Two Little Turkeys

 
For your Thanksgiving enjoyment! LOL!  Two Little Turkeys finger puppets.

Two little turkeys ready to play 

One named Tina and one named Trey 

Run away Tina,   Run away Trey. 

Come back Tina, Come back Trey. 

Two little turkeys gobble, gobble to say 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving day! 

I made up a new rhyme for them for Thanksgiving but you could easily change it out for a farm theme or forest animal theme. We are using them with a Native American Heritage theme that emphasizes forest animals.

I deconstructed a Google image and tweaked (simplified) it to make my little turkeys. The opening for your finger is between the dark grey and darker brown pieces so that the turkey body lays a little flatter. I used two pieces for the body to sandwich the little feet. Tina and Trey are too cute though! Finger puppet turkeys are a lot of Fun with Friends at Storytime!

Guest post for Bethany: Three Nervous Turkeys!

I'm so happy to be hosting Bethany on my blog! She is Head of Children's Services at the Bedford Free Public Library. She has a really fun song/rhyme in time for Thanksgiving!

Three Nervous Turkeys

A Thanksgiving flannel board song

I found Five Nervous Turkeys on the ALSC blog (http://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2013/11/give-thanks-for-storytime/).  The song is funny, filled with my favorite autumn fowl, and easy to make with free clipart.  But, as I searched for images and hummed along, I wanted a chorus for everyone to sing and a new verse for the ducks.  5 turkeys, with a full chorus between each verse, plus a final verse to acknowledge the duckiness … is too long for my young storytime kids!  I reduced the turkeys to 3 and scavenged my surplus turkeys for silly mistakes on the duck costumes.

Three Nervous Turkeys—tune: “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean”

Three turkeys were getting quite nervous.

Thanksgiving Day soon would be back.

So one turkey put on a duck suit, (swap a duck for a turkey)

And now he goes “Gobble, quack-quack.”

Chorus:

Turkey, turkey, (hook thumbs together, fingers stretched out for the turkey feathers)

Turkey goes “Gobble, quack-quack, quack-quack.” (flap elbows/wings like a duck)

Turkey, turkey, (feathers)

Turkey goes “Gobble, quack-quack.”  (wings)

Repeat for 2 turkeys and 1 turkey.

After all of the turkeys are in duck suits:

Now no little turkeys are nervous.

They’re finally feeling their luck.

But you, my poor dears, might get hungry …

… unless, of course, you like duck!

(Chorus)

Ha! Thanks Bethany for sharing a fun Turkey flannelboard set! 
There are more great posts on the Flannel Friday Roundup. Check out the wonderful resources on the Flannel Friday Pinterest Boards. If you want more info about Flannel Friday here's the link for the official Flannel Friday blog.

Pizza for Thanksgiving!

Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!  What does a turkey want for Thanksgiving Day? Pizza for everyone! I saw this adorable set by Ms Monica @ Ram Sam Storytime and fell in love. Here's my version of the turkeys and pizza for our storytime fun! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Since our featured book, Turkey Trouble ends with everyone eating pizza, and the flannel set ends with pizza, and we had some leftover craft sets to make paper pizzas....guess what the kiddos got for their Home Extension? If you guessed paper pizza you are Right!

Turkey and Pizza are yummy and a lot of Fun with Friends for Storytime! You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HERE. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Going on a Turkey Hunt!

Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday.  There's no big hype leading up to it, no presents, just, family, food and fun!! I wish Christmas was celebrated this way too! Anyway... I mentioned this Turkey rhyme/activity from Mommy and Me Book Club blog in my Thanksgiving post last year. I like it because it's versatile. It can be done with colored turkeys (I use felt Ellison diecuts) to be added to the board by the presenter or the children. It can also be done with a file folder!  There's lots to discuss with this rhyme! Here's a link to a Google doc of the rhyme that you could print out. Going On a Turkey Hunt!  

I guess you can't take the preschool teacher out of the girl. LOL.  Here's a learning game/activity that I made with some foam shapes and the copier.  I just put the pieces on the glass and laid a white paper behind them and printed them on yellow paper then laminated it on a piece of brown construction paper.  The copy was not in color. It was interesting to see  how some children approached this.  I used this when I taught preschool, but it could be a quiet activity for the early birds to do while waiting for storytime to start.  I've also made matching games with diecut shapes and seasonal stickers that I laminate and cut out and offer to the kiddos. So easy and fun too.

