Happy Thanksgiving!

It's time to take a little break to celebrate Thanksgiving and prepare for a fun month of Christmas lessons and Random Acts of Christmas Kindness!  We will be back on December 1st!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed holiday!

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him and praise His Name." Psalm 100:4

Thinking Theme: Autumn #2

Lesson 1: Candy Corn Counting
Objectives:
* To identify numbers 1-5
* To use counting skills
* To match the correct number of candy corns to the corresponding written number

Materials:
* Candy Corn Printable from me :)
* Candy Corns

* Scissors

Procedure:

* Print and cut out the candy corn numbers.  We just used the numbers 1-5 to start with, but feel free to use whatever numbers your child is ready for.  Spread them out on the table.

* Help your child recognize the numbers and count out the correct number of candy corns for each one.

Lesson 2: Autumn Name Tree from The Kid's Activities Blog
Objectives:
* To learn the letters in your name
* To put those letters in the correct order

Materials:
* Large Piece of Paper (color of your choice)
* Construction Paper (Brown, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange)
* Scissors
* Glue

* Marker

Procedure:

* I saw this activity on The Kid's Activities Blog, but I changed it a little.

* Using the brown construction paper, cut out rectangles and glue them onto the larger piece of paper in the shape of a tree.  You should have the same number of branches on the tree as the number of letters in your child's name.

* Cut out leaves using the other fall colored construction paper and help your child write one letter from their name on each leaf.

* Mix up the leaves on the table, and have your child start gluing them on the tree in the right order.

* One thing I have done with both of my boys to help them learn to spell their names is to sing the letters in the tune of a song.  For example, for Tucker I sing the tune of Bingo. "There is a little boy I know, and Tucker is his name-o. T-U-C-K-E-R..."  There are lots of familiar songs that can be changed in this way.  Be creative!

Lesson 3: Pumpkin Pie Playdough
Objectives:
* To make pumpkin pie playdough using a specific recipe
* To follow the directions of the recipe
* To use measurement skills
* To use the fine motor skills involved with scooping, pouring, and kneading

Materials:
* 5-1/2 cups of flour
* 2 cups of salt
* 8 teaspoons of cream of tartar
* 1 spice container of pumpkin pie spice
* 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
* red and yellow food coloring to make orange
* 4 cups of water
* large pot
* large spoon

Procedure:

* Measure out each of the ingredients and mix them all together.  Put 2 parts yellow to 1 part red of food coloring in last.

* Stir the mixture over medium heat until the dough starts to form.  This will take about 10 minutes.  The dough will start to pull away from the sides when it is done.

* Place the dough on a floured board and kneed it until it's completely a playdough texture.  It should not be sticky or wet.

* Get out some cookie cutters and let your kiddos play!  This playdough smells really good, but it is definitely not tasty, so don't let your children eat it!  (I had to stop Tucker many times!)

* Store the playdough in a closed container, and it will keep for a long time.  This recipe makes a ton of dough which we will be giving to friends for Thanksgiving, but feel free to cut it in half.

Lesson 4: Fruit Loop Pumpkin
Objectives:
* To recognize and sort colors
* To create a pumpkin craft using Fruit Loops
* To use the fine motor skills involved with picking up small objects and gluing

Materials:
* Pumpkin Printable (I made it a little smaller)
* Fruit Loops
* Glue
* Scissors
* Construction Paper (any color)
* 3 sorting bowls (I just happened to have orange and green, but it's not necessary)

Procedure:

* Dump out a handle of Fruit Loops and have your child sort them into 3 categories, Orange, Green, and Others.

* Meanwhile print and cut out the pumpkin printable and glue it to a piece of construction paper.

* Let your child glue the orange fruit loops onto the body of the pumpkin and the green fruit loops onto the stem.



Tucker loved this, especially snacking on
the other colored fruit loops! :)













Lesson 5: Leaf Graph and Leaf Matching
Objectives:
* To sort and match corresponding leaves together
* To use counting skills to count the number of leaves in each group
* To learn what a bar graph is
* To graph the correct number of leaves for each category
* To analyze the data collected
* To learn what the terms most, least, greater than, and less than mean

Materials:
* Leaf Printable from me :)
* Graph Printable from me :)
* Crayons
* Scissors

Procedure:
* Print out the leaves and cut them out.  Mix them up and have your child match the corresponding leaves together.  Then let your child count the number of leaves in each category.

* Print out the graph and help your child color in the correct number of squares in each column according to the number of leaves in each category.

* Show your child how to analyze the data of the graph by pointing out the leaves that had the most and the least.  Talk about which numbers are greater than the others.

Books:

Extras:
* Acorn Craft from Kaboose
* Autumn Nature Walk and Hunt
* Fall Preschool Packs - Homeschool Creations, 3 Dinosaurs, 2 Teaching Mommies
* Autumn #1, Pumpkins, Apples, and Thanksgiving Themes from last year

Thoroughly Thoughtful Thursday: A Thankful November

Objectives:
* To understand what it means to be thankful
* To think of things we are thankful for and write them down
* To pray to God and thank Him for all of these things

Materials:
* Materials depend on the thankful project of your choice

Procedure:
Last year for November our family made a thankful tree.  Each day we all wrote down something we were thankful for and placed it on a branch of a decorative tree.  We loved this project so much that we are doing it again!  Here is my post from last Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving Tree

* Here is the first addition to our tree this year:

* There are lots of other ways you could display the things you are thankful for.  Here are some cute projects you could do with your family:

* Thankful Crafts from The Crafty Crow
* Another Thankful Tree from Motherhood Moments
* Thankful Turkey from Crafts For All Seasons
* Pumpkin Pie Spinner from Parents.com

Enjoy this month praising our Savior for the incredible blessings He gives us each and every day!

Thinking Theme: Thanksgiving

Letter Sound of the Week:  "Th"

Number of the Week:  # of people you are celebrating Thanksgiving with - we have 8

Bible Verse of the Week:  "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His Name." Psalm 100:4

Books:

Songs:
Great songs here at Preschool Education!
________________________________
Lesson 1: Thanksgiving Tree (from Pinterest)
Objectives:
* To understand what being thankful means
* To recognize the many blessings in our lives and why we are thankful for them
* To create a visual representation of our gratefulness for these blessings

Materials:
* construction paper
* circle punch if you have one
* hole punch
* pen/pencil
* tree to hang the circles on

Procedure:

1. Cut out lots of circles and punch a hole in the top of each one.  You will need one circle for each family member for every day in November.

2. Each day write things you are thankful for.  Talk about the blessings in your life and explain that we should give thanks to our Lord and Savior for the amazing things we have in our lives.

3. Each day hang the "thankful for" circles on a tree ( I just have a vase of branches that we used. You could also string them together and make a thanksgiving chain.)

4. Do this every day in November!

Lesson 2: Letters/Vocabulary of Thanksgiving (from 2 Teaching Mommies)
Objectives:
* To learn the story of the first Thanksgiving
* To use letters to represent specific Thanksgiving terms
* To recognize the sounds of each letter used
* To use the fine motor skills involved with drawing and cutting

Materials:
* printables from 2 Teaching Mommies
* crayons/markers
* scissors
* if you want to make a book: hole punch, construction paper, and ribbon

Procedure:

1. Print out the story pictures and have your child color each one.  Talk about the vocabulary words, emphasizing the beginning sounds and letters they start with. (*Note: I changed the "T" to "Th" since we are learning that specific sound.)

2. Place the cards in this order and tell your child the story of the first Thanksgiving, focusing on these terms.

3.  You can put the cards together with some construction paper and ribbon to make a Thanksgiving book if you'd like!

Lesson 3: Turkey Craft ( I combined this craft from Preschool Corner and this craft from Confessions of a Homeschooler.)
Objectives:
* To understand what a turkey is and the characteristics of this animal
* To spell the words "Thanks"
* To match same colors
* To create a turkey craft using the fine motor skills involved with cutting and gluing

Materials:
* multiple colors of construction paper
* foam letters if you have them
* empty toilet paper or paper towel roll if you have one
* scissors
* glue/tape
* googly eyes

Procedure:

1. Cut a circle out of brown construction paper.  This will be the face of the turkey.

2. Get a toilet paper or paper towel roll if you have one.  We didn't, so we rolled a piece of brown paper together and taped it.  Glue or tape the circle to the top of the roll, and set it aside.

3. Cut out 6 feather shapes using 6 different colors of  paper.  Have your child cut slits in each one to make it look more like feathers.

4. Using the same 6 colors, gather the letters that spell the word "Thanks", one color for each letter.  Have your child match the letter to the correct color feather. If you don't have foam letters, you can match the same color marker to the feathers and have your child write them on the paper.

5. Help your child place the feathers in the right order and glue/tape them to the roll.

6. Cut out a small yellow triangle for the beak and a small red rectangle for the waddle.  Glue these to the face of the turkey, along with 2 googly eyes.

* There are so many turkey crafts out there, but I thought this one was pretty cute!

Lesson 4: Thanksgiving Story and Bracelet (from Dr. Jean)
Objectives:
* To review the first Thanksgiving story
* To correlate colors with specific parts of the story in order to recall what happened
* To use the fine motor skills involved with threading beads

Materials:
* poem from Dr. Jean
* pipe cleaner
* white, blue, green, black, brown, red, yellow, and orange beads

Procedure:

1. Print out the Thanksgiving poem from Dr. Jean's website.  Read the story to your child, pausing at each color.  Allow them to place the bead on the pipe cleaner as you read about it.

2. Once you have finished reading, let your child wear it and review each color that represents the parts of the story!  Sawyer loved this, and wore his bracelet all day!

Lesson 5: Pilgrim Shape Craft (from 2 Teaching Mommies)
Objectives:
* To understand who a Pilgrim is and what a Pilgrim wore years ago
* To recognize specific shapes and use them to represent parts of the Pilgrim
* To use the fine motor skills involved with gluing and drawing

Materials:
* directions from 2 Teaching Mommies
* brown, black, white, yellow, and blue construction paper
* scissors
* glue
* markers

Procedure:

1. Before you start the lesson, pre-cut these shapes out as seen on the 2 Teaching Mommies website.

2. Call out the name of a shape, and have your child choose the correct one.  Then help them place the shapes together to make the Pilgrim.  Talk about the Pilgrims and the clothes that they wore.  You can look at different pictures online or in books for them to get a better understanding.

* Cute craft, and great shape recognition lesson!

Extra Thinking:
* Harvest File Folder Game (from File Folder Fun)

* Which is different? (from 2 Teaching Mommies)

* Setting the Table/Thanksgiving Cooking - This is a great way to get your child involved in the preparation of the big day!  Setting the table allows them to use the one-to-one corresponce concept in placing one of each item at each place on the table.  And, of course, cooking involves so many measuring and fine motor skills concepts.  Have fun preparing the feast with your kiddos!

* Thanksgiving Placemats - Let your child create a placemat to use for your Thanksgiving meal.  Here is the one Sawyer made at mother's day out: