Turkey Lesson Plan for Preschool and Elementary Students

Michelle S, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Nov 4, 2011 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

A child's favorite part about Thanksgiving is the turkey! Let your students learn about and celebrate the turkey with this turkey lesson plan. These activities are appropriate for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary students in a classroom or homeschool setting.

New Uses for Handprint Turkeys

Show the children how to make a turkey out of a handprint. Cut the turkeys out and use them for one of the following projects:

--Glue the turkey to a craft stick for a turkey puppet to use for singing turkey songs or telling turkey stories.

--Let students draw an outdoor scene on light blue construction paper and glue the turkey to the scene.

--Glue the turkey to a long stick for a potted plant decoration.

--Attach to a long band for a Thanksgiving crown

--Glue to a paper and label the parts: Tail feathers, legs, beak…

Feather Observation

Collect some feathers, turkey feathers if possible, and provide your students with magnifying glasses to examine the feathers and paper to draw the patterns and colors they see.

Turkey Cards

Affix turkey stickers to a card, one turkey each on a pair of cards, two turkeys each on another pair of cards and so forth through five turkeys. Let students count and match the cards.

Turkey Tail Pattern

Cut turkey bodies out of brown paper and feathers out of two or three colored paper. Help students create a color pattern with the tail feathers and glue to a piece of construction paper. Glue the turkey body on the feathers. When dry students can add eyes, beak, etc…

Books About Turkeys to Read Aloud

The following books are available on Amazon.com. Click on the titles to see more information:

Five Silly Turkeys

Turkey Trouble

The Turkey Ball

T is for Turkey: A True Thanksgiving Story

10 Fat Turkeys

Turkey Songs

Use this song to talk about turkey's behavior and diet.

I have a turkey, big and fat. (Hold hands out as around a big belly)
He spreads his wings and walks like that. (waddle)
His daily corn he would not miss.(Shake head no)
And when he talks, he talks like this: "gobble, gobble, gobble."

You can also teach your students the following traditional poem about the turkey. Point out the rhyming words.

The turkey is a funny bird,

It's head goes bobble - bobble;
And all he knows is just one word…
Gobble, gobble, gobble!

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