Download the turkey week planning guide for easy to prep and play learning ideas to use at home or in your preschool classroom!
DAY 1
Feather Measure: Gather fake turkey feathers. Use the feathers to measure objects around the room. Place the feathers in a line to find the non-standard measurement of each object. Measure things like tables, shoes, furniture, area rugs, toys, etc.
Stuffed Turkey: Add eyes, a beak, and a few paper turkey feathers to an empty tissue box or wide-mouthed water bottle. Use kid-friendly squeezers to pick up different colored pom poms one a time. Add the pom poms to the pretend turkey container. Keep adding pom poms until the turkey is stuffed! Empty the turkey container and play again!
DAY 2
Feather Painting: Instead of a paintbrush, use fake feathers to paint! Dip the end of the feather into paint to paint on paper like a traditional paintbrush, or press the feather flat into a thin layer or paint to stamp the feathers on the paper. Consider using one feather for each color of paint.
Catch a Turkey: Print the Catch a Turkey page. Gather small paper cups (like the ones you use to brush your teeth). Add numbers to the turkeys. Write numbers on the bottom of the paper cups. The paper cups are the pretend turkey traps or nets. The object is to cover up the numbers on the paper with the matching turkey trap cups. Change up the game by writing a simple addition sentence on the cup OR having your preschooler cover the number that comes after the number on the cup. Print a few copies of the printable page to play different ways!
DAY 3
Turkey Trot: Place different objects around the room. Choose a way to turkey trot (skip, jumps, scoot, sideways step, etc.). Move through the objects without touching any of them while working from one side of the room to the other. Pick another way to turkey trot and play again!
Feather Sort: Cut circles out of different colored paper. Add eyes and a beak to each circle. Sort colored fake feathers on to each circle turkey. Count the feathers on each turkey to see which color has the most and least!
DAY 4
Paper Plate Turkey: Paint or color a small paper plate light brown. Add googly eyes, a beak, and a gobbler to the plate to create a turkey face. Glue fake feathers or paper feathers to the top of the back of the paper plate. Let the turkey dry and then hang it up to display it!
Play Dough Turkeys: Put together a play dough invitation to create a turkey tray. Include fake feathers, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners (beak, legs, feet), googly eyes, craft foam pieces, etc. Roll play dough into a ball or flatten on the table. Add body parts and accessories to create a turkey!
DAY 5
Roll & Stick Feathers: Use a styrofoam half sphere as a pretend turkey. Other options would be to use a styrofoam cup upsidedown or a small cardboard box. Roll a die and identify the number of dots shown. Stick that many fake feathers into the styrofoam while counting each one. Take out the feathers and roll again. Keep rolling, counting, and sticking feathers into the pretend turkey!
Turkey Baster Feather Race: Using a turkey baster, squeeze and blow a fake feather across the table or floor. See how quickly you can get it across the line. Set up a race with more than one feather to see who can blow their feather across first!
EXTRAS
Snap Cube Turkeys: Use snap cubes to create a turkey body and colorful turkey feathers. Use brown or white snap cubes for the body. To create the feathers, stack the same colored snap cube together so that each feather is only one color.
Hot or Cold Turkey: Hide a drawn or pretend turkey somewhere around the room. Let your preschoolers know if they are “HOT” or “COLD” depending on how closer or far away they are from the turkey. Keep giving clues until the turkey is found!
Download the turkey theme editable planning sheet. Add learning ideas from the list below in this column or from the turkey week activities!
CIRCLE TIME
LITERACY & MATH
Turkey Feather Color Emergent Reader
PLAY IDEAS
CREATE
Turkey Directed Easel Painting