get ready for Cyber Monday!

Here are a few more pictures of our Thanksgiving festivities from this week.

But if you missed the debut pricing, don't worry...because all of my holiday items will be on sale next week for Cyber Monday {plus bonus day Tuesday} on TPT!  Using the code CMT12 you can get 10% off all TeachersPayTeachers products November 26th & 27th.  Many teachers are also further discounting their shops so a lot of your favorite items will be up to 28% off.

All of my holiday themed items will be featured in the additional sale next week:

Halloween Labeling

Grow the Grinch's heart Craftivity

Pilgrim & Native American Thanksgiving unit

Cinco de Mayo unit {for basic Spanish}

Monthly Themed Calendar Set

From my special teacher's helper and myself...

Thanksgiving freebie & a sale...why not?!

I totally wasn't going to post anything else for Thanksgiving. Then I started planning out our 2 day week and I realized I didn't have anything brand-spanking-new this year {gasp!} and the perfectionistic teacher inside of me wasn't okay with that. So I made a few things, which turned into a few more things....which turned into a 15 page Thanksgiving Packet for you!

I posted the unit on my Facebook page this afternoon with the exclusive info that it is ON SALE {50%} until Tuesday at 9pm EST! That still gives you over 24 hours to get it for only $2. It's a 15 page unit that includes the following activities {and the Common Core standards they meet}:

counting syllables {K.RFS.2b}

making words from the letters in THANKSGIVING {K.RFS.2e}

creative writing {K.W.1 & K.W.2}

making a personal connection {K.RIT.3}

listing activities {K.L.2}

labeling a menu {K.SL.5}

graphing favorite foods {K.MD.3}

distinguishing between wants & needs {K.MD.3}

explaining how to share & think of others  {K.SL.6}

identifying symbols associated Thanksgiving {K.L.6}

PLUS the sample download is an additional 3 page game that works on number identification {K.CC.3} and recognizing color words {K.L.5} which results in a feather headdress to wear!

Happy Thanksgiving friends!  I am truly thankful for all of you!  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so excited that there are only a few days left until Thanksgiving break!  Do you get the whole week off or only a few days?  We will be at school on Monday & Tuesday but do you want to know a secret?  I'm okay with that.  Because it is the perfect amount of time to do pilgrim & native american theme days!!  :)

I just made all of my copies & put our vocabulary books together today.  It's one of my favorite Thanksgiving activities because it makes the kids recall information about the 1st Thanksgiving but it also makes them really think about all of the new vocabulary!

Click on the title page for your free copy...word bank included.  Students fill in the vocabulary words then draw a picture to illustrate the fact on each page.  Go ahead and do this as a class.  :)

And what's a fun holiday celebration without a festive treat?!  :)  Oreos, Reese's Miniature Peanut Butter Cups, Candy Corn, Whoppers and frosting needed.  First, split the Oreo.

Spread frosting on the "clean" cookie half and stick it into the frosting side.

 Add a Reese's mini to the frosting for the body.

Add candy corn to the frosting for feathers.

Use frosting to stick a Whopper {any malted milk ball} to the Reese's cup for a head.

There you have...a candy turkey!!  :)  You can add a red hot for the snood {ie the red wobbly thing over the beak} but the kids typically spit those out so I've decided to skip that step!

Also, dear friends, please please do yourselves a favor and check out Scholastic for your Thanksgiving units.  Their website has phenomenal Thanksgiving resources.  Check out the parts of the Mayflower {while wearing your pilgrim bonnet if you so choose!}...

 ...learn how the passengers of the Mayflower felt and research all they had to do while traveling...

 ...chart the journey of the Mayflower across the map...

...and take some virtual field trips through the Mayflower and Plymouth Plantation!  Your students will totally understand what it was like to make the trip.  If you will teach anything about the 1st Thanksgiving, you have to let Scholastic help you!

