Counting is fun, counting candy is even more fun!  This is a great thanksgiving themed math activity that promotes ” Checking your work” something that not only encourages kids to slow down ( something my son needs when doing tasks) but it also builds independence and confidence. Amazingly it wasn’t my kids who ate the candy after this activity was done… I can’t help it candy corn is so yummy! If you are not a fan of using candy for activities you can easily substitute pom poms or pony beads for the candy or make a turkey like the craft that inspired this activity.

1. Gather your materials. I used a cheap cookie sheet with raised edges to keep the candy corn contained . Also some brown and green construction paper, scissors, tape and a marker. Oh and of course some candy corn.
2. Start by cutting out the green husks. Please remember perfection is not the point, I don’t have time to spare and know you don’t either.
3. Cut out the ear of corn.
4. Tape to the cookie sheet.
5. Add numbers. Try to add some easy and some more challenging. If it’s too easy it’s boring, too hard and frustration sets in, either way learning falls flat.
6. Add the corn!
7. Check your work.
8. Next I flipped the husks over and wrote new numbers on, I added the corn and my son checked my work. I purposely made mistakes on two of the ears, and asked him how to fix them. He subtracted on one and added to the other. It was a great add on to a simple counting activity. I will be doing more “fix my math” activities in the near future because he loved that.

This is not a new craft, hand print turkey crafts in their many varriations are everywhere and they should be , they are classic and simply a part of childhood!  This one is adapted for toddlers to make them active participants in the creation of the craft. You can often adapt craft projects meant for older children to a toddler’s ability by using different tools, fewer steps ( less detail) and removing small pieces that may be dangerous.  Also I find with messy crafts like this using a booster that allows you to belt your child in is useful, not to force them in any way to do the craft ( which should not happen) but rather to keep them in one safe place after they have messy hands. No one is calm if their child is making a beeline for the couch with hands covered in paint. This way we can focus on the activity not the mess.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a toilet paper ( or paper towel roll), a paper grocery bag or craft paper, paint, a plastic basting brush and plastic plate, glue , scissors and googly eyes* I used googly eyes because my daughter doesn’t mouth them. If you read my posts from 2008 you will see I never used them when my son was this age, because they would go in his mouth immediately. I still watched her like a hawk and only brought them out when it was time to glue. If your child is like my son , just draw the eyes on like I did with the nose.
2. Cut open the bag and tape it to the table. I love doing this for toddler art , it’s a drop cloth and project all at once.
3. Start by tracing their hands 3-5 times on the bag. We did 4 and as you may be able to tell that was not easy. If your child is really resistant trace one hand on a cereal box or other scrap paper then cut it out and use that for a template. Don’t upset them before they even get to make a mess !
4. Time to paint, add multiple colors on the plate.
5. See why I used a plastic plate?
6. Also this brush she is using is a plastic basting brush. I chose it because the bristles are sturdy silicone and have never ripped off despite effort to tear it. It’s also big enough for clumbsy toddler fists to paint with.
7. Expect them to use their hands , although I should mention some kids at this age start showing a real aversion to getting things on their hands , don’t force them to “relax” , instead offer a wet wash cloth to wipe anything off, and support their play even if it’s not what you expected. Many kids don’t like messy play.
8. Cut the roll in half. Draw a nose or rather beak for the turkey.
9. Roll the roll in the paint.
10. Let dry ( I cleaned up the mess while singing to her and giving the roll a minute to dry ). Add glue to the roll. Help your child place the eyes on the glue.
11. Let the handprints dry and cut out.
12. Add glue to the roll and place the cut out hands on the back as turkey feathers. Tip: Use a clothes pin to hold them in place until the glue dries.
13. Add this to your holiday mantle.

Stores may already have winter holiday decorations out, but fall is not over with. There is so much more time to enjoy it. Here is a fun way to incorporate learning, crafting, and turkeys. Yep, turkeys.

You will need some construction paper, glue, scissors, and markers. For a reusable (and glue-free) version of this activity use felt instead of construction paper.

Trace circles onto brown construction paper. I used a drinking glass to trace. Make a circle for each number you would like to use in this activity.

Cut out the circles and glue them onto smaller sheets of colored paper. At this point you could have your child cut and glue. I prepared all of mine ahead of time because this activity was done simultaneously with 9 children and only me. Draw little wings, feet, and turkey heads on. At the top write the number for each sheet.

Now cut out lots of feathers in an array of colors.

Now your child can read the number (or count the dots) and set out how many feathers need to be glued onto the turkey.

Let your child start gluing away. With so many small children and just me, I used glue sticks.

