last minute turkey things

Here are a few last minute turkey and Thanksgiving things from preschool this week.  These have been two of my favorite Thanksgiving books so far.  Neither are Pilgrim and Indian stories, but both are about giving thanks to God.  

Give Thanks to the Lord is by Karma Wilson.  It's about a little boy celebrating Thanksgiving pretty much Norman Rockwell style.  He's thankful for the cousins and the warm cozy house, his dog and the leaves, etc.  The pictures are lovely.

Thanks for Thanksgiving  is by Julie Markers.  It's the shorter and simpler of the two, but we read them both to both age groups.It's a similar sweet story about all the great things about a family thanksgiving.

This was a fun activity.  I cut out a simple brown turkey with added beak and legs (made last minute from post it notes) and slid him under a sheet of contact paper (sticky side up).  The contact paper is taped to the table.

 The kids added feathers to the top of the sticky contact paper and decorate the little guy.The feathers are easily removable and the turkeys slid out unharmed.  I'll be setting it up again Wednesday. 

Our leader parent brought this fruit and veggie turkey.  We had a cute one last year too.  If the kids and I get around to it, we might make one for the day after Thanksgiving too. They're so fun.  The students are every bot of him, the pear, the honey dew melon (even the skin) and the peppers. 

Lastly, here's a craft from this past week.  The kids used water color paint to decorate a coffee filter.  You could do many variations.  The kids could color with marker and then spray it with water, they would water color on an already wet coffee filter.  Here they did some circle sponge painting using diluted liquid water colors.  The turkey body and face are added later. 

We have preschool on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but my own kids are out of school.  Not fair.  I'm going to try to be really quiet and let them all sleep in.  I want everyone in a happy mood for our travels.