Let's Talk Turkey!

First of all, let me issue a big 'ole apology for being away from my blog so long.  We had a wedding at our house!  Let me introduce you to our family . . .

My husband, Bill, Me, our son Jay and his lovely bride Brooklyn!

 

I plan to go back and play catch-up, hopefully during the Christmas holidays.  But, for now let's talk about Thanksgiving!!  One of our very first projects this year was special.  Last spring our Director of Children's Minister, Mrs. Brenda Clark did a little house cleaning.  It was like "Christmas in April" for me.  I found so many things little treasures!  One of my favorites was several packages of very "strange" looking artificial leaves.

Trust me, NO ONE would want to use these for leaves!  But, I did want to use them for feathers!!!  It was so much fun letting the children pick out their very own combination of leaves.  If you look closely, you may notice that the turkey is made from shapes.  The body is an oval, the eyes of course are circles, the beak is a diamond shape that magically turns into a triangle when you close it and finally those cute little feet are stars.  I think he is so cute!



THANK YOU MRS. BRENDA!!!

 

Like most teachers, I love new supplies!  Look what showed up in our supply closet . . .

This is some very good stuff and the children love it!  It isn't as messy as regular glue and a lot more fun to "dab" on.

 

Our next project came to us by one of my former student's Mom.  We loved it!

 

We used vegetable rotini.  I think I like it because as with most project, the process was so much fun.  It didn't take long for everyone to realize that it was fun to "dip" the pasta in the glue.  Yep, it was messy - very messy, but lots and lots of fun.  By the way, walking around all day making turkey sounds NEVER gets old for a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds!  We have had so much fun gobbling around our classroom.

 

Our next project is an old favorite.  I say old because we have actually done it before and if you are a regular reader of my blog, you know I like to add new things each year.  But, this is just too cute and fun.  The children got so excited painting the toilet tissue rolls.  I kept asking them what they thought we were making and I loved their answers.  I got everything from "trees" to "a dirty truck". 







The feathers are their hand prints and the feet are stars (again).  The turkeys actually stand up so I hope at least one or two of these little guys will be the centerpiece of someone's Thanksgiving table.

 

Okay, you know those good 'ole hand print turkeys that we have made for years and years??  Well, we have given them a little twist.

 

 

Since we are 3 and 4 years old, we need something more than just a hand print!  The children had the best time putting beads onto a pipe cleaner.   I love watching them pick out their favorite colors.  Can you tell what color "B-man" likes . . .

Yep, he spent so much time picking out his beloved "green" beads.  Oh, the little pieces of burlap were placed on some old pieces of cardboard and held on with large gold brads.  SUPER CUTE and FUN!

 

Goodness gracious, we did a lot of turkeys these last few weeks.  I will post our other Thanksgiving ideas later (I promise).  In the mean time, I hope you give a few of these ideas a try.  

Let's Talk Turkey (and Pilgrims & Indians)!

I know it is only a few days until Thanksgiving but, I just had to share some of the cutest turkeys EVER!  I mean come on . . . LOOK AT THESE!

I'm starting with my new favorite.  I have jumped on the burlap bandwagon (heck, my husband thinks I am leading the parade!) so when our newest teacher at the ELC, Emily Haynes, told me about this, I knew I had to try it!  Her mom, Laura Sutter, made them at her school in Georgia.  Thanks Emily and Laura!!!!

These were a perfect way to work on our fine motor skills and everyone loved picking out their own "Indian" beads.  I love this!!!  Do you think my 25 year old son will let me make one with his hand print?????

Next up is our "fun feather" turkey.

I have the prettiest leaves in my yard and I pressed them overnight using newspaper and books.  I would have let the children pick up leaves at the school but the weather has not cooperated.  They were very happy just picking out their leaves from the pile.

This next little fellow just can't be beat!  We used a toilet paper roll for his body and 1/2 of one for his head. We traced the child's hand onto a sheet of cardstock (to make it sturdier).  The children used dot paint to decorate their hands.  It made for perfect turkey feathers.  The feet are my favorite part.  We used cereal boxes and let the children paint them.  Everyone got to mix some yellow and orange paint to make "their perfect feet color".  FUN!

Last but not least we made our Pilgrim and Indian.

This year we changed it up a little.  We let the children use actual beads to make the necklace.  After the beads were on the necklace I cheated a little and use some hot glue to attached them to our Indian.  Oh, and I know the Pilgrims did not have button, but we added them just for fun!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

Time to Put on My Big Girl Panties and Deal with IT!

So it has been so long since I have posted.  There is really no excuse EXCEPT for the fact that I have been feeling sorry for myself.  You see, I posted a very simple Thanksgiving project to a website. It was so cute and very, very simple.  It was just a little Pilgrim and an Indian.  The comments were . . . .well, ummmmm . . . oh heck, they were just plain nasty!  First, it seems that I offended some people by "stereo-typing" the Indian.  Then came the lovely BLAST about how our project was nothing but "cookie cutter art".  I will admit that I did cut out the pieces and the children glued every thing down.  They also picked the beads and feathers from a large selection, making sure to pick out "their favorite colors".  It was simple, not the usual "detailed" work that we normal do.  BUT, it was a very nice way to end our VERY BUSY week before Thanksgiving.  AND it gave each and every child a wonderful sense of accomplish.  Well, here it is, you be the judge!

Now that I've got that off my chest, here is a few of the other activities that enjoyed before our Thanksgiving holiday.  We used our handprints to make some Incredible Indians - 

We also used our shapes to make the most wonderful turkey -

Can you see the different shapes?

Our class also was lucky enough to borrow a teepee from one of our families.  It was SO MUCH FUN to use as our very special reading nook.  We even used it as a background in our Indian pictures.  

All in all our Thanksgiving activities were pretty wonderful.  Be prepared . . . here comes our Christmas fun!

Let's Catch Up - Part I

Sorry to do this to everyone but I'm going to try and post some of our wonderful Thanksgiving work. I know! It is almost January! But like I've said before, between school, my second job (which technically takes up more time than school), my son graduating from the police academy, a house FULL of people at Thanksgiving AND then Christmas, I've hardly had time to breath. So, like I said, "let's catch up". . . . .

Look at this adorable turkey. He is made with one toilet tissue roll and scrap paper. First, I cut the tissue roll and glue them together with some "Aileen's Tacky Glue". Then the children started painting him.

After he dried we added the wonderful details. His feet are two stars. His beak is a square, folded in half to make a triangle. His little eyes are circle punches. His feathers, which happen to be our favorite part, are fingers prints. We simply painted our fingers with the different colors and wiggled them onto some scrap paper - perfect feathers! Many of the parents said they would be using him (or her) for their Thanksgiving centerpiece.

Here is our "Square" turkey! As you can see some of the students liked a lot of squares, while 3 were just enough for others.

For our science experiment we decided to dye some noodles to use for our indian necklaces. We divided up into partners and started dying! Our recipe was quite simple, alchol and food coloring. No measuring just squirting! Even the ones that turned out different than we expected looked really good! These were suppose to be purple and blue, but we didn't mind! Good thing we did these on friday. They needed all weekend to dry. Friday kept us in the kitchen for a while because we whipped up some turkey cookies for snack. A 'Nilla Wafer and icing started our turkey off. Then we added some candy corn for his feathers. Next came the head, a malted milk ball of course. We talked about adding some eyes, but everyone decided to just go ahead and eat him. He was very good!