Here’s how to paint and play this math game!  

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Painted Rainbow Math Counters with Acorns

This rainbow activity pairs well with the book is A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman. In the story a small boy imagines what it would be like to have his own rainbow to play with.

We’re going to do just that with our painted math counters! This Math Games Activity will focus on skills your child will need for Kindergarten plus some fine motor skills too.

So read the story and join along and try out a few of our rainbow themed activities for kids.

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman

LISTEN to the story on Youtube 

Materials for Painted Rainbow Math Counters 

• 10 colors of paint from the rainbow
• small plastic counter
• paper towels
• acorns (shells or small rocks or large seeds would work too)
• paint brush (optional)
• book: A Rainbow of My Own

Directions for Painted Rainbow Math Counters

1. Read the story A Rainbow of My Own with your child. Discuss different ways to create your very own rainbow.

2. Collect 100 of one object. We used acorns for ours since there seemed to be an abundance of them around a park we had visited near the 100th day of school. You can use any object thought to paint.  Small rocks, sea shells, large seeds etc.

The math skill we’re first working on is grouping objects into groups of ten to make ten groups to make 100.

3. Once you’ve collected all of your acorns or objects from your nature walk it’s time to sort them out into group of ten. Place each group of ten acorns onto its own paper towel. Each group of ten gets it’s own color in the rainbow.

You must be thinking hmmmm rainbows only have 7 colors so how do we get to 10 colors? This is where we add a little science fun by sharing how to add white to colors to make them different shades of the same color.

4. Now it’s time for some painting fun in a unique way! Add a drop of paint into your plastic counter. Put the lid onto the container making sure it’ snapped on tight and sealed! Now tell your child to SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE!

To get to make all sorts of movement and noise shaking the acorns all around the container to cover them completely with paint.

5. You can now remove the lid with your child and roll the acorns onto the paper towel you’ve laid down for each of the groups of ten acorns.

Allow them to dry here on the paper towel.

6. Continue this process for each of the colors you’ve selected for your painted rainbow math counters.

I used paper towels to wipe out the container each time we switched colors. It was a good lesson for us to pick colors made from the same color when mixing to choose which color to do next.

By the end of the process, my little one wondered if it was more effective to shake the painted math counters so I let her test out her theory. We both found that shaking to paint the math counters was much more effective to get 100 Acorns painted in a short period of time.

Five Rainbow Math Games for Preschoolers

GAME ONE: Color Sorting

Have your child sort the colors that they’ve painted. This is teaching how to sort by attributes, a math skill that most Kindergarten curriculum start with.

GAME TWO: Rainbow One to One Correspondence

Place the painted rainbow math counters out for your child to select and draw circles with corresponding colors. Ask your child to take the counters to make one-to-one onto the circles for them.

GAME THREE: Rainbow Numbers

Write down the numbers 1 to 10 on a large piece of paper or even with chalk on your sidewalk. Ask your child to sort the acorns out by putting one red acorn on the number 1. Two acorns on the number 2.

GAME FOUR: Colors of the Rainbow Pattern 

Have your child place the painted rainbow math counters into a rainbow pattern. If they need a little help you can create a copy pattern using additional counters or just draw out 7 circles and color them in for your child to make up to. This is great for one-to-one correspondence and fine motor skills too.

GAME FIVE: Rainbow Patterning with Warm Colors and Cool Colors

Start talking about warm colors and cool colors with your preschooler by sorting out the painted math counters into groups of these colors. Then ask your child to create a pattern with one or the other.

Looking for more acorn activities for kids? Take a looks at these…

BONUS GAME: COLOR WORD SIGHT WORD GAME Check out one of our favorite rainbow games

There are so many adorable Rainbow books for preschoolers to enjoy with our theme this week!  They each would go perfectly with our Rainbow Themed Activities on The Educators’ Spin On It.  My personal favorite is What Makes a Rainbow. Have you read it with your child yet?

