeys? Chickens? I don't know. But it's cute and they had fun.
Taking a bite of her pie!
Cutting it into slices...
And then she made a monster. See the two eyes and the mouth?
She covered one of his eyes, made the mouth into a big toothy grin, and called him a happy pirate monster. So there you go!
Cranberry Sensory Bin
I wanted the kids to have a fun, sensory experience during this unit. My first thought was corn, but then I stumbled upon this unique idea from the blog You'll Thank Me One Day. Cranberries are a typical Thanksgiving food that we hadn't acknowledged yet this unit. Just add some cranberries to a bin with some water. That's all. And then you have hours of fun...if I'd let it go that long. It was a cool day, so I put warm water in the bin. They both really enjoyed playing with these cranberries!
They enjoyed it so much that, after playing outside with it for so long, they had to come in because they were too cold. So we left it out, and they continued playing with it indoors too! It was a fairly neat sensory bin, so this was perfectly fine.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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