Learning Fun With Turkey: Turkey Learning Activities

Tons of learning activities revolving around a turkey. Great ideas to incorporate around Thanksgiving. DIY turkey container (he really eats!), rhyming activities, letter identification, initial and ending sound fun, and more!

You can see the directions to make a turkey out of a Cascade container here.

Get the directions to make the Print & Cut turkey here.

Ways to Use Your Turkey

Pass out cards to help kids practice basic skills: letter identification, beginning & ending sounds, rhymes, numeral identification, counting, addition, subtraction, or any skill you choose. We used cards from my Turkey Time: Literacy Pack. You can pass out cards to the whole group, or use the turkey in a center. Kids will feed the turkey!

Use the “Turkey Time” rhyme to spark excitement with the kids. Change the key words in the rhyme to help students’ focus on the specific skills.

Get your free copy of the turkey rhyme here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzdf4OqBvDfcbWFOTFhkWFRXZFE/view?usp=sharing

Materials Needed for Bucket Turkey

Plastic bucket (I got mine from the Dollar Store)
Foam or card stock
Felt to cover the turkey’s body
Hot glue
Magnet
Tape

DIY Bucket Turkey

Step 1: Cut out the shapes for the turkey. Use foam or card stock for the turkey shapes. I use foam for a more durable turkey.

Step 2: Fold the beak in half.

Step 3: Tape the feathers together and glue the black pupils into the middle of the eyes.

Step 4: Tape a magnet or rock to the tip of the beak. This is just to give the beak some weight. It will help keep the turkey’s mouth closed.

Step 5: Tape the beak to the back of the bucket.

Step 6: Tape or glue the eyes to the top of the beak.

Step 7: Tape the feathers to the back of the bucket.

Step 8: Hot glue felt around the base of the bucket.

Step 9: Your turkey is ready for learning fun!

Thanks for stopping by! Don’t forget to head over to The Primary Pack to see more ideas on how to use the turkey!

Head over to my TPT store to get my “Turkey Time” pack. It will be 50% off for the rest of this week for Kelly and Kim’s Markdown Monday. Check out their blog for this week’s deals!

http://kellyandkimskindergarten.blogspot.com/2015/11/markdown-monday-linky-party-november_8.html

I can’t wait to check out all the fall fun that is happening in this blog hop!!

I really love the spooky fun that comes with Halloween. Bats are one of my favorites!

We’ve been working on the -at family. What better time to break out the bats! I found a witch’s cauldron, or vat, and added some fun foam bats. We named it our “Vat of -AT”.

My daughter pulled each bat out of the vat. She got to wear a pair of spooky reading eyes on her finger. She pointed to and identified each letter of the word.

Then, we broke out the Halloween slinkies. We used the slinkies to stretch out the sounds in each word. She slowly sounded out each sound of the word, as she stretched out the slinky. It provides the kinesthetic movement along with stretching out the sounds: b-a-t

After stretching out the word, we slam the slinky back together. As the slinky is slammed back together, the child pronounces the word as a whole: “bat”. The student coordinates the kinesthetic movement of pushing the slinky back together, with blending the sounds into one word. Using the slinky, seemed to really help my daughter understand the differences between segmenting and blending the sounds in a word.

I made a “Vat of -AT” game to share with you! Get it here. It is only FREE for the Fall Favorite Blog Hop 10/25/14-10/27/14. Scoop it up for free, while you can!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-AT-Word-Family-Center-Game-Printables-1516398

It includes a “Vat of -AT” mat to use with the pictures, words, and beginning sounds. You can use the game in different ways. We put the picture cards below the mat and put all the beginning sound cards above the mat.

Students will see the picture, say the word, and identify the beginning sound.

We flipped over all the picture cards and then took turns flipping over the letter cards. The player that flips over the letter will find the matching picture card. If you find the picture that starts with the same sound, you can place the two cards in the “Vat of -AT”. After playing the game, students can use the cards to help fill out the recording worksheet.

Students will write the beginning sound next to the matching picture.

In the second version, we put the pictures under the mat and the words above the mat.

We flipped over all the picture cards and then took turns flipping over the word cards. The player that flips over the word will find the matching picture card. If you find a match, you can place the two cards in the “Vat of -AT”. After playing the game, students can use the cards to help fill out the recording worksheet.