Rainbow Themed Books for Preschoolers

A Rainbow of My Own by Don Freeman
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
The Rainbow Book by Kate Ohrt
Curious George Discovers a Rainbow by H.A. Rey
What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schartz and Dona Turner
Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell
Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee
How the Crayons Saved the Rainbow by Monica Sweeney and Feronia Parker-Thomas
Over the Rainbow by Judy Collins and E.Y. Harburg
My Color is My Rainbow by Agnus Hsu
The Story of the Kindness Elves by Anna Ranson
Penguins Love Colors by Sarah Aspinal
Mix It Up by Herve Tullet

You can visit our VBC Facebook Group to Print this Rainbow Book List.

Our Virtual Book Club for Kids Cohosts have created so many FUN RAINBOW ACTIVITIES just for you.  Click on the links below to check them out!!

RAINBOW THEMED ACTIVITIES FOR PRESCHOOLERS

• Rainbow Alphabet Activity- Growing Book by Book
• Easy Rainbow Name Craft- Toddler Approved 
• 5 Math Games using Painted Rainbow Counters – The Educators’ Spin On It 
• How to make rainbow spaghetti – Sensory play for kids -Messy Little Monster
• Find the Unicorn Rainbow Sensory Bin – Inspiration Laboratories
• Taste Safe Rainbow Sensory Play – Adventures and Play
• Preschool Color Activities – Roll and Cover Rainbow
• Awesome Rainbow Experiments for Kids- Teach Beside Me
• Construction Paper Rainbow Craft from The Moments at Home
• Mixing Colors to Make a Rainbow – Mama Smiles
• CVC Word Family Rainbow Puzzles – Sea of Knowledge
• Rainbow Words – Rainy Day Mum
• Rainbow Preschool Music Craft & Song – Preschool Powol Packets

Want more? Get our list of Colorful Rainbow Books for Kids.

We’ll be sharing many more rainbow themed activities all week long over in our Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids Facebook Group if you want to join and participate.

For more fall activities for kids you may also enjoy…

Affiliate Links Included in this article. I received a copy of the three Harvest books courtesy of Lee and Low Publishing. All of my thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. #LOVEdiverseBOOKS

Rainbow Stew Book and Sibling Activity

One of our favorite harvest books this month is Rainbow Stew. Rainbow Stew is a delightful tale about a group of children and their Grandpa harvesting colorful vegetables from the garden in the rain to make stew for supper. The illustrations are fun and the words make you want to be in the garden picking vegetables too!

Although this picture book is geared for kindergarten – 2nd graders, but my Preschooler and Toddler enjoyed it at well. Read more about the book here

Because I have THREE kids – ages 2, 5, and 8, I wanted a harvest activity that all three kids can do together. Making and playing with felt food is something all ages can do. (Even I enjoy it!!!!) The preschooler and grade schooler can cut and hand stitch the food together and they all can play in the pretend kitchen afterward.

We don’t usually use a tutorial when making felt food, rather make the shape of the vegetable and stitch it together on the outsides with a leaf or stem if needed. See the picture below of the ones that the kids and I have made.

Rainbow Stew Felt Food Tutorials and Inspiration from Around the Web

• Cucumbers – Blurt Blogger
• Peas – Bread and Buttons
• Kale (Just make this lettuce a little more frilly) – One Inch World
• Beans – Craftiness is Not Optional
• Spinach 
• Zucchini 

Yellow Peppers – Art Threads
Purple Cabbage 
Red Radish – Made While Wearing Heals
Red Tomatoes – One Inch World

Brown Potatoes – My felt Friends
Orange Carrots – Sun Shiny Days
Purple Eggplant – Made While Wearing Heals

After making some vegetables, then encourage your children to make a pretend rainbow stew with the felt food!

Use vocabulary such as: harvest, ingredients, simmer,  heaping, and serve.

“Peel, slice, chop, and dice, colors fill the pot.”

***Moms note: If you don’t have a little kitchen already, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my Red Retro Kitchen and can’t speak highly enough about it!   It’s 8 years old and still in great shape!

Companion Text for Siblings Harvest Theme Reading

Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico!: America’s Sproutings was my 8 year olds favorite harvest book this month.  I love the way it combined a haiku with a short non-fiction text on the native to the Americas fruit, vegetable, or nut, making it the perfect literacy teaching tool for the month. It is a great text to read for a variety of purposes.  I would even encourage older children to try their creativity at selecting a harvest fruit or vegetable and writing their own haiku and illustrating it.  Read more about the book here.

Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic is geared for middle to upper grade school children.  It is a book with longer text that tells the story of a Chinese family in Chicago finding a soy bean field and the start to their annual Soybean picnic. My kids like to read, so the older two enjoyed it, but it was WAY to long for the toddler! He climbed off my lap right away. I like that it told the story of another families start to a fantastic tradition.  Read more about the book here.

Rainbow Stew Felt Food Activity Extension:

Take a virtual field trip around the world to see diverse crops being harvested. Compare and contrast the methods for growing and harvesting.

Want more? Get our list of Colorful Rainbow Books for Kids.

You may also enjoy these activities with your child…

Here’s how to kickstart this simple 30 day gratitude challenge!

What are thankful prompts for kids?

One way to encourage children to observe the world around them and teach gratitude is by creating a gratitude journal together. This collection of writing prompts will help your child reflect on family, friends and their community to find all the things they are grateful for in their daily lives.

This gratitude challenge is a thoughtful way to connect and bond together with your child and their world. It makes for a sweet keepsake as well this holiday season.

Here are 30 questions to encourage gratitude in kids.

30 Gratitude Prompts for Kids

1. What is the best thing that happened to you today?
2. Who is your favorite person and why?
3. What is your favorite thing about school?
4. What is something that makes you happy?
5. Who makes you feel loved and how?
6. Name a friend and describe what makes them special to you.
7. What is your favorite toy?
8. Where is your favorite place to go?
9. Who makes you feel loved and how?
10. Describe one of your favorite memories this year.
11. What is your favorite thing about your home?
12. What was the last gift you received?
13. What is your favorite thing to do for fun?
14. What is something you use every day?
15. What skill are you most thankful for?
16. What is something that smells nice to you?
17. What is something nice your parents do for you?
18. What do you love about each family member?
19. What do you enjoy eating?
20. What is your favorite time of day?
21. Describe where you like to visit the most?
22. What is your favorite animal?
23. What is your favorite thing about your room?
24. What is your favorite song?
25. What accomplishment are you proud of?
26. What family tradition is your favorite?
27. What was your favorite trip?
28. Describe something that makes you laugh.
29. Describe a time someone was kind to you.
30. What are you most thankful for?

You made it! 30 Gratitude Prompts for kids to answer and explore more about themselves and the things that they are grateful for in their lives.

I used each of these prompts to create a printable gratitude journal for your child. The quickest way to raise thankful kids is to practice journaling!

Part of focusing on gratitude can help your child practice mindfulness for kids while developing inner calm, focus, and emotional resilience.

Printable Gratitude Prompts for Kids

You can use these Printable Gratitude Journaling Pages for Kids to get started!

These simple 30 Gratitude Challenges are purposefully not labeled by number or put into a calendar format so that your child can pick and choose from the list to describe things they grateful for.

To take this gratitude challenge a step further, as a family, I’d encourage you at the dinner table each day, name three new things that you’re grateful for. No repeats and no skipped days. On days when you can’t think of three things, dig deep.

Dinner Table Gratitude Cards

You can use these printable dinner table gratitude cards to help with this gratitude activity.

Did you know that there are ways to teach kids gratitude with mindfulness? Traditional yoga intrinsically has a set of morals that can inspire us to live a life of gratitude, self-love, and caring for others (among other things).

Gratitude Journal for Kids

Here’s a look at the pages includes in this gratitude journal for kids. We’ve included prompts, response pages, weekly, daily and month journal sheets to pick and choose what you want to do together.

This gratitude journal contains 26 printable pages for your child.

• 30 Gratitude Prompts
• 10 Gratitude Journal Pages
• 9 Dinner Table Gratitude Card Pages
• Gratitude Quotes for Kids
• Monthly Journal
• Weekly Journal
• Daily Gratitude Journal
• Gratitude Outline for art

You can print multiple sets to continue your gratitude journaling throughout the year.

BUY NOW for $3.99!

Gratitude Activities for Kids

As we focus on gratitude, here are a few craft ideas for sharing gratitude and thankfulness for your child.

Work on household chores and create a new way of Teaching Gratitude at Home with Your Child while getting your house ready for holiday guests.

Decorate the house with this easy DIY Thankful Banner Idea for Kids.

Create a Magnetic Thankful Tree to display in your home for Thanksgiving.

Here is a set of Kindness Elves Free Printables to inspire your family for a celebration of kindness and giving to others.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.

Gratitude Books for Kids

Here are some books that are focused on gratitude to include in your bedtime storytime this month as you take the 30 Day Gratitude challenge.

• I Am Thankful by Sheri Wall
• Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
• We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell
• Namaste Is a Greeting by Suma Subramaniam
• The Grumbles: A Story about Gratitude by Tricia Goyer and Amy Parker
• Gratitude is My Superpower by Alicia Ortego
• The Gratitude Jar by Katrina Liu
• Apple Cake: A Gratitude by Dawn Casey
• A Very Thankful Prayer: A Fall Poem of Blessings and Gratitude by Bonnie Rickner Jensen
• The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud
• Being Thankful by Mercer Mayer
• Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
• The Thank You Letter by Jane Cabrera
• The Thank You Book by Mary Lyn Ray
• When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree by Jamie L.B. Deenihan
• God Gave Us Thankful Hearts by Lisa Tawn Bergren
• The Giving Snowman by Julia Zheng
• The Fig Tree: A Lesson in Gratitude by Heather Lonczak
• A World of Gratitude by Claire Saunders
• Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
• The World Needs the Wonder You See by Joanna Gaines (Jan 2025)

Explore our list of the best Gratitude Books for Kids! You may also find this heartwarming collection of Kindness books helpful too!

Gratitude Challenge for Kids

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The ultimate list of Thanksgiving projects for elementary students!

There’s something very special about taking the time to make a few turkey crafts with your kids for Thanksgiving.

No matter what your child’s age is it’s fun to treasure those special growing handprints and share moments of gratitude together. Our magnetic thankful tree is a great place to start!   

We’ve gathered 40 Thanksgiving Ideas from some of our favorite kids Bloggers just in time for you to do a few with your child before Thanksgiving. They include fun ideas for Writing, Gifts, Printables, Crafts, Math, Books, Cooking, Gratitude Projects and more! 

One of our Thanksgiving favorites is our collection of Turkey Learning Games and Activities. Start off your month of gratitude with this Turkey Gift Idea inspired by your child’s turkey artwork.

We love treasure hunts at our house, here’s a fun printable Thanksgiving scavenger hunt.

Thanksgiving Books for Kids

Thanksgiving Activities for School Ages 

• 10 Ways to Celebrate Thanksgiving from Let’s Lasso the Moon 
• Black Glue Turkey Art Project by I Heart Crafty Things
• Egg Carton Turkey from School Time Snippets 
• Felt Board Turkey Feather Matching from Teach Beside Me
• Free Turkey Printables and Montessori Themed Activities from Living Montessori Now 
• Fruit Turkey Snack from JDaniel4’s Mom 
• Gratitude Banner with Leaves from To Be a Kid Again
• Gratitude Tree  from Kids Activities Blog 
• Gratitude Turkey Gift Idea from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Gratitude Turkey with Thankful Feathers from The Educators’ Spin On It 

• Gratitude Activities to Do with Kids from Buggy and Buddy
• Great Thanksgiving Books from KC Edventures 
• Handmade Turkey Puzzle from KC Edventures 
• Helping Kids Show Their Gratitude from Kids Activities Blog 
• I Am Thankful for you Book from The Stay at Home Mom Survival Guide 
• Indian Corn from School Time Snippets
• Kids Cornucopia Snack from B-Inspired Mama 
• Making Turkey T-shirts with Kids from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Mason Jar Turkey Craft by Premeditated Leftovers
• Multicultural Thanksgiving Books from What Do We Do All Day 
• November Playful Learning Checklist from Playdough to Playto

