If store shelves are a holiday harbinger, Thanksgiving has become the forgotten one! By early October, Christmas merchandise starts sneaking onto the shelves and completely takes over immediately after Halloween. You’re lucky to find a few Thanksgiving or harvest items languishing in a corner or on a hidden shelf.
Even with all the Christmas hype, there’s still time and opportunity for Thanksgiving in the classroom… learning about the history of the first Thanksgiving, contrasting the differences between long ago and today, and focusing on gratitude.
Turkey Graphic by Sarah Pecorino Illustration
Oh, and don’t forget to have a little turkey fun! I was surprised to discover that Turkey Lover’s Day is the third Sunday in June with June designated as Turkey Lovers Month.
I adore this Turkey Collect & Sort activity for several reasons.
- The same activity can be used to focus on different skills with different kids.
- It is relatively easy to prepare.
- This is a hands-on learning activity designed to engage.
- This activity can be repeated across the seasons with different themes.
Turkey Collect & Sort, a free download, is a partner activity crafted to engage preschoolers, kindergarteners, and beginning first graders on several levels. Your youngest learners can enhance their fine motor skills and match/ identify colors. Older learners can count, write numbers, represent quantities with ten frames and tally marks, graph, and compare quantities.
You will need:
- Cardstock or paper for printing selected pages, Turkey Collect & Sort
- Laminator, optional
- 25 one-half to seven-eighths inch counters (pompoms, buttons, or M & M’s) in red, brown, and yellow for each pair of players, with a more or less even color distribution
To prepare:
- Choose to print in color or black/ white.
- Decide on a spinner or a cube. Print and cut. Color the black and white, if using. The spinner can be made with purchased hands; a paper clip and pencil; or a brad and paperclip. Score, fold and glue the cube.
- Print one turkey game mat for each pair of players.
- Print one sorting mat for each player (optional, 2 per page). Color code the black and white.
- Pick and print one or both optional recording sheets.
To play Turkey Collect & Sort:
- Place 25 red, brown, and yellow counters in the spaces on the turkey mat.
- Take turns with a partner.
- Spin or roll.
- Collect one counter that matches your color. Place the counter on your sorting mat, if using. If all the counters that match your color have been collected, you lose your turn.
- Play until all the counters have been collected.
Count to find out how many of each color you collected. Which color did you collect the most of and the fewest of? Count to find out how many counters you collected in all. Who collected the most or the fewest?
Recording Sheets:
Follow-up with one or both of the recording sheets. If desired, color the circles to match the color words.
- Count how many of each color you collected. Write the number. Color spaces on the ten frame to match each quantity. Draw tally marks to match each quantity.
- Count how many of each color you collected. Color the bars on the graph to match each quantity. Use the data on the graph to complete the statements.
Read my blog posts about this same activity with a candy corn or American flag theme.
Additional Turkey Resources:
Click on a link below to find more turkey-themed and Thanksgiving resources, suitable for kindergarten, first, second, or third grade, in my TpT store! I recently gave the turkey comparison, emergent reader, and sentence construction resources a cosmetic makeover.
- Number Sense Activity Turkey Fun 1-10, Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten
- Number Sense Activity Turkey Trottin’ Teens 10-19, Kindergarten and First Grade
- Place Value Activity Tens and Ones Turkeys in the Kitchen, First and Second Grade
- Place Value Activity Base Ten Turkeys Hundreds, Tens, and Ones, Second and Third Grade
- Turkey Comparisons Two-Digit Numbers, First and Second Grade
- Turkey Comparisons Three-Digit Numbers, Second and Third Grade
- Ordering Numbers 0-120 Turkey Feathers, Kindergarten, First and Second Grade
- Even and Odd Number Turkey Feathers, First and Second Grade
- Thanksgiving Dinner Emergent Reader Plus More, Kindergarten
- Thanksgiving Dinner Questions & Answers Sentence Construction Activity, Kindergarten and First Grade
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