No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth... but I was SOOO sick last week and then since I've been feeling better I've been nesting like a maniac... I only have 1.5 weeks or so until my little baby girl will be making her appearance! So, we've spent a lot of time shopping and not much time crafting or doing fun activities!
Tomorrow I am in charge of the craft at our toddler class, so I figured I'd better get back on my game.
I loved this idea from Crafts for all Seasons, but didn't want to mess with gluing toilet paper rolls... so this is what I came up with... a colorful Grateful Paper Plate Turkey!
Materials Needed: do-a-dot markers, small paper plates, Elmers glue, googly eyes, colored construction paper (including brown), scissors... and tape (if you are a cheater like me), markers/sharpies.
Directions:
Prep these things ahead of time if you have younger kids...
- cut out turkey bodies out of brown paper
- cut between 5-10 colorful feathers per kid out of construction paper
- cut orange or yellow triangles for beaks
- cut a gobbler out of red construction paper
1. Have kids decorate their turkeys (paper plates) with lots of colors!
2. Draw a turkey body on brown construction paper (if not prepped ahead of time)
3. Cut out a turkey body from brown construction paper (if not prepped ahead of time)
4. Cut out orange/yellow beak and red gobbler from construction paper (if not prepped ahead of time).
5. Glue turkey body, gobbler, and beak onto colorful paper plate. Add googly eyes.
6. Cut feathers out of colored construction paper (if not prepped ahead of time).
7. Have kids tell you things they are grateful for and write each thing they are grateful for on a feather.
8. Glue feathers onto the paper plate (tape them if you're a cheater like me 🙂 to reinforce the glue)
(The only thing that I will be adding to these tomorrow are legs! I knew I forgot something!)
Use the turkey as a springboard for a discussion about gratitude and things the children are grateful for. Encourage them to go home and talk with their families about the things written on their turkeys. Have younger children who are beginning to formulate full sentences practice saying what they are thankful for... using a complete sentence instead of just one word or phrase. For older kids, encourage them to not only talk about what they are thankful for... but why they are thankful for that item... why is it special? Why are their families important? How is having food useful? What are they most grateful for when they think of their friends?... and you can get more and more complex with questioning and discussions as kids get older.
Happy turkey creating!
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