Turkey Windsocks

Here's a simple project to make a decoration for above your dining room table for Thanksgiving. You just need different colors of construction paper and crepe paper. We also used a turkey head coloring sheet,

but it would look really cute with a head made out of construction paper. You could even trace your child's foot! Anyway, I cut out three different sized "feathers" that looked like they were spread out.

The kids glued the medium sized feathers to the large feathers, and then glued the small feathers to the medium feathers.

Then they glued 3 different colors of crepe paper streamers onto a strip of brown construction paper. (I had cut the paper into thirds.)

Then I rolled up the strip of brown paper, stapled it closed, then stapled it to the group of feathers. Then I stapled the turkey head on.

I hung them from the ceiling with our roly poly turkeys.

I will send them home next week so the kids can use them as decoration for Thanksgiving.

**Linking up to Show-n-Share Saturday, TGIF Linky Party, and Crafty Moms Share!**

Turkey Display

I saw this adorable bulletin board here and just had to copy it. Each child disguised a turkey by putting it in a costume. First, I had them color a turkey,

then I asked them what costume they wanted. I drew the basic stuff, nothing major. This was for a princess:

This was for a mermaid:

And this was for a witch:

Then the kids colored the costumes using crayons.

I cut everything out (and cut off the turkey feathers for a better fit) and they glued the costume to their turkey.

Then I had a few of the kids make signs telling people to eat something else.

I displayed them in the hall with the title, "No turkeys here!"

Maybe it's the vegetarian in me, but I just love this! Our other costumes were an octopus, a spider, a lion, Batman, a turtle, a ghost, and a cheetah. I think it would have been fun to send the turkeys home and have the kids make disguises with their parents and then bring them back to school, but there's always one or two families that don't seem to do "homework" and I didn't want anyone left out. I only had ten costumes to make, so it wasn't so bad.

Kangaroo Snack Cups

After discussing the letter K today and learning about kangaroos, we made a kangaroo craft. I've done a kangaroo craft in the past, and I could have done it again because I have a different group of kids, but I wanted to do something new. So I searched around online and came across a craft from Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities. You can check out that link to find the complete instructions. She used her kangaroo cup for a flower and I thought it would work for a snack. So I took her pattern, but made the legs a little smaller because I was using dixie cups. I also cut everything out of paper instead of craft foam. I was just using what I already had available.

Each kid took one set of legs, one head, two ears, two arms, and two wiggle eyes. They used crayons to color all the body parts and then glued it together.

I used glue dots to glue the legs to the cup and to glue the stick to the inside of the cup.

We did try painting the dixie cups, but they got all mushy and kind of gross, so we ended up just using plain cups. I like the polka dots! I do think a bigger cup would look better, but I already had the dixie cups on hand for a different project. I also had some left over bags of fish crackers from trick-or-treating (I like to give crackers instead of candy to the wee little ones), so I put a bag in each "pouch."

I think they turned out pretty cute!

Fun Fact: A big kangaroo can leap up to 25 feet in one bound!

Roly Poly Turkeys

We started making Thanksgiving crafts today, and first up was a roly poly turkey!

We started with this:

A long brown rectangle cut from construction paper, a yellow "head and neck", a beak, some feathers, and wiggle eyes stuck to glue dots. The kids glued some feathers onto one end of the rectangle.

Then I rolled up the rectangle and stapled it.

The kids put eyes, a beak, and a snood (drawn with a marker) on the turkey face.

They were then glued to the rolled bodies.

They now hang from the ceiling with our turkey windsocks!

**Linking up to No Time For Flashcards and The Sunday Showcase!**

YAH: Deployment Homecoming Ideas

(Picture taken the morning Dan deployed.)

In honor of Veterans' Day yesterday, I thought I'd show you a few things I made for my husband when he came back from his year-long deployment to Iraq. (If you've read my More About Me page you know we actually got married when he was home on his two-week leave.) But before I get to those, I want to share how I counted down the year. I knew counting the days would be too much for me, so instead I counted down the weeks. Fifty-two weeks seemed like nothing compared to 365 days. For Valentine's Day, 2009, Dan bought me a clock that had to be wound once a week.

It chimed every 15 minutes. I loved that. Every time it chimed, I would smile and think of him. Anyway, he made a little chart in the card and every time I wound it I would put an X in a box. After 52 X's, he'd be home! He left exactly one week later, so the very first time we wound it together and put the first X in. Once it got closer to his homecoming, I decided I could count down the days. So I made this game board and hung it on the wall at the bottom of the stairs.

