Thanksgiving Book

Today we went to Barnes and Noble to find a really good Thanksgiving Book. I have a few books from my teaching days but I wanted a really simplistic "I am thankful for" book. I need a book like this to better explain next week's activity. I found a book called "Thanks for Thanksgiving" and I love it. It simply states things kids are thankful for. I will read this book to her at least once a day between now and Thursday. On Monday I plan on starting our own Thankful Book. I will read the book and then help guide her to what she is thankful for each day until Thanksgiving. She will draw the picture and then I will record what she is thankful for under her picture. Because we are doing the same activity each day next week, I won't post everyday. I will just post our finished product at the end of the week.

Turkey Hand Feathers

I should really think of better names for the activities that I do. Names that sound exciting would be much better. I am not the most creative person in the world so these names work.

Today we completed our art project from yesterday. I made Audrey's project first. I did this for two reasons. First, Audrey is not able to use a glue stick yet. Second, I want Claire to be able to practice following directions from a model. Most of our projects allow her to do whatever she would like but sometimes it is good for her to see a finished project and follow directions from that. She did great! While Claire worked on the turkey Audrey painted with water on construction paper. She loved it! My friend gave me that idea and it was awesome and paint wasn't everywhere when we were done.

Scissors

Today we got ready for tomorrow's art project. I traced Claire and Audrey's hands on different colors of construction paper for our turkey project. They loved getting their hands traced! I cut out the hands while Claire practiced with her own scissors on construction paper. The scissors that came in my art tub are wonderful! They are totally plastic but still actually cut. I would highly recommend this art kit from Barnes and Noble. I got it super cheap at one of their table sales. It has everything you need!

Hand Trees

Today we went over to Mikayla's house to do our activity. I got this idea from my friend Alyssa's blog. We made a tree trunk and branches using Claire's arm and then she watercolor painted the leaves on the tree. This activity would have been better to do when there are actual leaves on the trees, but it was still fun. :) Thanks Mikayla for having us at your house!!!

Circle Collage

This week we will be focusing on circles! We talk about shapes here and there but we haven't spent a lot of time focusing on them. This week I hope Claire will really begin to identify this shape on her own! Our activity today is a circle collage. I just punched out circles with a punch and put them through my sticker maker. I will read a book about shapes and then let her put her circle stickers on paper.

Turkey Feathers

This is a craft I used to do in my kindergarten classroom. Back then, I didn't have feathers so I cut them out of construction paper instead. We happen to have feathers which made this activity even more fun for Claire!

Turkey Color Sort

This is a pretty easy activity to explain. You just match the correct clothespin to the right turkey. The clothespins used to just have only the color word written on it, but I made it easier by also coloring the tip of the pin with the correct color. Pinching the clothespin was tough for Claire so I let her just put the pin on top of the turkey. We will keep working on this though because pinching a clothespin is great fine motor practice! :)

Turkey Hands

This is a craft that I am pretty sure all kindergarten teachers use in their classroom. I LOVE hand print art for kids and if you google hand print crafts you will find ideas for every month. I decided to try it with both of my girls and it worked really well! Audrey even had fun! I had our wipes ready after each color or finger was painted. I also didn't do the whole hand at once. I did each color separately and waited for the paper to dry. So adorable. My friend displays her hand print art in frames each month. Such a cute decoration!