Thanksgiving is the perfect time to blend gratitude, literacy, and creativity in your primary classroom. Whether you're looking for a fun turkey card, a disguise a turkey craft and writing activity, or a high-interest read-aloud, this post has you covered. These activities are low-prep, highly engaging, and ideal for Kindergarten through 2nd grade.
A Turkey Card Craft: A Thankful Keepsake
One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is making a turkey card with my students. It’s a great way to incorporate art, gratitude, and writing in a simple, sweet project. We use finger paint to create colorful feathers, glue on googly eyes, and write what we're thankful for inside the card. Anytime we use paint, it is always a hit. Painting with our fingers is extra exciting.
These little guys are ready for googly eyes when I am sure they are all dry. Some of these turkeys have a relatively thick layer of paint on them. I often read Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes to spark a conversation about gratitude. My students always mention things like Mom, Dad, siblings, pets, or friends in their cards — never anything materialistic. That always makes my teacher heart happy!
Disguise a Turkey Craft and Writing Activity
Thanksgiving books that center around a runaway turkey are always a hit! One of my absolute favourites is The Amazing Turkey Rescue by Steve Metzger. In this story, the turkeys are back in action, trying to save the chickens after escaping Thanksgiving dinner the year before.
This book is perfect for:
- Practicing inferring skills as a class
- Launching a creative writing activity
- Tying into a disguise-a-turkey craft your students will love
After reading, we brainstorm ways the turkey could disguise himself to avoid being caught. Then, students complete their disguise a turkey craft and write about where the turkey is hiding and what it’s doing. The creativity is always off the charts! This year, I added another layer and had students create a pattern for the feathers as we just wrapped up our patterning unit.
My students love choosing an included disguise for their turkey or coming up with their own and then writing about where their turkey went to hide out. It's always a lot of fun seeing their creativity.
Want a ready-to-use version? Check out my Turkey in Disguise Writing and Craft Resource, which includes multiple disguise options and writing prompts. It pairs perfectly with this book or any turkey-themed read-aloud!
Loose Parts Turkeys!
This is a great activity to see how creative your students can get with loose parts. I put out a turkey body that I found online, and collections of loose parts and math manipulatives. You can make it totally open-ended or have your students follow a pattern. Either way, it's a fun activity.
Another idea is to make a simple turkey body and use construction paper squares to create the feathers. My students labelled the pattern right on the feathers.
Thanksgiving is a short season in the classroom, but that doesn’t mean it can't be meaningful. With just a few focused activities, you can spark creativity and practice key literacy and math skills.
Ready to try this in your classroom? Grab the Turkey in Disguise Craft and Writing resource to save time and get the creativity flowing this Thanksgiving!
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