Let’s Talk Turkey

Thanksgiving is this week and as everyone knows we often refer to this day of giving thanks as “Turkey Day”.  This year before “Turkey Day” gather your students and talk about turkeys.  Ask children if they have ever seen a turkey.  Where was it?  What did it look like?  Talk about what turkeys look like and where they live and the difference between wild and domestic turkeys. 

Provide children with turkey feathers or other feathers to explore with a magnifier.  Listen to wild turkey gobbles and clucks at All About Birds: Wild Turkeys http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wild_Turkey/sounds

Then play “Follow the Turkey Leader”.  Baby Turkeys, called chicks or poults, follow the adult turkeys to stay safe and to learn.  Take turns having the kids be the adult turkey, the “leader”, and pretend to be a flock of turkeys looking for food in the woods.  This is a great outside game but can be played in the classroom.

To really get into the game let the kids make turkey hats for to wear!  For instructions visit Family Fun: Turkey Hat at http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/turkey-hat-663812/

For snack time make Teeny Turkeys http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/teeny-turkeys-688352/ or try turkey meat, compare light and dark meat, or eat like a turkey and make dried fruit and nut mix.

For more ideas and for snacks and crafts use Growing Up WILD’s “Terrific Turkeys”.

Book List

Arnosky, J. 2008. All About Turkeys. Scholastic, Inc.

Arnosky, J. 2009. I'm A Turkey! Scholastic, Inc.

Balian, L. 2003. Sometimes It's Turkey, Sometimes It's Feathers. Star Bright Books, Inc.

Bateman, T. 2004. A Plump and Perky Turkey. Marshall Cavendish, Inc.

Bloxam, F. and J. Sollers. 2005. Little Tom Turkey. Down East Books.

Johnston, T. and R.F. Deas. 2004. 10 Fat Turkeys. Scholastic, Inc.

May, J. and J. Hamberger. 1973. Wild Turkeys. Holiday House, Inc.

Patent, D.H. and W. Munoz. 1989. Wild Turkeys,Tame Turkey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade & Reference Publishers.

Spirn, M.S. and R.W. Alley. 2000. The Know-Nothings Talk Turkey (I Can Read Book 2). HarperCollins Children's Books.

Stemple, D. and T. Lewin. 2001. High Ridge Gobbler: A Story of the American Wild Turkey. Boyds Mills Press.

Steinberg, D. and L. Conrad. 2005. The Turkey Ball. Penguin Group (USA).