• November Printables from Trilliem Montessori 
• November Table Topics from Growing Book by Book 
• November Writing Prompts from This Reading Mama
• Popcorn Thank You Turkeys from Toddler Approved 
• Printable Thankful Journal School Time Snippets 
• Simple Gratitude Tree from Mama Smiles 
• Standing Fruit Turkey Snack from Coffee Cups and Crayons 
• Stuff the Turkey Game from Kid Friendly Things to Do
• Teaching Gratitude at Home with Kids from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Thankful Tree from Makeovers and Motherhood 
• Thankful Turkey Craft with Printable from Kids Activities Blog 
• Thankgiving Thankful Cards with Stamps from Melissa and Doug 
• Thanksgiving Books for Kids from Ready Set Read 

• Thanksgiving Chapter Books from What Do We Do All Day 
• Thanksgiving Do a Dot Printables from Gift of Curiosity
• Thanksgiving Emergent Readers from The Measured Mom
• Thanksgiving Printables for Same or Different from 3 Boys and a Dog 
• Thanksgiving Thankful Boxes from Enchanted  Homeschooling Mom 
• Thanksgiving Turkey Craft with Template by A Little Pinch of Perfect
• The Grateful Turkey Project from Melissa and Doug 
• The Littlest Pilgrim Recipe and Writing Prompt from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Toilet Paper Roll Thanksgiving Crafts from Crystal and Co.
• Turkey Handprints from The Educators’ Spin On It 
• Turkey in Disguise Printable from Momdot.com
• Turkey Math from No Time for Flash Cards 
• Turkey Themed Fluffy Slime from Little Bins for Little Hands
• Turkey Thanksgiving Slime Recipe from Little Bins for Little Hands
• Turkey Word Families from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas 

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There are so many fun ways to celebrate Thanksgiving with your child. You could even offer to do on of these projects with your child’s class.

To go along with these adorable Thanksgiving activities we put together the Ultimate Thanksgiving Book List for you to enjoy some special stories during this season of gratitude with your child.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving Activity to do with your child?

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I’ve put together a collection of Thanksgiving Books and Activities for you to do with your child below.

Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

Many of our favorite thanksgiving books will go perfectly with the following Thanksgiving activities for your child.  The Thanksgiving book list is at the end of the post.  There are craft ideas, printables and thanksgiving games to play with your child as you prepare for celebrating with your family.  Here’s a few ideas…

Create a Magnetic Thankful Tree  to display in your home for Thanksgiving.

Keep your little one focused on writing over with these printable Thanksgiving Writing Prompts.

Work on household chores and create a new way of Teaching Gratitude at Home with Your Child while getting your house ready for holiday guests.

Sneak in learning over the break with these Turkey Learning Games and Activities.

Take this simple Gratitude Challenge with your child with printable journal and prompts.

Create some colorful turkey crafts with a few Turkey Activities for Preschoolers. 

Decorate the house with this easy DIY Thankful Banner Idea for Kids.

Create a hands-on activity with a LEGO Turkey Busy Bag

Make a special gift to show someone you’re thankful with this Gratitude Turkey Gift Wrap Tutorial.

Create an adorable Pilgrim Craft with this Littlest Pilgrim Writing Prompt 

Encourage your child to learn to express gratitude with these Turkey Writing Prompts for Kids 

Create a reading buddy with this DIY Felt Turkey Finger Puppet Craft.

Get inspired this holiday season with 12 Kindness Activities for All Ages.

You can even take a look at these adorable Thanksgiving movies for preschoolers.

There you have it!  Tons of Thanksgiving Activities to do this week as you celebrate the blessings in your life with your child.

Still looking for more? Check out these 40+ Thanksgiving Activities for Kids !

Disclosure: I’ve added my amazon affiliate link for easy online shopping for your bookcase.  I earn a small commission for each purchase you make. 

Thanksgiving Books for Kids

Here’s my collection of Thanksgiving Books that we like to read together for Thanksgiving.  The books focus on turkeys, pilgrims, Native Americans and gratitude.

