Preschool Thanksgiving Activities
It can be tough to teach three- and four-year-olds about the meaning of Thanksgiving in a way they can truly understand. It may be a little too early to get into an in-depth explanation about the Pilgrims, Native Americans and being thankful, but you can begin to introduce Thanksgiving on a surface level. Get the children excited about the holiday by talking about singing, doing Thanksgiving-related arts and crafts, and emphasizing the importance of being grateful for what you have.
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Thanksgiving Songs
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Teach the children a song with Thanksgiving themes sung to a tune they are already familiar with. For example, teach the children the following words sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot.
"I'm a little turkey, my name is Ted, here are my feathers and here is my head, gobble, gobble, gobble is what I say, quick, run, it's Thanksgiving day. "
Another one you could sing to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus" is: "The turkeys on the farm go gobble gobble gobble", etc, and "On Thanksgiving day were thankful, thankful, thankful" etc.
Thankful Circle
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Place the kids in a circle and tell them Thanksgiving is a time to tell your friends and family thank you for the nice things they do for you. Then have the children say thank you to the child next them for something. Start it off by turning to the child nearest to you and say something like, "Cindy, thank you for pushing the chairs in today". Help the kids along if they are stumped.
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Harvest Turkey
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Place bowls with different beans, grains and seeds in them on a table, such as dried black beans, rice and sunflower seeds. Pass out one piece at a time and explain to them what each seed or grain grows into. Tell them how the Native Americans grew corn and grains and then gave the food to the Pilgrims. Then, have the children color in a picture of a turkey. Once they finish coloring the turkeys, allow the children to glue some of the grains and beans onto the turkey.
Hand Turkeys
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Trace each child's hands on a piece of paper. Using a permanent marker, draw a black dot on the thumb part to make an eye and two turkey feet at the bottom of the palm. Then, let the children color in the rest of the turkey hand. Place a box of feathers on the table and glue, and have the children cover up the finger parts, which represent feathers, with actual feathers.
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- Photo Credit little toddler image by Edward White from Fotolia.com