I've also updated my Thanksgiving venn diagram.  Thank you for the reminders!  ;)  Instead of putting the current year, I just put "Thanksgiving today" so you can keep a copy in your file to use year after year.  Click for your free download.

Happy feasting!

pilgrims & native americans.

We've been talking turkey the past week or so but with a short week ahead it only makes sense to theme it up, right?!  :)  Monday we will become Pilgrims & Tuesday we'll be Native Americans.  If you'd like to participate {or just pick and choose a few items} here are some of the things we'll be doing as we work toward our long holiday weekend!

{pilgrims}

I don't know how I taught Thanksgiving before finding these books.  With vocab galore they have photographs to depict the time, tell the story from a child's perspective and help my five year olds really get into character.  If you do not own them, stop what you're doing and go make a purchase. Seriously...Google is your friend. And I wouldn't be if I didn't require you to get them. Off you go.

I found these pictures somewhere on the internet but I thought it was a great writing and vocabulary activity for my students so I put the pictures into a Word document for a labeling activity!  Don't worry teachers...answers included.  ;)

To dress the part you have to have authentic {construction paper} headgear, right?!  My helper and I created a step-by-step guide.  Start with a full sheet of white for the ladies.  Fold it in half hamburger style and cut out one of the corners.  When you open it up, fold back the long side {this will frame the face}.

Take the back corners and staple them to each side corner.  The staples will be at the bottom of the back of the bonnet.  Voila!  Hole punch each front side to attach yarn and tie under little pilgrim chins.

For the gents, start with a full sheet of black.  {I only had brown at home this morning!}  Fold it in half  hamburger style twice.

Start cutting over on the open side {on the right in the above picture} then slant up toward the top folds.

When you open it up, you should have a hat like this. Staple either side of their little pilgrim heads to ensure a nice snug fit!

I also give the boys a piece of yellow paper to cut a buckle and glue on to their hats.

Is any holiday ever complete without Charlie Brown?!  Watch it on YouTube to see the Peanuts characters' voyage to America. 

{native americans}
I hope you still have that bookstore browser open...because here's another great one by Kate Waters!

I believe these pictures were given to me by my children's art professor when I was student teaching so I can't give credit as to where they came from, but they're too good not to share!  Students can copy them into a journal, use them to write a rebus story or draw them on paperbag vests.

The vests {while cute} drive me a little bonkers because the kids never want to wear them for more than 30 seconds and it takes me forever to cut out the pieces to get them prepped.  So I've gotten away from those and we add these symbols to our Native American headdresses, which are....you guessed it...sentence strips with feathers glued to the back.  :)  We usually use real feathers but if you don't have any, just cut apart any feather coloring sheet and let the kids design their own!

{1st Thanksgiving}
I created this vocabulary journal for use in a writing center or as a whole group activity.  If you don't want to print out individual copies, you could also do it whole group on the SmartBoard.  If you don't have that luxury, I did make half pages to help cut down on your copies!  There's a word bank at the end to choose from and instead of one large blank there's one small blank per letter to make it a little easier to figure out.

This Venn diagram allows your children to compare Thanksgiving foods from the first feast to theirs today.  I like seeing the different foods that my students eat based on their family traditions and cultures so not all diagrams will be the same!  My kids always love to learn that they ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving but aren't so enthused to hear about the oysters and mussels or venison!

P.S. If you like these adorable graphics from {Lettering Delights} sign up for their newsletter to get 9 free fonts!  {They won't bombard your inbox but you'll get emails about sales and new products.}

I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving and take some time to not only recognize what it is you're thankful for, but to share it with others and let those special people in your life know how blessed you are to have them.

{Shout out} to Chappy, Mama, Gram, Baby Sis, Pants & Hubs.  I'm thankful for you every day!

And remember...calories don't count when you're with family!  ;)http://littlemissglamourgoestokindergarten.blogspot.com/2011/11/gobble-gobble.html

gobble gobble.

Does anyone have all of next week off for Thanksgiving?  Or are you all with me in a super short week?  We're in session on Monday and Tuesday so I'll be posting later about our upcoming {theme days!}  For now, here are some of my favorite turkey ideas to help you count down to holiday break!

{pattern turkeys}

I found this turkey online somewhere {not my creation!} and made it into a double page for the kids to show 2 different types of patterns.  They still don't understand that they only have to write the rule once, but as long as the letters are right, I don't really put up a fuss about it.  :)

The cut-out turkeys are also a coloring sheet that I had the kids use in a pattern center to create another type of turkey pattern to decorate our cubbies.

We also created Surrounding Patterns {from the inside out} by putting feathers on a turkey body.  We glued down diecut pattern blocks but you could also used colored pasta or just draw the shapes.  P.S. If you really want to give your kids a giggle, tell them they have to help the turkeys so they're not naked!  Click for your very own {naked turkey}.  Disclaimer: not my creation, just a coloring page with erased feathers!

{turkey recipe}

I attempted writing a recipe for turkeys but have to honestly say that this activity is a little complex for most kindergarteners even when given the choice to write about any Thanksgiving food...since mashed potatoes, stuffing or pumpkin pie would require a larger choice of ingredients and cooking steps.  I realized that a few years ago when I first tried it but after seeing Erica Bohrer's cute turkey recipe card I thought I'd try it again.  {Note to self: use only as a challenge activity for a few kids next year!!}  Oh well.  Here it is if you're brave enough.  ;)

{turkey crowns}

Our cafeteria manager puts on a fabulous Thanksgiving luncheon every year for parents and the community to come attend and I figure if the school's all turkey'd out, we should be too!  My favorite turkey headbands:

{cut out 4-6 feathers of your color choice.  glue to the back of a sentence strip.}

 {flip the sentence strip over so the feathers stick out the back.}

 {glue a brown circle for the head}

 {fold over the tab of each wing and only glue down that section}

 {add a beak, eyes & snood}

 I didn't get a picture without faces in it so here's one of me from a few years ago.

{display turkeys with a touch of teaching}

I've always made these turkeys just to display and be festive but I'm really trying to focus on everything having an educational purpose so this year they received a make-over!

My highest kids created rhyming turkeys.  I was hoping they'd be able to come up with 6 real words but that was difficult for some of their words {their choice} so if we exhausted our minds and no one in the group {including me!} could come up with another real word I let them finish with nonsense.  The funniest part about that was seeing what pictures they came up with!

My middle groups created initial sound turkeys with 6 different words on the feathers.  I only accepted real words {and classmate names} for these because this is a skill we're really working on in both reading and writing.  They had to give me at least 3 examples before I wrote their letter.  If they couldn't, they had to think of a different letter before they began.

My lower group also created initial sound turkeys but only had to think of one or two words for each instead of trying to come up with 6 examples.  They were encouraged to use the pictorial alphabet on the word wall and I also had letter posters available for reference if they got stuck.

These are the letter posters our awesome EC teacher {Sara} made that the kids used for reference.  At first I was afraid that would make it too difficult but they had to tell me the word before adding it so that made them think and listen for the right sound.  {ex: on the Ss poster there was a smile and one of my girls had to work through and tell me why it had to be called smile and not mouth before she could add it.}

You could also make math turkeys with a number in the body and different ways to show the number on each feather...picture, number word, addition or subtraction equation, etc!

{cornucopia writing}

Okay, so I know this isn't a turkey but it is an awesome way to update a coloring page...so I'm pretty sure you won't mind!  Instead of listing things we're thankful for, color fruits or vegetables to be put in a cornucopia.  Cut them out and fold back the top of each fruit {I help with this} then glue down only that part to create a lift-the-flap type of picture.

 After they're glued down, the children write one thing they're thankful for under each fruit.

 Hang to display for an interactive bulletin board!  :)

Pilgrim & Native American activities will be posted tomorrow!!