Happy November, teacher friends! It’s time to talk ALL THINGS TURKEY! And it just so happens that when it comes to TURKEY TIME, I’ve got a lot of free classroom resources for you. Let’s look at five of my favorite turkey activities. I’ll also share a round-up of my favorite turkey books that I’ve collected over the years.
Let’s get right to it!
First, let’s talk about summarizing a story. Turkey books lend themselves nicely to the summarizing strategy of Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then. Typically turkeys are trying to save themselves from becoming Thanksgiving dinner, so these stories are great for retelling! Here’s an example of using SWBST with Turkey Trouble by Wendy Silvano.
Turkey wanted to disguise himself so he wouldn’t get eaten, but everyone still knew who he was. So, Turkey made a new plan. He delivered pizza to the family. Then, everyone ate pizza instead of turkey!
Next up, students can become Turkey Fact Trackers! This is such an easy way to up the engagement in your classroom. Grab a popsicle stick, googly eye, and feather. Hot glue the googly eye and feather to the popsicle stick. Now students have themselves their very own turkey fact tracker! Students use this to track their reading. These can be used with a nonfiction text, turkey book, or Thanksgiving passage… really anything goes! I used these with our Turkey Nonfiction Reader found HERE.
After you’ve been reading books about turkeys, why not keep the momentum going?! I love taking my reading themes and incorporating them into the other subject areas. Students can make this Shape Turkey to work on identifying the attributes of 2D shapes. After cutting out their shapes, students identify the shapes and describe the sides and vertices for each part of the turkey. Then, students assemble their Shape Turkeys!
Everyone loves a good Turkey in Disguise, right?! I always thoroughly enjoyed seeing what my students would come up with each year. I saw football players, Chick-fil-a cows, ballerinas, ghosts, and so much more. This Turkey in Disguise project can be sent home or done in the classroom. It’s a great way to make all of those turkey books you’ve been reading in class come to life! Those sneaky turkeys are always getting away! Your students can use their creativity to make their very own version of a clever turkey. Best part? It’s FREE and has everything you need to complete this project with your students!
Last on our list is Turkey Story Elements! For this booklet, students describe the turkey from the story you are reading on the feathers. The body of the turkey becomes a story retell. Students write about the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Those pages are simply stapled together to create a booklet. You can see how I used these booklets HERE!
Grab Turkey Booklets for your classroom HERE
You know I can’t say goodbye without rounding up my very favorite Turkey Books for you! When I say that I’ve bought every turkey book out there…. I’ve literally bought every turkey book out there. AND these below are the absolute BEST!
I hope that helps as you are planning the turkey activities for your classroom!
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Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
Sample a day of Rooted in Reading with these lesson plans and activities for Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Grammar!
One Response
Turk and Runt has been my favorite Thanksgiving book for years. I teach 2nd and students love it!