If I Were A Thanksgiving Turkey....

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

I love inspiring my students to write using seasonal themes and resources! In the days leading up to Thanksgiving we read lots of books and discuss its origins and the traditions surrounding it. Several years ago, I scoured the internet to find a fun activity that I could display in the hallway outside the classroom, but couldn't find anything just right. So, I created this...

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

I began this mini-unit by teaching my students about the parts of the paragraph. I decided to adapt the OREO model I kept seeing on Pinterest to the needs of my own students, and came up with this:

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

It's not perfect, but totally resonated with my students! Next, I made our learning goal and success criteria explicitly clear:

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

And now, the fun begins! I read the book "The Great Turkey Race" to my kiddos.

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

They LOVED it!! My students thought the silly turkeys in the story who were vying to become THE Thanksgiving turkey were hilarious!

When the story was finished, we discussed what it would be like to be a Thanksgiving turkey at this time of the year. What a fun chat that was! Their ideas were so cute!!

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

Were they ever ready to write after this!!

Finally, we prepared our own Thanksgiving turkeys... really!! I took a photo of each student and had them developed prior to this lesson. We cut out their faces and THEY became the turkeys! They had so much fun decorating these! Take a look at the final products! (I wish I could show their little faces!)

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

All the girls claimed it would be scary! The boys, however, had some very interesting approaches... Like this one, who said he would "tap dance out the door."!

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

 ....or this one, who said he would "Throw a stink (stick) at his head to knock him out so I can run away." Then concluded with "Being a Thanksgiving turkey would be great... until Thanksgiving."!!

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

You can grab a copy of this package for use in your own classroom NOW!

Find more Thanksgiving activities and resources on this Pinterest board:

Be sure to pin this post!

What would it BE like to be the Thanksgiving turkey? Let your students' imaginations run wild with this fun writing and art activity! This is the perfect activity for the days leading up to Thanksgiving break!

6 comments

  1. Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy your 4 day weekend holiday! As usual, you're very creative. What a great way to discuss perspective! I love it!
    Najda

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  2. We're working on traditions and celebrations right now as well! I love how you incorporated it into language!
    Also, our success criteria for writing right now are pretty much the same as yours!

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  3. These are so cute! Thanks for sharing!

    :) Shelley

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  4. Super cute idea! We usually at soccer and then have turkey dinner. This is followed by making a huge pot of turkey soup.

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  5. I LOVE this Erin!!! I would love to do this and turn it into this week's class big book! So cute :)

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  6. Will he doing this! My family thanksgiving will be spent with everyone celebrating my daughters 16th birthday and how thankful we are!

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