Family Handprint Turkey

How cute is this wooden handprint turkey?!

My sister, Kiley (from DIY with Grant & Kiley) made these and sent them to us for Thanksgiving! My kids have loved playing with them. She took each of my family’s handprints, cut them out of wood and painted them to make this cute, custom, Thanksgiving turkey. Look at all of those feathers!

There are seven of us. I love the range from my husband’s huge hand, down to my 4-month-old’s cute little hand. My kids had a fun time trying to match up their hands to figure out whose was whose.

They’re made out of fairly thick wood, so the kids have been playing with them just like blocks. They stack them and sort them and try to match up their hands. I love hearing them talk about “Dad’s hand is the biggest” and the baby’s hand “is the smallest.” and how they can organize them by size. They’re practicing math concepts, colors and counting without even knowing it

And I love that she stamped my kid’s initials and age into the bottom of each hand. Such a fun keepsake.

I was pretty impressed with how right on the sizes were too She did a great job.

Thanks little sister We love them!

If you need a set of these for your family, they are available in Kiley’s shop here. Or check out all of the other fun projects she has going on at DIY with Grant and Kiley.

Thanksgiving {Pilgrims & Indians} Day

• Read “Thanksgiving Mice!” by Bethany Roberts … I was in the mood for a fun, light Thanksgiving book and this was it. Not the most informative but fun rhymes and cute illustrations.

• Thankful Feathers
  1. Cut out several colorful feathers.
  2. Ask the kids what they are thankful for.
  3. Write their response on each feather. You could definitely take the time to have them write themselves or trace your writing (write in a lighter color and they trace with a darker color) but I decided just to talk about it and write it for them today.
  4. Save the feathers for the next project!

• Pattern Headbands … simple & traditional. My girls loved wearing these!
  1. Cut 2 long strips (I did 3” wide) from brown paper. Tape together to form a long headband.
  2. Cut 1” strips from several colors (I used 3).
  3. Let the kids cut their strips of paper in squares. Or into any shape you want, like my 2-year-old above
  4. Glue the paper squares to the headband in a pattern.
  5. Tape the feathers onto the headband.

• Noodle Necklaces {Sort & Patterns} … again, simple & traditional, but they loved it.
  1. Dye noodles several colors. I just wanted a small batch of each color, so this is what I did:

     Prep: Insert a ziploc baggie into an empty cup and fold over the lip of the cup. Trust me, it just makes things easier! Add 1 Tbls. white vinegar. Add 7 drops food coloring into the vinegar. Fill the baggie with noodles (about 1 cup). Zip the baggie closed and gently toss to coat all the noodles. Spread the noodles onto paper towels to dry overnight.

  2. Mix up all of the colors.
  3. Let the kids sort the noodles into bowls.
  4. String the noodles onto a piece of plastic cording. Help them make a pattern with their noodles if they want!

• Teepee Lunch … with our feather headbands and our noodle necklaces we were all decked out and ready for a fancy lunch in our homemade teepee.
  1. Tie 4 long poles together at the top (ours were about 6’ tall 2x2s)
  2. Cover with a large blanket.
  3. I used a couple of thumbtacks to hold the blanket at the “door”. Worked great.
  4. ADD A FIRE! Oh boy, was this a hit. I used a battery-operated flicker light (thank you Halloween pumpkins). Cut yellow and orange paper into flames. Tape together in a tube and place the flicker candle inside. It looks like a glowing fire!
  5. Enjoy lunch inside the teepee. We had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, blueberries, sugared almonds and cubed cheese.

 

• Hunting for ABC Fish … we talked about how the Native Americans taught the pilgrims how to hunt and fish and plant food. So after lunch, we went hunting for ABCs.
1. Print this great ABC fish printable from Making Learning Fun. Click here.
2. Hide ABCs all around the room. I used some simple paint chip ABC cards I made (felt letter stickers on paint chips). You could use ABC flashcards or even ABC magnets. You could even cut the paint chips into fish shapes!
3. Have the kids go hunting for ABCs.
4. When they find one, have them color in (or trace) the matching fish on their page. My 4-year-old traced each letter. My 2-year-old scribbled her page every time they found one

• Thanksgiving Photo Fun … My kids think it’s great when I change up their photos on the wall. Can you spy the little Thanksgiving surprise I left for them to notice?!
  1. Add a small brown paper headband.
  2. Add a couple of small feathers (in their favorite colors, of course.)
  3. We even made one of them a turkey for the day

Thanksgiving {Cranberry Day}

• Read “Cranberry Thanksgiving” by Wende & Harry Devlin
1. This is the story of Grandma, Maggie, Mr. Whiskers and Mr. Horace. Grandma’s famous cranberry bread recipe is kept secret and hidden safely behind a brick in the fireplace. When he comes to Thanksgiving dinner, Grandma thinks Mr. Whiskers is trying to steal her recipe, but the night ends up a little differently than she had planned.

• Preschool Journal Page
  1. Practice writing “Cranberry” with a red crayon or pencil
  2. Draw a cranberry
  3. Stick cranberry stickers all over page. I just cut circles out of red sticky back felt and called them cranberries.

• Cranberry Taste Test
  1. Show the kids whole cranberries & let them describe them.
  2. Let the taste dried cranberries and drink of cranberry juice.
  3. NOTE: the video below is great. We tasted our treats when they showed how to make cranberry juice & when they showed how dried cranberries are made. The kids loved it.

• Watch “How It’s Made: Cranberries” … a fun, informative video on youtube.

• Recipe Hunt
  1. In Cranberry Thanksgiving, Grandmother hides her secret recipe behind a brick in the fireplace.
  2. Hide each of the ingredients from the recipe around the room.
  3. I had the kids find the recipe first (hiding by the fireplace, of course) 
  4. Let the kids go on a hunt to find everything they’ll need to make Grandma’s secret recipe! They found a bag of flour and sugar, the salt shaker, the baking powder, an egg (careful!), a can of OJ, a cube of butter, chocolate chips and cranberries.
  5. NOTE: Don’t forget to hide a mixing bowl and the measuring cups and spoons

 

• Cranberries in a Cup
1. Michelle at Delightful Learning suggested putting the cranberries in the bottom of the muffin tins first when making the cranberry bread recipe (so they don’t float to the top and burn).
2. So, I had the kids use kid-friendly chopsticks to put the cranberries one-by-one into the muffin tins.
3. NOTE: we made mini muffins, so we put 3 cranberries in each cup.

• Make Cranberry Bread or Muffins
1. I have to admit, I’ve never made cranberry anything, but these turned out really yummy. We used the recipe from the back of the book and added chocolate chips Delicious.
2. My 1, 3, and 5-year-old all loved them. They ate them so fast, I didn’t get a picture of the finished muffins!

 

• Cranberry Float … my kids love this! We alternate … one of the kids plays in the water while the other helps mom with one of the ingredients for the muffins. Then they switch. Works great. 
1. Add a couple packages of fresh cranberries to a large tub filled with water.
2. TIP: put a big towel or two under the tub of water. Just trust me
3. Add slotted spoons, small measuring spoons and tin bowls with holes punched in the bottom. 
4. TIP: we learned last year that it’s better to have bowls and spoons with holes to let the water drain, otherwise water gets everywhere!
5. My 1-year-old was especially thrilled to play in the water when she woke up from her nap!

Have fun & Happy Thanksgiving!