Hey, friends! Last year I blogged about all of my turkey ideas after Thanksgiving so I promised myself that wouldn’t happen again this year. I’ve been staring at my to do list for 11 whole days now with “Turkey post” right at the top. The control freak in me just can’t take it anymore. ha! So here is a little throwback to how we rolled turkey style the month of November.
It’s no secret that I like to teach in themed units. If I can work a theme into reading, writing, language, word work, math, science, and social studies while tossing in some art as well, I am a happy teacher of a happy class. It increases buy-in for my students and their knowledge of our topic goes both deep and wide because we’ve spent so much time on it.
For the month of November, we are all about turkeys. Turkey poems, turkey anatomy, turkey math, turkey nutrition, turkey word work, turkey…. you get the point. 😉 I bundled the majority of my stuff into my Turkey Unit for Big Kids to keep it simple.
My favorite piece is actually a little nonfiction book I wrote for guided reading. We use it as the starting point for our unit and you can print it into mini books with multiple pages per sheet, project it, or print it off in whole-sheet size as a big book. It comes in both color and black/white options too. My students love all the little turkey “tidbits” in there.
Then I have my students show what they know by labeling a turkey with details. We’re constantly working on nonfiction text features, so I love that this reinforces those skills.
But we don’t just keep turkeys in our literacy instruction. I move that theme right on into math. I actually use two versions of this for differentiation; one for addition/subtraction and one for multiplication/division. It’s sneaky because the crafts are the same so the students don’t even realize there are two versions floating around based on their skill level.
Even though my poor fella doesn’t have a face, I had to share these cute little bags with you too. We make them on the last day before break {you know how crazy those days can be!}. I have students write individual notes for what they are thankful for this year. I encourage them to write at least one for each family member, and then add to those if they have time. They’re always so proud and ready to take their bags home to show off what’s inside.
Finally, how cute are these cookies? We work on following directions with these, but then students get a yummy treat when they’re finished. I don’t show them the example first, so it’s always fun to see how each individual cookie comes together.
Throughout the week, we’re also working on turkey themed word work. I have my students complete individual work work/spelling contracts each week, but like to mix them up with themes around the holidays. You can click here to grab your freebie.
Hope that gives you a few ideas in advance this year! =) Here are even more ideas for you from my Pinterest board:
Follow Christi @ Ms. Fultz’s Corner’s board School Thanksgiving on Pinterest.
