As we finish up our Halloween festivities it’s already time to get ready for Thanksgiving! The fall is always a busy time of the year. Here are some great Thanksgiving activities we have done in the past. I created a set of adapted books about Turkeys which includes “Where is the Turkey?”, “What is the Turkey Wearing?”, and “Turkey, Turkey What Do You Smell?”
“Where is the Turkey?” targets the prepositional concepts “above”, “below”, “next to”, and “on”. The students have to place the turkey in the correct location related to the different fall items. This also helps build up vocabulary skills!
“What is the Turkey Wearing?” focuses on both color concepts and different clothing items. For this book the students have to find the correct turkey to match the given description. The students have to identify both the correct color and clothing item. For example, “blue hat on the turkey”. My students always think it is so funny that the turkey is wearing different outfits! Have your students practice describing the turkeys to you. Students can do this verbally or with their AAC device.
After you finish reading the book you can make a turkey. We made silly dancing turkeys one year.
I start off by having the students request a “brown circle” for the body and then a small “brown oval” for the head. The student glued the head “on” the body. Next add “2 ovals” for the wings. Each turkey needs 3 feathers – Red, Orange, and Yellow. This helps target those shape and number concepts! Glue the feathers “on top” of the body.
Add 2 eyes, 1 orange beak, and 1 red gobbler to the turkey’s face. The turkey needs 2 long orange legs. I usually have the legs already bent because it can be hard for my students to bend the paper back and forth. Finally the students added the 2 legs and the “Dancing Turkey” is done. You can talk about how it is pretend to have a turkey wearing clothes and a dancing turkey. If you want more details click the following link – What is the Turkey Wearing? and Turkey Craft!
“Turkey, Turkey What Do You Smell?” focuses on the students identifying different Thanksgiving food items the Turkey smells. The student places the different food items on the plate.
To follow up with the book you can have your students create their own Thanksgiving Plate! Here is a link for a free copy of this activity – Thanksgiving Food Craft. This activity focused on following directions involving the different Thanksgiving food vocabulary terms and color concepts. For more information about how to set up this activity click on the link – Turkey, Turkey What Do You Smell? and Thanksgiving Craft.
For this cooking activity, I had my students make the Rice Krispie Treats according to the recipe on the box. I spayed butter spray on the students’ hand which makes it much easier and less messy to roll out the Rick Krispie balls. Next, open an oreo cookie and place the Rice Kripie ball on top of the Oreo cookie with no frosting. Attach the frosting Oreo cookie side to the back of the turkey (the frosting helps it stay better or you can add your own frosting). The students added additional frosting on the back and attached candy corns for feathers. We used some of the frosting to attach one candy corn on the front for a beak. Super cute and tasty!!!
I also created visuals some Free visuals to pair with the following Thanksgiving books along with both visual and written questions. For more information about these books and to get the book pictures click on the title of the book and it will link you to the post about how to set up and use the book.
“10 Fat Turkeys” is a super cute book. I paired this book with a turkey puppet craft. You can get all the details about how to make these in the link!
“There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey” – these old lady books are always great to work on those sequencing skills and building up vocabulary.
“Apple Farmer Annie” – Apple Farmer Annie makes lots of delicious treats with her apples. This is a good book to pair with any apple cooking activity. I have made applesauce in the crock-pot with my students after reading this book.
Hope this helps with some November lesson planning!
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