• There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey!
• Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving
• The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks
• 10 Fat Turkeys
• ‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving
• Llama Llama Gives Thanks
  
• The Berenstain Bears Thanksgiving Blessings
• Little Critter: Just a Special Thanksgiving
• This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story
• One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims
• Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy
• P Is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet
• Bear Says Thanks
• Splat Says Thank You!
• Gracias The Thanksgiving Turkey
• My First Thanksgiving
• The Thankful Book
• The Littlest Pilgrim
• A Plump And Perky Turkey
• Tiny Blessings: For Giving Thanks
• . . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
• Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
• How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace
• I Am Thankful: A Thanksgiving Book for Kids by Sheri Wall
• Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
• Thanksgiving in the Woods by Phyllis Alsdurf

You can find more Books About Gratitude and Thankfulness for Kids here

Did I miss any Thanksgiving Books that you love?  Leave me a comment below so I can be sure to add it to the list!  

You may also enjoy these activities with your child…

These games are adaptable to many academic areas, are made of recycled materials and easy to prepare. Great for preschool, kindergarten and first graders!

Turkey Learning Games and Activities for Kids Variations:

Make one turkey – or a few to highlight different academic skills. These learning games can be laminated for classroom use and adapted to meed all different needs. Just think of the possibilities.

You could make a:

1. sight word turkey
2. word family turkey
3. matching upper case and lowercase letter turkey
4. addition fact family turkey
5. multiplication turkey
6. division turkey
7. words and definition turkey
8. build a word turkey
9. shape matching turkey

Disclosure: Amazon affiliate links used in this article. 

Materials Needed:

• Construction Paper
• Washable Markers
• Glue Scissors
• Wiggle Eyes

Directions for Making the Turkey Learning Games and Activities:

First, cut the turkey pieces from the paper. You will need:

• one large circle and one small circle in brown. ( we used a brown paper bag)
• One diamond folded in half in orange.
• 2 orange webbed feet.
• 1 red warbler
• 5-7 turkey feathers in a variety of colors.

Then, glue the body of the turkey together.  Next add the eyes, feet, and warbler.

Last, set the feathers near the body. Write the selected numbers, letters, or words on the turkey and again on the feathers.

How to Play the Turkey Learning Game

• Provide the feathers and the turkey body.
• Have the students match the sight word feathers to the same word on the turkey.
• Encourage them to read each work out loud as they play the sight word game.
• Have them take the feathers off the turkey and shuffle the order for the next person to take a turn.

You can store in a bag or paper clip the feathers on the turkey body and set in a folder.

More Turkey Learning Games and Activities for Kids:

Name Activities: Feather Letter Turkey by Growing Book by Book
Turkey Shape Tracing by 3 Dinosaurs
Textured Turkey Feathers Pre-Writing Activity by The Preschool Toolbox
Turkey Geoboard by Still Playing School
Counting Feathers Sticky Wall by Mom Inspired Life
Fine Motor Turkey Math by Fun-A-Day!
Quick & Easy Color Feather Sort by Powerful Mothering
Make Pretty Feather Window Clings-a tutorial by Capri +3
Writing with Feathers by Rainy Day Mum

10 Turkey Books to use with Turkey Learning Games and Activities

These books are fabulous read before or after playing a turkey learning game!

Nate The Great Talks Turkey
For preschoolers ready for a chapter book read-aloud, this book is a great introduction to the mystery genre. We like to read a few chapters every night before bed and discuss.
Read more about the book here

Amelia Bedelia Talks Turkey
Silly mishaps and mistakes cause quite a scene at the Thanksgiving play.
Read more about this book and the other level two readers in this series here.

This is the Turkey
A story about celebrating the season with family and friends. Simple and charming.
Read editorial reviews here

Turkey Trouble:
A clever tale of disguise to get children giggling.  #1 in Kindle Store.
Read 5 star reviews here.

10 Fat Turkeys:
Gooble, gooble, wibble wabble… these 10 turkeys do everything from roller skate to doing a noodle dance.  My kids ask to read this silly book over and over again all November.
Read more about the book here.

10 Turkeys in the Road
This read-aloud picture book with antics and rhyming text has been called, “A Gobbling Good Read.”
Read 5 star reviews here.

T is for Turkey
This alphabet adventure book combines a little history and a little fun, stretching vocabularies and telling the story of a class Thanksgiving play.
Read more about the book here.

Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey
A special delivery brings a turkey into Miguel’s life. This is the story of his Thanksgiving worries about the bird he has grown to love and the worry if his dad, a truck driver, will make it home in time.  Basic Spanish is woven into the text, which is a little bit longer. Geared for older preschool to 2nd grade.
Read 5 star reviews here

Olivia Talks Turkey
Short and sweet, based off the TV show, preschool children enjoy hearing the story and talking turkey -OOO-la-lo-la-loo!
Read more about the book here.

I’m No Turkey
If you haven’t met Noodles yet, our family adores him. He is a sweet dog that likes things just so. The text is short, but full of expression.
Read more about this book and the other level one readers in this series here.

Click the following images to take you directly to their description page on Amazon.

Here are some additional Thanksgiving Activity Ideas for kids to explore:

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Do you ever find yourself thinking about what’s in your home? I find myself running around each day trying to keep things organized. I’m trying to keep things clean but there are some times when I feel frustrated that things just don’t stay where I put them.  

Then I catch myself thinking what a blessing it is to have things to worry about and to keep clean and to be home with my kids during the day.

This is what inspired our 30 Gratitude Challenge with our kids, try it here!

Teaching Gratitude at Home with kids

It’s a balance to be working at home all day with your kids and still taking care of your house. As a stay at home mom it’s a constant battle of making sure your children are having a developmentally appropriate experience at home instead of preschool with all the materials required for that within a home.

I’ll admit I get a little jealous as my husband waves goodbye to me and the kids every morning and goes off to work.

I remember those days just 6 years ago and how my house would stay clean when I was away at work. Now that we’re home all day it gets a little crazy and messy at times. But it’s a good messy. You may see some toys on the floor when you come over.

There might be a few paint splatters at the bathroom sink or on a towel. You might spot a play dough clump or paper scrap on the floor but it’s a sign that I know my kids were engaged in their day and being creative!

I do mention to my husband sometimes he needs to remember that I’m working with the kids all day, not on the house. I think it’s important for all stay at home parents to give themselves that moment of forgiveness.

If you’re at home with your child all day, your priority is to educate your child at home and provide planned and unplanned opportunities for their development. And part of that development is learning to care for our things.

I think sometimes I have to remind myself that although we want to instill in our children organization, order and respect of our things,  sometimes it’s okay to get a little messy and have fun. 

If that load didn’t get done or the dishwasher unloaded because we were spending time together playing and laughing it’s ok at times, the world still goes on.

I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to spend with my children!

Quotes about Childhood and Messy Homes

Just in case you need some reminders of how precious our moments of childhood are here’s are some fun quotes.  I’d love to have them hang somewhere in my house to remind me that I don’t have to have it all done all the time because we are raising young children.

Image Source and Printable at Three Little Monkeys

Image Source The Imagination Tree 

Image Source and Tutorial at Simply Designing

Image Source Good Golly Graphic

Showing my Gratitude to our Home

I took the past few weeks of November to reflect on how I can show my gratitude of my home. I also wanted to include my gratitude towards my husband. I’m sure it feels really good to come home from work to a clean home. He works so hard day in and day out to provide for our family I wanted to show him how grateful I am that he provides a home for us that’s filled with love and things for our children and us.

Teaching Children to be Grateful

As we were cleaning different areas of our house, the kids and I would leave little notes for him on the areas we were working on each day. I want them to be involved too. We took a room each day to reflect on and talk about the things that we are thankful for.

We actually sat and typed these images up together afterwards so we would be reminded of our blessings.

You could very easily have your child write them too.

I want to encourage you to do the same as you’re going about things this week before Thanksgiving. Pick a room each day and purposely clean it and reflect on all the things you’re thankful for. 

I promise both you and your children will have a feeling of gratitude towards your home and the treasures inside.

The bonus is your house will be ready for company on Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season… all clean and tidy!

Here are a few more ideas for teaching gratitude in your home this Holiday Season.

Gratitude Activities for Kids

• How to Make a Magnetic Thankful Tree 
• Watercolor Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving Gift Idea 
• Acts of Kindness and Gratitude are Lead by Example 
• DIY Thankful Banner
• Gratitude Books for Kids

How will you show your gratitude for something in your home?

