Construction paper turkeys are a great way to decorate your rooms during the season of Thanksgiving, but there are other activities you can do with them! As I was making turkeys out of construction paper with my boys, I realized that with these few simple pieces you can extend your decoration to three different activities.
The Thankful Turkey
I wrote down a couple of things I was thankful for on the feathers of my turkey and had a nice conversation with my boys about what they were thankful for. They apparently were thankful for treats, their grandparents, their monkey and bear (stuffed animals) and for daddy. I made sure they included their mom in the mix!
The Counting Turkey
I labeled several turkeys with different numbers and my boys stuffed the number of feathers that they turkey was labeled with between the head and the body. I glued down the bottom of the neck and wings to the body so the boys can remove the feathers when they're done and play again! I've also seen people attach their feathers to clips which makes the feathers reusable for each of the turkeys.
Here's an alternative way to do the Counting Turkey Activity:
And if you want to go deeper into math, try this activity!
You can line up your turkeys with each of them holding a number. Give out feathers with expressions on it and have your students stick the feather into the turkey holding the equivalent number. You can have it as simple as just addition to using all four operations. You can write out the factors on each feather and have the turkeys hold the number that the feathers are factors of.
The Shapes Of A Turkey
My favorite activity is making different animals out of geometric shapes. Those activities show my boys that intricate shapes and characters can be made by putting together simpler shapes! In this activity, we talk about the geometric shapes and properties of each shape as we are building the turkey. This is a good way to start a conversation using math vocabulary and get our kids familiar with math terms and usage!
For older kids, you can talk about area and perimeter of each shape. You can discover what happens to the areas and circumferences of the circles when you change the diameter. How much construction paper do you need to make the turkey? How many feathers can we cut from one sheet of paper? Can we make two triangles from a square? Ask your child these questions to get them to think mathematically about their craft!
Have fun making turkeys with your kids and remember to reflect on all the things you are thankful for!
