Gobble Gobble Headbands

My school hosts a wonderful Thanksgiving Luncheon for students and families each year, and the meal is always followed by recess.

With four classes of kindergartners on the field, playground, and blacktop, it can be difficult to keep track of my Super Stars, unless...

They're wearing turkey crowns!

Here's what you'll need for each headband:

(1) 2 X 18 strip of brown construction paper
(1 each) 2 X 4 rectangles  for the red, beige, and orange feathers
(1) 1 X 4 rectangle in dark brown for the turkey's headband
(1) 4 inch diameter brown circle for the turkey's face
(1) small orange triangle for the beak
black marker to draw the eyes
1 X 1 inch squares in black, yellow, and red for the pattern

Several Stars decided that AB and ABC patterns were "too easy," so they decided to create ABB and AAB patterns across the long brown strip.

The orange beak and eyes were added to the brown circle, and then students glued on the turkey's headband and feathers.  Then the turkey's face was glued near(ish) the middle of the headband.

After fitting each headband onto its owner's head, my Stars insisted that I wear mine as well.

Ta da!  Er, ~gobble gobble~!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Veterans Day Craft

Being the wife of a United States veteran, and having taught so many students from military families, it has always been important to me to include a Veterans Day craft in my lesson plans each November.

Here's what we used for our hallway bulletin boards:

(1) large 12 X 18 inch piece of light gray construction paper (cut as shown for body)

(1) 3 X 18 inch rectangle of light gray construction paper (arms)

(1) 5 X 8 inch rectangle of light gray construction paper (curved at top for helmet)

(1) 7 X 7 square of light gray construction paper (curved at bottom) 

(1) 6 X 6 square of skin colored construction paper (for face; curved at bottom; will be glued to 7 X 7 gray square)

(2) 3 X 4 rectangles in dark brown (to be cut into boot shapes)

(2) 3 X 3 squares in skin colored construction paper (for hands)

(1) 7 X 1 and 1/2 inch strip of red, brown, yellow, or black paper (for hair)

(2)  2 X 2 white squares (for eyes)

Red, white, and blue construction paper hearts (we layered ours)

(1) 1 X 4 strip of black construction paper (my students wrote their veterans' names on them and then glued them onto the hearts)

(2) shades of gray paint, one lighter than the other

(1) sponge, cut into smaller rectangles

Before working with the skin colored construction paper, my kindergartners glued the long rectangular gray strip across the back of the torso portion of the body piece.  Then they applied two different shades of gray paint with sponges, to mimic the digital camouflage pattern on modern Army uniforms, onto the body, arms, and smaller helmet piece.

Then the Stars glued the skin color piece onto the remaining gray piece, making sure the curved corners matched up.  The gray peeking around the face looks like the helmet's strap.  Then the kindergartners chose their soldier's hair color and glued it above the face:

After the paint had dried, the Stars completed the assembly of their veteran soldiers by gluing the helmet to the top of the head (leaving some hair peeking out), eyes onto the face, hands onto the end of each arm, and boots at the end of each leg. They used crayons to color in the eyes, and add mouths and cheeks. Then our red and white hearts were layered on top of the blue heart, and each student wrote his or her last name across the thin black rectangle, to mimic a soldier's name tag.

We hope visitors to our school enjoy our Veterans Day bulletin board during Open House later this month.

Thank you, Veterans!

Great Gobblers!

We used our gobblers as a writing prompt, gluing them above our responses to "Save a turkey, eat more ______________!"

Cupcakes, chicken nuggets, candy, and even pudding were suggested as suitable replacements for the traditional turkey dinner.

:)

Gobble gobble!

Veterans, We Love You

As my Super Stars were deciding what "thankful" meant, one of them asked "Mrs. Sommerville, what's that holiday after Halloween, but before Thanksgiving?  The one for Army guys like my dad?"

Veterans Day, perhaps not the holiday that many students of civilian parents would group together with the usual Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas trio, but one that we as teachers on a military post observe with respect, not only for our nation's Armed Forces past and present, but for their families and children as well.

After we identified who veterans were and are, and agreed that veterans not only gave us our freedom but continue to protect it as well, I asked what kind of art project we should make for our hallway display.  Our shared kindergarten wavelength being what it is, one student began "Veterans gave us our freedom..." and a second student finished the thought with "We give veterans our hearts.  Mrs. Sommerville!  We should make hearts!"

Of course I teared up.

And then got to work.

I traced a large open heart onto white tagboard:



...asked our aide to punch out red and blue stars (each student used six or seven of each, depending on how far apart they spaced them onto the heart):



After students affixed the stars around the heart in an AB pattern, they glued it onto purple backing paper (yes, one of my student's fathers is a Purple Heart recipient):



Students then wrote "Thank you Veterans.  We love you." on handwriting paper and glued it onto the heart (apologies for the grainy photo):



Silver glitter glue was swirled onto stars for some added sparkle, and the hearts framed our bulletin board turkey character:



Student-inspired displays are the best, don't you agree?

Teacher, Why Do You Always Paint Our Hands?

It was *the* question of the week!

"Mrs. Sommerville, you're weird.  You painted our hands for autumn trees.  Then you painted our feet for Halloween ghosts.  Now you're painting our hands again for Thanksgiving turkeys.  What color are we going to have to paint our hands (insert eye roll from five-year-old here) for the next holiday?"

Well... uh...

Hmm.

I assure you, I don't *always* paint my students' hands.  Sometimes I let them get sticky in other ways:

Okay, okay, so they painted first, but then they got all goopy painting white glue onto pumpkin templates cut out of old manilla folders.  I added the pipecleaner "vine" onto the pumpkins with a hot glue gun after school.

November means it's time for patchy pumpkins, terrific turkeys, and venerated veterans, so I'll post photos of the finished bulletin board later this week!

To answer my student's question:  brown.  I'll be painting hands (and possibly feet) brown next month.  

For Chris-moose.

So there.

Link Time: Turkeys, Turkeys, and More Turkeys

One student's departure, a new student's arrival, meetings galore and Open House make for a busy week... and hey, it's only Wednesday!

We're getting *awfully* close to Thanksgiving however, so just in case you aren't completely turkeyed-out yet, here are some links that will push you dangerously close to the gobble-gobble-gobble ledge.

Obviously I'm already over it.

Sweetly Edible Turkeys:

~Keebler Fudge Striped Turkeys by Cakespy at Serious Eats

~Oreo Turkey Cookies at Make and Takes

~Rice Krispie Turkeys at Alpha Mom

~... and thanks to D., a.k.a. "The Candy Corn Fairy," our family will be making these turkey cookies this weekend

Turkey Centerpieces:

~An updated version of the paper bag turkey at WomansDay.com:

~eHow's paper turkey (this one includes the ever-popular t.p. roll for the body!)

~...and a cute turkey made from a styrofoam egg over at All Kids Network...

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Here's my favorite Thanksgiving song, "I'm Gonna Eat on Thanksgiving Day" by Laurie Berkner.

Terrific Texture Turkeys; Giveaway Time!

Parents donated rice, fabric, faux fur, sunflower seeds, aluminum foil, cotton balls and dry pasta so that the Super Stars could add texture to their colored turkey feathers!

We painted wet glue onto the colored tag board and added bumpy, smooth, fluffy, bristley, crunchy and pokey details:

We used a hole punch at the back of each turkey's head, ran a pipe cleaner through the holes and then tied them through a small hole made into the center of each tag board sheet (click here for directions on how to make the turkey body):

Gobble gobble gobble!

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It's easy to make a turkey-riffic display for Veterans Day too:

I found a cute turkey stamp, blew it up using an overhead projector, and traced and colored it on plain white paper.  I used a hand-shaped die cut to make red, white, and blue paper "feathers" for the turkey, but it would be fun for students to trace their hands instead.  Laminate the turkey for future use, and then add a small flag, securing it with clear tape.  

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*This* is my 600th blog post! 

 I'll be hosting a giveaway later this week, and all you have to do to be entered is comment on THIS post!  Each comment will count as one entry, but if you are (or *become*) a follower of my blog, your name will be tossed into the hat one more time!

November is for the Birds...Turkeys!

After the ghosts, witches and jack-o-lanterns make their way to my Super Stars' homes for Halloween, the room looks a bit bare.  I'm always thankful that my students enjoy taking ownership of their surroundings, decorating the room to follow our monthly or seasonal themes, but November is always one for the birds... turkeys!

From the traditional construction paper variety:



...to reminders of sight words (color words in this case):



...to a work in progress:  an open-bodied turkey form that will be fastened to the front of a textural background later this week (students have colored a turkey feather outline on heavier cardstock and will be gluing various materials representing several different textures onto it before adding the construction paper body):



He looks pretty bare without his insides and his tail feathers, but I'll photograph the finished project by this weekend!

If you'd like to make an open-bodied turkey so that the background art can show through, here's what you'll need (and NO, this project is NOT the friendliest for kindergartners, so have a parent volunteer, classroom aide, or upper-grade buddy class standing by to help you and your students assemble the body if it's one that you think will work with fancy tail feather art) :

Light brown construction paper cut:

2 pieces 2 inches by 18 inches
2 pieces 2 inches by 15 and 1/2 inches
2 pieces 2 inches by 13 and 1/2 inches
1 piece 2 inches by 9 inches

Dark brown construction paper cut:

1 piece 4 inches by 6 inches (head), folded in half

Orange construction paper cut:

1 inch by 6 inches, folded accordion-style (legs)

Small triangles cut for the beak

Black construction paper cut:

2 inch by 2 inch squares from which students may cut triangles for the feet

Eyes can be drawn onto the face, but the google eyes are a bit more fun!

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Here's the head, (dark brown construction paper) folded in half and stapled then *smooshed* so that the stapled end is in the back (eyes and beak will be glued onto the flat front):



See the *smoosh?*



Arrange the pieces in the following order: (1) 2X18, (1) 2X15, (1) 2X13, (1) 2X9, (1) 2X13, (1) 2X15, and (1) 2X18.   Make sure all the ends meet/match up on one end, and staple it (I'm holding the stapled end in the photo):




Then match up all of the opposite ends so they meet up. Staple. There's the turkey body!



Have students accordion-fold the legs and glue black triangles on for the feet. Add google eyes and beak to the head piece and slide over the top of one end of the turkey's body.



I can't wait to see how our gobblers look with their textured tail feathers!

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(What will all of these turkeys eat?  How about some corn?)

Some November Classroom Cuteness

Making a book cover for my students' "I'm thankful..." pages:





Patriotic handprint turkeys for our Veteran's Day hallway display:



And the *cutest* pumpkin delivered to me by a student from her family (can you tell what it's made out of?):



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I apologize for forgetting to post my students' election results!





Favorite Story: Green Eggs and Ham

Favorite Song: I Like to Move It, Move It

Favorite Lunch Entree: Chicken Nuggets

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My Super Stars *loved* taking part in Kindergarten Voting. They "registered" to vote by signing their names on a class list, they reviewed their ballot, voted behind the privacy curtain, folded their ballots and slid them into the ballot box, and received their "I Voted!" pins to wear for the day. You should have HEARD the cheers when the election results were posted!

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Don't forget to leave a comment on my 400th blog post for a chance to win a paper Christmas banner in time for the holidays! I'll be drawing the winner's name on November 9!