Thanksgiving Puppet and Songs

If you're looking for some fun Thanksgiving songs to sing with your littles, look no further!  A couple of years ago I made these turkey finger puppets to use during singing time. The kids are able to use their fingers as the legs for the turkeys and make the little turkeys run.

Here we are at the carpet getting ready to sing some fun Thanksgiving related songs using our turkey finger puppets. Oh my goodness, look at these cuties! Some of their faces are cracking me up. We're still working on looking at the camera. Hahaha. A friend of mine gave me the puppets to copy. To make your own you could use these finger puppets from dinkycow.com.  (The finger holes should be about 3/4 of an inch wide. Adjust as necessary.) You could also use turkey popsicle stick puppets or turkey finger puppets.  Here are a few songs that are easy to sing to celebrate this fun day. Gobble-gobble Says the Bird (To the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It") Gobble-gobble, gobble-gobble says the bird. Gobble-gobble, gobble-gobble says the bird. Mr. Turkey gobble-gobbles, And his feet go wobble-wobble. Gobble-gobble, gobble-gobble says the bird. Turkey, Turkey (To the tune of "Twinkle Little Star") Turkey, turkey, look at you! Please be careful what you do. Thanksgiving Day is almost here. We eat turkey every year. Go and hide out in the woods,  We'll eat pizza, as we should.

Mr. Turkey (To the tune of "Frere Jacques") Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey, Run away! Run away! If you are not careful, You will be a mouthful, Thanksgiving day, Thanksgiving day.

Cute and Easy Thanksgiving Snack

Check out this fun idea I found for Thanksgiving this year! I found the idea on That's What Che Said. These are great for class parties, after school snacks, or even a preThanksgiving dinner snack to tide the little ones over while they wait. 

Gobble, gobble!

Here's What You Need

• clear food prep gloves
• popcorn (we used bagged kettle corn)
• rainbow fishies 
• small googly eyes
• construction paper
• twist tie

Here's What You Do

1. Fill the fingers with fishies and the rest with popcorn then twist tie the bottom.
2. Add googly eyes on both sides
3. Cut an elongated hexagon for the beak (see the picture above) and a red wattle.
4. Fold the pointed parts into a beak and glue the wattle to the back.
5. Glue the beak and wattle onto the thumb. 

Easy peasy!!

Have an amazing Thanksgiving weekend and enjoy your time with family and friends!

Thanksgiving Apple Turkey Snacks

Here's What You Need:

mini Peeps (we used chocolate)

craisins

apple

toothpicks

peanut butter

gumdrops 

Here's What You Do:

1. Attach the craisins to the peeps with peanut butter

2. Attach the peeps to the apples with peanut butter

3. Use toothpicks to put gumdrops like feathers on the apples. 

Thanksgiving Turkey Hats

Here's What You Need:

feathers

tape

glue

brown construction paper

yellow beaks

red wattles

googly eyes

Here's What You Do:

1. Make a head band with the brown constuction paper.

2. Let the kids color the band.

3. Tape the feathers to the inside of the band.

4. Assemble the face with the beak, wattle, and eyes.

5. Glue the face to the front of the band.

Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

Here is a fun and simple idea to help tell the Thanksgiving story at a young child's level and to practice colors too! Give your child the coordinated colored beads with the story and have them make a bracelet as you tell it.

Thanksgiving Story Bracelet

With this bracelet you will know

The first Thanksgiving that was long ago.

The Pilgrims set sail from far away

On the Mayflower with tall white sails.

They sailed many days across the ocean blue.

The seas were rough, but the ship came through.

At last they spotted land so green.

They were so happy they cheered and screamed.

The first year was so hard and black.

Many died and wished that they could go back.

But the Native Americans gave them a hand

And helped them survive in the strange new land.

They decided to celebrate in a special way

And that became the first Thanksgiving Day.

They prepared a feast with turkeys brown

And red cranberries that they had found.

Yellow corn that they had learned to grow

And orange pumpkin pies, don't you know!

But before they ate the turkey and dressing,

They all held hands for thankful blessings.

*This poem is not mine. It was given to us by a teacher. I take no credit for its creation. : )

Turkey Treats

Here's a fun turkey treat that you can use at your classroom or at home this Thanksgiving.

Here's What You Need:

• 2 oreo cookies
• large sprinkles or frosting
• frosting
• circus peanut candy (I found mine on the bottom shelf in the candy isle at Walmart)
• candy corn

Here's What You Do:

1. Stick candy corns in between one oreo cookie to make feathers.
2. Put a dab of frosting on the front of the circus peanut and add a candy corn for a beak.
3. Add eyes above the beak with frosting or sprinkles
4. Put a dab of frosting on the back of the circus peanut and stick it to the oreo with feathers.
5. Twist apart the other oreo and stick the turkey into the frosting to make it stand up.

Popsicle Stick Puzzles

We made some Popsicle stick puzzles today for Thanksgiving. These could be used for any holiday or occasion or letter, they are really versatile. You just change the picture to fit your needs.

 

They are a lot of fun and it was a good combination of fun and challenge for the kids. They got to make their own puzzle to take home and play with over the break. Want to make your own?

Here's What You Need

• Jumbo popsicle sticks
• masking tape
• picture cut to size
• permanent glue tape (this was a little bit of a splurge, but it saved so much time and was a lot easier than modge podging the picture to the sticks individually, which is another way to affix them.)
• Exacto knife

Here's What You Do:

1. Size your picture so it is a little less wide than the popsicle sticks. Then measure how many popsicle sticks you need to cover the up and down length. 
2. Tape together the sticks needed to back the picture.
3. Flip the sticks over and attach the picture by doing two strips of the glue tape like what you did with the masking tape then put your picture on top and press it down.
4. Have the kids color the picture. The more color they use, the better. If they color the whole picture one color, it makes it harder to put together. I encouraged the kids to color every feather and part of the picture a different color. 
5. Flip the picture over again and put a couple of layers of cardboard underneath it. Use an exacto knife to cut between the popsicle sticks and through the paper.
6. Give the pieces back to the kids and let them put the puzzle together! 

Turkeys

As part of letter O day, we made oval, oak leaf turkeys. I got the idea from First School and adapted it a little bit to fit what I had. I used a cricut to cut all the shapes except the beak and wattle.

What You Need:
Oak Leaf cut outs
Google Eyes
Star cut outs
Large oval cut out
Small oval cut out
Beak cut out
Wattle cut out

What You Do: