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It’s November, which means we start doing turkey-themed crafts and activities, focusing on being thankful and reading about Thanksgiving. I think it is so important to teach our little ones about being thankful and I am in love with our family’s Thanksgiving Tree we put up this year 😍 Last year, we wrote thank you notes to friends and family. My preschooler loved decorating the notes with stickers and helping me get them ready to mail.
But this post isn’t focused on activities to teach thankfulness. Rather, I’m going to share my newest early learning activity pack you can incorporate into your classroom or at-home learning in November. I had so much fun putting together this activity pack and creating all the hands-on activities for my preschooler ❤ I know your young learners will enjoy it too! You can see all of the early learning activity packs I’ve created by visiting my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
As I’ve shared in many of my previous posts, I always start our at-home preschool learning with a book. In this case, I put away all the Halloween books and brought out our Thanksgiving books. The T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack is perfect for engaging your preschooler in letter recognition, beginning letter sounds, sequencing numbers, shapes, and building vocabulary after reading books about turkeys and Thanksgiving. Below you’ll find some of my favorite books about turkeys 🦃📘❤ These books are bound to give you and your little ones a laugh! Reading books together is such a wonderful way to connect with your child, create lasting memories and invite play and conversation. There is no reason not to pick up one of these titles at your local library or anywhere books are sold 😉
The focus for our turkey learning activities, if you haven’t guessed yet, is T is for Turkey and F is for Feather. I think it’s so beneficial for young learners to connect learning to a book and theme. This type of book-based or thematic learning helps your preschooler build connections and a deeper understanding of the vocabulary. Since turkeys have feathers on their tail, it only made sense to practice both T and F in the T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack.
After reading a book with a turkey as the main character, talk about the turkey. What did the turkey look like? How did the turkey act in the story? What did the turkey do? Was the turkey friendly? How did the turkey feel in the story? Did the turkey have a problem? Just try to engage in some conversation with your preschooler about the main character. By consistently talking about the story elements of the books you read with your child, he/she will start to improve his/her reading comprehension. You will notice that your child starts to point out specific details or make connections during reading! It’s wonderful to see your child thinking aloud while you are reading together 😍
T is for Turkey Letter Recognition Activity
Now that your preschooler has a context for our learning activities, we are going to start focusing on specific skills. The first skill is cutting out ten turkeys, counting them and gluing them on the uppercase letter T.
First, cut out the turkeys, Then, count them. Make sure your child points to each turkey as he/she is counting. You can even do some number stories with your child, depending on his/her current skill level. With my preschooler, we do a few number stories to become familiar with more and less. She has mastered counting 1-10 and is pretty good at using a counting ten frame. Here are the counting frames I created for my daughter to use during our preschool learning.
I’ve shared an example of a number story down below. Have your child manipulate the cut out turkeys as you act out the story.
“There were 3 turkeys roaming around a farm. 4 more turkeys came to join them. How many turkeys are roaming around the farm?”
Now that your preschooler practiced counting the turkeys, it’s time to glue them on the uppercase letter T.
The next activity focuses on the letters in the word “TURKEY”. Your preschooler will cut out the turkeys. Remind your child that every letter has an uppercase letter and lowercase letter. Use the letters on the bottom of T page to point out the uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as the uppercase T’s. Guide your child as he/she matches the uppercase letters TURKEY to the lowercase letters turkey.
There are two options with this activity. You can print on cardstock and laminate if planning to reuse it. Or just print on regular paper and have your child glue the matching letter pairs together on construction paper. Do whatever works best for you, your child and teaching situation 😊
Next up is a fun Turkey Puzzle. For this hands-on learning activity, your preschooler will cut out the puzzle pieces. More cutting practice!! Then, put the puzzle pieces back together to spell turkey. This puzzle is self-correcting with the word to spell and the picture to put together. Your child will know if he/she didn’t put the pieces together correctly if the picture doesn’t look quite right.