Have them count out the feathers to make sure they have the correct amount. Then they can be a silly turkey themselves.

This is a fun activity that helps number recognition, counting, colors, sorting, you can even do the feathers in a pattern, motor skills, and is just plain fun.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It

My son was born on Thanksgiving and I want him to know the origins of this holiday but it’s so hard to get to the heart of it and stay historically accurate. I broke down the major points from England to what is refered to as the 1st Thanksgiving in this active exploration of history. My son loved walking across the living room on his adventure from England to Thanksgiving.  Kids can handle the facts we don’t have to omit  all the unpleasant parts , just make it appropriate to their level.  The book suggestion below is by far the best historically accurate Thanksgiving picture book I have ever read. Do not miss it!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some cardstock, a marker, a hole punch, scissors and some string.
2. Write out the facts in chronological order – one per page.  This is how I broke it down for my son who is almost 5. Click the link to see our timeline and discussion questions we used. Feel free to print the timeline, it’s yours to use as a guide or word for word.
3. Place the pages face down in order in a path , the pumpkins and yam at the end are optional. Making it a physical path is deliberate, seeing it laid out like than and having to move along it helps children learn that there are many parts of the journey and the pilgrims didn’t just leave England and then a few days later sat down for a thanksgiving feast. It was a long journey with lots of events.
4. Flip and read.
5. I wrote the answers to the discussion questions on the back but this is optional and I would probably not do it like that again, it broke up the game too much even though I like having them in the final book. Do what works for you.
6. Keep going! My son loved this and kept saying ” Let’s flip the next one!” and ” We are almost at Thanksgiving! ”
7. By asking your children the discussion questions you will put a bit of them into history and help make very old news exciting and relatable. Accept any answer, but feel free to ask them why? or to explain more. Kids are just like most of us who love to share our ideas so don’t rush. I loved hearing my son’s answers and even more I loved seeing him thnk about what he was going to say before he did.
8. We didn’t die of scurvy hooray!!
9. We made it to Thanksgiving, it was not an easy journey.
10. Gather the cards in order, give the book a title,  punch holes. Use string to tie together ( binder rings would work great too!).
11. Draw a picture on the cover. 
12. Read the book again at bedtime or after dinner sometime to talk with other family members about it and share the lesson.

I really hope that this lesson translates into a post because my son learned so much . After dinner we read the book to my husband and my son remembered so many of the important details he would finish the sentance without looking at the book.  Writing a tutorial for it is hard because different levels of comprehension necessitates different facts to share/ teach.  The trick is to choose the facts you want to teach, then break it down. Elaborate for curious older kids and make it even more basic for less interested and younger children.

The BEST  Thanksgiving Book

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation (Time-Traveling Twins) by Diane Stanley . I can’t  say enough good things about this book, but I will try. The story starts with a time traveling grandmother who takes her grand kids back to the Plymouth plantation days before what is often called the 1st Thanksgiving. My son was hooked on this book with the revelation of the time traveling and I loved that it put all the common myths surrounding Thanksgiving and the pilgrims to the forefront and included the true history without wrecking any cherrished views of this beloved holiday. The book is long as it should be in order to go into the depth of what life was like for the Pilgrims and how they learned with help of the local Native Americans how to survive in this new land. While reading it to my son I was so happy to hear him say ” I learned that today , that’s in my book!” to many of the text.  I am buying this book tonight, and returning it to the library in hope of many other families being able to read and love it as much as we did. 

This craft is fast to set up and fun. It can be easily modified depending of the supplies you have on hand, too. Plus, nothing says fall like Indian Corn.

You will need a piece of paper (I used construction paper), self adhesive craft foam, scissors, and a marker. You can use non0adhesive craft foam or even construction paper. You will just need to have some glue, too.

Draw a shape that generally resembles an ear of corn. No artistic ability is needed, as you can see. Then draw so horizontal lines inside the ear of corn.

Cut the foam into small squares. It does not have to be exact, just the general size of the space between your lines that you drew inside the ear of corn.

Let your child start sticking away! There is no rhyme or reason to this. You can encourage them to keep the pieces in the rows you drew. You could also use this craft to explore color patterns. We chose to just make the colors random. I did instruct them to try their best to keep the squares in the rows.

This craft was great for fine motor skills. Little fingers had to peel the sticker backs off. If you are using regular foam or construction paper, just make a line of glue inside the row and have you child affix the squares. I would suggest doing just one row at a time.

Once you are done, you have a genuine ear of Indian corn.

_________________________________________________________________________________