Wild Turkeys live year-round in open forests with interspersed clearings in 49 states (excluding Alaska), parts of Mexico, and parts of southern Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, Canada.

Turkeys in northeastern North America use mature oak-hickory forests and humid forests of red oak, beech, cherry, and white ash.

They nest on the ground in dead leaves at the bases of trees, under brush piles or thick shrubbery, or occasionally in open hayfields.

To help us understand the world of the turkey, we created our very own turkey nests!

There are so many ways to strengthen pre-reading and pre-writing skills that have nothing to do with books or worksheets!

Young children can easily become frustrated with writing, because their gross motor skills are developing faster than their fine motor skills.

It is not until they turn five or six that they can truly master writing implements.

But… that doesn’t mean that they still can’t have fun with letters! In Miss Carrie’s class, we like to think outside of the box. For this activity your little ones were encouraged to read and write in a very special way.

Because our activities relate to a theme (in this case, Thanksgiving), we tend to keep them within certain parameters.

This particular week involved learning all about turkeys and the letter T. This was a two part activity. First, students were given play dough that they were told to roll into two separate rolls.

Then they connected each roll to form a T. Next, they placed feathers into the T. Lastly, they added feathers, googly eyes, and a pipe cleaner (for the beak) to create letter T turkeys!

Young children enjoy learning about how things work.

By participating in science activities, they are learning important critical thinking and observation skills.

These activities also promote their inherent sense of curiosity about the world.

For this activity we experimented with sinking and floating.

Using blocks and sails (toothpicks and paper), we recreated the Mayflower, and then placed them in water to observe whether they would sink or float.

It took a little time, but eventually everyone figured out how to balance their boats so that they would stay afloat!

The first house that Pilgrims built in America was called a Common House. It was used to store food and provisions.

During the first winter in America, it also served as a hospital. The construction of this building was simple. The Pilgrims first used logs and then sticks to make the walls.

Sand, clay, water and straw were then mixed together to cover the walls, and the roof was made of reeds and wild grasses.

Within a year after landing in America, the Pilgrims had built seven houses and four other buildings.  For this activity, your little one created this exciting structure using a variety of materials.

They were then given some pilgrims they used to recreate the story of its construction.

Young children love to create stories and scenarios that apply recently acquired knowledge. Their imaginative brains are constantly conceiving plots and characters for even the simplest of things. This tendency for creative story building can be incorporated into any curriculum.

Using turkey basters, plastic bowls, a plastic turkey, and colored water, we practiced moving water from one container to another!

This activity incorporated several developmental tasks.

It enabled your little one to formulate ideas based on quantity and space.

It also helped your little one improve coordination.

Lastly, by transferring the liquid among the different compartments, your little one was given the opportunity to estimate how much should be poured into each compartment so that the amounts were equal.

This was a two part activity.

Following the transfer of water into another container, each student then saturated a plastic turkey with water!

Hands-on learning is an integral component in early childhood education.

The manipulation and experimenting of materials provide a reference of learned concepts, and enables young children to construct meaningful experiences that aid their ability to commit new information to memory.

For this activity, your little one learned about shipbuilding in colonial America. To tie this in to our Thanksgiving theme, we discussed how the pilgrims sailed to the United States on a boat called the Mayflower.

They also learned that they were at sea for sixty-six days and landed at Plymouth Rock in the year 1620.

Using styrofoam blocks, blocks, small boxes, and “sails”, we created our own version of the Mayflower!

We then added small people as our pilgrims to supplement our play.