I also have a very simple craft/Home extension that is super easy prep and the children really like it. I show the kiddos my finished turkey before I hand out the turkey body and let the children pick 5 colored "feathers" for their turkey's tail. I suggest to the caregivers that the turkey can be attached to a toilet paper roll and will stand up.  I have programmed a sheet of paper with 3 of the turkey bodies so that I can stack and cut out several of them at a time. Prep for the week for 5 storytimes can take maybe 30 min. or an hour.  Easy, Peasy!!  Since the feathers are so easy to cut 3 or 4 at a time, I cut out A LOT and spread them out on one of our small tables.  This craft involves counting and decision making and the children have some control by choosing the colors they want.  I give the caregivers a little pep talk before I do this by telling them that making choices (within reason and when appropriate) builds connections in the brain and helps the kiddos learn to have self control. Having fun and building a brain...pretty amazing! 
Going on a Turkey Hunt is a lot of  Fun with Friends at Storytime!
You'll want to see the rest of this week's Flannel Friday Roundup HERE. Have questions about Flannel Friday? Check out the Flannel Friday official blog. Be sure to check out the Flannel Friday Facebook page too!

Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving! I like it better than Christmas. I like thinking of all the things I'm thankful for!  It makes me feel so rich. One of the books I like to use at Thanksgiving is an older book, I Never Say I'm Thankful, But I Am by Jane Belk Moncure. We talk about what it means to be thankful and that we should say it more! It's so precious to hear little children talk about the people and things that they are thankful for. I have several thanksgiving flannels that I like to use too, especially my turkey ones. There are some really great turkey posts on the Flannel Friday Thanksgiving Pinterest board. I have one that I found at Mommy and Me Book Club called "Going On a Turkey Hunt!"  I used an Ellison diecut for my colorful turkeys. I got to thinking though, you could also make it a laminated file folder too.
I have ten little diecut turkeys that I can use several ways but I really would like to use them with this adorable song, Ten Little Turkeys by the Learning Station. I found another cute 10 little turkeys rhyme here.  Here's the link to the one I made up, "Ten Turkeys on the Fence".

Here's my favorite turkey rhyme/activity- The turkey body is colored pellon that I glued to a brown felt circle. I cut out a bunch of colored 'feathers' that I hand out and the children add to the 'nekked' turkey to make a beautiful turkey tail. The idea started with "Turkey Feathers" by Liz Wilmes from Felt Board Fingerplays with Patterns and Activities: Rhymes and Songs by Liz and Dick Wilmes. I used their turkey pattern but I wrote my own song to the same tune, Are You Sleeping?. Mine goes like this:

Turkey Feathers Game
(by Kathryn Roach)
Our poor turkey
lost his feathers.
Let's all help, everyone.
Do you have a  *(red) one?
Come and bring the *(red) one.
Oh what fun!
Oh what fun!

*change the color each time...
This is always a BIG hit!

 

I also have a sweet little 5 Little Pilgrims flannel set too. I have found it here and here.  I've used this set for years! The pieces are colored pellon. The food is separate so that I can add them as we say the rhyme: 

Five Little Pilgrims

Five Little Pilgrims on Thanksgiving Day

The first one said, "I'll have cake if I may"

The second one said, "I'll have turkey roasted"

The third one said, "I'll have chestnuts toasted"

The fourth one said, "I'll have pumpkin pie"

The fifth one said, "Oh, cranberries I spy"

But before they ate any turkey and dressing

All of the Pilgrims said a Thanksgiving blessing.


Last year I shared a couple of my pie felt sets as a guest on Trails and Tales's blog. I want to make this pumpkin pie set from Read Rabbit Read  to add to my collection. Food is always something to be thankful for. I usually do an activity where I name typical foods and ask for 'thumbs up if you like....'. Sometimes I get a thumbs up when I name broccoli!  The kids love this activity and it gives me the opportunity to talk about how we all like different things but that's alright! We can be thankful for one another!

I'm thankful for everyone that's a part of Flannel Friday. This past year this group has enriched my life so much. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!