As with the previous activity, you can print on cardstock and laminate to reuse. Or just have your preschooler glue pieces back together on a sheet of colored construction paper. We love using the colors orange, yellow and brown for our Thanksgiving crafts and learning activities.
F is for Feather Letter Recognition Activity
After spending time talking about the letter T and turkey, it’s time to talk about the letter F. Your preschooler will be coloring five feathers, cutting them out along the dotted lines and gluing onto the uppercase letter shape. Before gluing onto the letter, you can work on some more number stories with your child!
“The turkey has 5 feathers on his tail. A strong wind comes through and blows 2 feathers off. How many feathers does the turkey have now?”
Sorting Pictures by Beginning Sound
Now that we are familiar with the letters T and F, we are going to move into practicing beginning sounds. In the T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack, you’ll find a set of 12 pictures and a chart for sorting. Have your child cut out the pictures along the dotted lines. Work with your child to name each picture and ask him/her if it begins with the same sound as “turkey” or “feather”. Sort all of the pictures first by the beginning sound. Once all of the pictures are sorted, have your child glue them onto the chart. Extend the learning by having your child find toys or items around the house that start with /t/ as in turkey or /f/ as in feather. This is a great way to get your little one up and moving for some gross motor fun!
There is a bonus animal science picture sorting activity in the T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack. Your preschooler decides whether the animals in each picture have feathers or not. I absolutely love engaging my preschooler in sorting activities. These types of activities help my preschooler compare, notice similarities and differences and build a basis for problem-solving. There is a lot of thinking and conversation going on when sorting animals, toys or other items.
Letter Recognition Word Sorting Activity
The T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack includes a word sort that focuses on recognizing the letters T and F in print. A set of 16 words is included. Each word is related to a turkey. Some are turkey body parts and some are words that describe a turkey. Your preschooler is going to look at each word and decide if it has an Ff, Tt, or NO Ff or Tt. I would recommend printing the words and sorting categories on regular paper. Then take three different colors of construction paper. Each piece will become the sorting space for your child. Cut out the headings for each sorting category and glue each one on one of the sheets of construction paper. Cut out the words. Guide your child as he/she takes notice to the letters in each word.
If the word has an Ff in it, have your child place on the construction paper with “Words with Ff” heading on it.
If the word has a Tt in it, have your child place on the construction paper with “Words with Tt” heading on it.
If the word has neither an Ff or Tt, have your child place on the construction paper with “Words with NO Ff or Tt”.
Having your child circle the f and t in each word is a wonderful way to reinforce the skill of recognizing the letter in print.
With each early learning activity pack I create for my daughter, I try to include some review activities. In the case of this activity pack, I created a set of turkey shape puzzles. Just print out the puzzles, cut each turkey shape puzzle into two pieces and have your child match the shapes together. You can talk about the number of sides, type of lines (straight, curved, diagonal) and number of points on each shape as your child matches them. Feel free to print and laminate to reuse or print and glue onto a large sheet of construction paper. Another fun idea would be to glue each puzzle on a half sheet of colored paper, writing the name of the shape underneath in pencil for your child to trace. Then staple all of the half sheets together, make a cover and create a shape book!! Your child can read their book to friends or family ❤📘
The final hands-on activities are cutting and gluing the missing numbers and the missing letters. These activities focus on number sequencing, number recognition (1-16) and letter recognition. Your child cuts out the missing numbers/letters and glues them into the correct space on the sheet. After your child glues all of the numbers and letters, say a number/letter. Your child then covers this number/letter on the sheet. Keep calling numbers/letters until your child fatigues of the activity!
There you have it, 10 hands-on activities that focus on the letters T and F. The activities in the T is for Turkey Early Learning Activity Pack focus on letter recognition, beginning letter sounds, sequencing numbers, shapes and building vocabulary. These activities are perfect for independent practice, small group teaching in the classroom, or at-home learning. We love including these activities as part of our learning during the month of November when we are reading and talking about turkeys and Thanksgiving.