The only reason I made it bright green and bright pink was because that's what I already had in my closet. But after I made it, I was glad I used such bright colors. I drew the path and cut out pink squares and triangles from poster board. Then I printed a bunch of army-themed clip art from a greeting card software program I have. I glued those all over the game board.

Then I used a picture of Dan's face and put it on the body of a cartoon soldier.

This was my game piece that I moved along the path. (I used that sticky blue stuff to keep it on the board.) Every morning when I woke up, I'd come down the stairs and move him one more space closer to home. And the best part was he came home about 1 week early, so toward the end I got to "jump ahead 8 spaces!"

OK, now onto the surprises I made for him. The first one was a banner that I had planned on hanging outside off the garage. Because it was winter, I knew I'd need something sturdy. (If it had been summer, I would have just used regular paper.) So I looked online and found cheap banners at Oriental Trading. I was worried about the quality, because their stuff is so cheap, but I was completely satisfied with what I got. I ordered a red vinyl banner and got it personalized.

It was nothing fancy, but I was still so happy with it. After receiving it in the mail, I added some pictures of us that I laminated. The day before Dan was to come home, I went outside to hang it up. Well, that nasty winter wind blew it down in 2 seconds. I ended up hanging it inside on the fireplace, under the clock he bought for me a year earlier.

I also made a candy bar card. This turned out so cool, but was a bit of work. I bought two big black foam boards from Michaels and taped them together to make a card. Then I bought all kinds of candy bars and printed out words on my computer and taped it all on the boards.

The hardest part was finding candy bars that fit with what I wanted to say. I found most in stores around town, but some I had to order online. It's amazing what you can find! The candy bar names weren't always perfect (plural when I needed singular, for example), but I think it worked out fine.

Over the next couple of months, we ate almost all the candy off the card! Well, wouldn't you?

Jaguar Puppets

We discussed the letter J today, so I taught the kids all about jaguars. Then we used brown paper lunch bags to make puppets. I cut out a bunch of "spots" from brown paper, then cut out some ears and tails.

First the kids drew on a face with markers. Then they glued on the spots.

On the flip side, they glued on more spots, plus the ears and the tail.

They also drew in some sharp teeth under the flap.

During circle time, I had told the kids that one way to tell the difference between jaguars and leopards is by their spots, which are called rosettes. Jaguars have spots inside their rosettes. Here is a picture of a real jaguar to show you what I mean. (Source: Animal Corner)

Aren't they beautiful animals? Anyway, back to the puppet. The kids used markers to make spots inside the spots that they glued on.

Now it's a "true" jaguar.

Fun Fact: Jaguars are the real "king of the jungle." (That's right. Lions don't live in jungles.) They have powerful jaws and can kill in one bite. Sadly, these beautiful animals are endangered.

Class Cookbooks

When we talked about healthy foods last week, I decided to make a class cookbook. I asked each child to contribute one recipe to our book. Some had a hard time coming up with something, others didn't. Here's one of the recipes:

Chocolate Cake
5 sprinkles
2 birthday sticks
fire (a little)
1 piece of cheese
2 pieces of chicken
3 pieces of broccoli

Mix it together. It turns into chocolate cake. Don't put it in the oven or it will melt! Put sprinkles and birthday sticks on top and then light the fire.

Here's another:

Pineapple Shake
Pineapple (lots of pieces)
2 cups water
1 bottle pineapple juice

Just mix it and bake it in the microwave for 7 minutes. Then add a straw and drink it.

And one more:

Mac & Cheese
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
Mac & cheese taste (the makers make it)

Put everything in a bowl and mix it up. Cook it in the oven at 5 degrees for a couple minutes. Then eat it!

These are obviously not funny to the kids...yet. The parents will get a kick out of them. Anyway, this is how I put the book together. I googled for a cooking coloring sheet or clip art and found something perfect. Then I added "My Class Cookbook" to the cover.

The kids wrote their names in the banner. I put two recipes on every page.

Once I stapled all the pages and the cover together, the kids just colored the picture.

Hopefully the parents will hang onto them until their child is grown. My kindergarten teacher did this for my class and someone brought the recipe book to school when we were seniors in high school. It was hilarious!