Tt is for Turkey!

WAAAY back in the beginning of November, we started cutting out copies of our handprints. It was hard! Then, as we cut out a handprint each morning, we noticed something- our handprints were getting better and better, and it was easier and quick to cut out by the week before Thanksgiving. A little bit of practice, and WOW- look at the difference between first attempts and later days!! There's no doubt about it- practice really does help. Just like with writing, reading, and counting, the best way to get better is to practice for just a couple of minutes a day.

Of course, we didn't cut out all those handprints for nothing! Once we each had 14 of them, we made piles for each student with one handprint from each classmate. These all got put together into some very "Thankful for my Friends" turkeys for Thanksgiving.

We really enjoyed our Let's Find Out magazines this month too. With each magazine, we read the text together at a center or circle time, then work on the skills sheet together. Each issue also has several online resources: read along text, background information videos, Spanish versions, and games. We don't always use the supplemental videos and games in class, but enjoyed them this month for both our turkeys and colonial children issues. You can always check them out at home anytime you want at letsfindout.com.

 

 

Turkey Art! After reading Setting the Turkeys Free, we painted our own hands and pressed down for a bright handprint. After it dried, we added colorful feathers and sparkles to make some creative and glamorous turkeys for our bulletin board.

Oh no! When gobbling up all the corn, our turkey also gobbled up the capital letters. Using tongs and tweezers, we dug through the corn to find letters and match them up with the lowercase letters on our turkey mats.

Tt is not just for turkey, though! On Thursday, we had a lovely tea party with toast at one of our centers. We talked about table manners, and how to use words like "please", "thank you", "please pass the ___", etc. We also talked about being careful with special dishes, because sometimes we use these at holiday meals. After enjoying some hot tea with sugar (one lump or two?) and toast with butter and cinnamon, we each washed our own dishes in warm soapy water and dried them carefully so everything was ready for the next group. Not a single dish was dropped, or teacup spilled- we have careful kids with great manners!

The sugar cube dissolved away!

Other centers this week included pretend play with people and the Mayflower, trains and building with legos.

We finished up the week with our holiday program in the church. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our WIPP family!