I-2-3-Come Make A Thankful Turkey Craft With Me

All I ever have to do to get my kiddos highly motivated and excited to write, is put a little bit of craftiness into the project.

With that in mind, I designed this "Thankful Turkey Wheel”, which does the trick in getting them happily engaged, and right down to business.

As a pre-writing activity, students make a list of 4-6 things that they are thankful for.

When they are content with their final draft, they choose one of 3 turkey-topped worksheets to write their list on.  So that you can quickly and easily make a sample to share,

I've included options in color as well as black and white. 

Once students have finished their final list, they assemble their wheel and illustrate those “things” on it.

Students can also use stickers, pictures cut out from magazines, digital clip art, or perhaps real photographs. For example if they are thankful for their family they could glue down a family photograph.

There are 3 wheels to choose from:
A simpler 3-piece wheel for younger children who’d skip the writing portion, as well as a 4 and 6-sectioned wheel for older students.

You can keep things simple with just the head and body of the turkey, or you can add some 3D pop by adding a wattle, beak and wings.

For more writing practice, have students label their pictures.

Completed wheels and prompts make a sweet bulletin board.

I’ve included a “Let our lives be full of Thanks and Giving” poster for the center of your display.

Be sure and make your own, to help explain what you want your students to do, as well as share with them, what you’re thankful for.

Pressed for time? For your convenience, I've included my completed, full-color samples of both the wheel and writing prompt. 

Little ones can simply make a list using a few words. 

Encourage older students to include some descriptive words and a bit more than one or two-word answers. 

You can also do this as a whole group activity with preschoolers, asking what they're thankful for, then listing their answers on the colorful worksheet making a class composite of gratefulness.

Today's featured FREEBIE also has a Thanksgiving theme.

If you're students are as bananas over Pete the Cat as mine are, then I think they'll enjoy this "Color Me" dice game puzzle.

Well that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by.

Mother Henderson's cupboard is bare, so time for some marathon grocery shopping.  Wishing you a peaceful and productive day.

"Forget the mistakes. Remember the lesson." - Unknown