Here’s how…

Affiliate links used in this post. 

We are focusing on GRATITUDE for the Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids.  Our featured book shares one of my favorite bear series from Karma Wilson called Bear Says Thanks . What better way for Bear to say thanks, than to have a big dinner with all his friends!

In the story, Bear has come up with a special way to say thanks—a dinner! When Bear decides to throw a feast, his friends show up one by one with different platters of delicious food to share. There’s just one problem: Bear’s cupboards are bare! What will he do? His gift to the group is perfect for the Virtual Book Club for Kids families.

Bear Says Thanks (The Bear Books) by Karma Wilson

As Thanksgiving approaches I always enjoy the time to teach gratitude at home with your kids .  We have fun making a DIY thankful banner  and we work on this Thanksgiving writing printable .  

One of my favorite this to do is to make Turkey Chocolate Bar Gift Wrap Idea for Teachers and Friends Thanksgiving . There are some other projects to consider like a Gratitude Garage Sale

Listen to the Song on Youtube of Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks 

Magnetic Thankful Tree

Materials 

• Magnetic Tape 
• Photos
• Glue
• Scissors
• Construction Paper 
• I am Thankful Printable 

Direction for Magnetic Thankful Tree

Print out some recent photos of your family members with your child.  You can use your home printer or at your local photo print shop.  One of the focus of this activity is to get the photos off of our digital devices and into the hands on our kids.

To start the project we printed pictures of our direct family members in our home.  Mommy, Daddy, sister, brother.  A few days later we added some pictures of extended family like her grandparents which included her Nana and Poppy and Dadi Ji and Dada Ji.  You can add aunts and uncles and cousins too.  It just depends on your child’s ability to keep the puzzles all straight.  

You could also consider printing out a few of their favorite things from around the house as they learn to address gratitude towards those things too and start to learn to recognize back words like bat, dog, bed, toys. etc.

With each of the photos that you add to your Magnetic Thankful Tree you print out the photo, glue it onto a larger sheet of paper shapes like a leaf. Leave a space below the photo on the leaf to be able to write the letters of the name in the photo.

 Then to make it more challenge you turn the photo leaf into a puzzle.  Depending on the age of your child, cut the leaf into the pieces.  For my 5 year old I cut the leaf into a piece per letter.  For younger kids I would divide the photo into two pieces.

Once you cut the photo leaf into piece, add Magnetic Tape  onto the back of each of the pieces so that your child can reassemble the photo leaf onto the tree. This Word Puzzle Idea comes from my  book 100 Fun and Easy Learning Games for Kids 

For younger children you can simply put the photo of the leaf and work on building language skills.

For older children you can also add the element of adding additional leaves with words that they’ve written about what they are thankful for each day in November.

DOWNLOAD I am Thankful for You Printable 

Day by day have your child add to the tree the things that they are thankful for this month.  You just might be surprised what makes it onto the tree.

A great follow up activity is our Gratitude Journal and Prompts. (Download here)

Books about Gratitude for Preschoolers

Here’s a few of my favorite books for teaching kids about expressing gratitude towards others and learning how to be thankful for the things that we have.  If you have a favorite gratitude book be sure to let me know in the comment section below.

• Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks (The Julie Andrews Collection)
• The Thankful Book
• Being Thankful (Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter)
• Thankful
• The Berenstain Bears Give Thanks (Berenstain Bears/Living Lights)
• Ladybug Girl Gives Thanks

Listen to the Song on Youtube of Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks 

JOIN OUR WEEKLY VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS

We’re inviting you to join along and share your own GRATITUDE themed ideas with your child or students using the featured story Bear Says Thanks or one of the other Gratitude Books mentioned above. You can share on our facebook page or join our VBC Facebook Group.

Gratitude Themed Activities for Preschoolers

Alphabet Activities
Gratitude Acrostic Printable Booklets—Chickadee Lit
Gratitude Alphabet and Give Thanks Banner – To be a Kid Again

Name Activities
I am Thankful Activity-CraftCreateCalm
Magnetic Thankful Tree – The Educators’ Spin On It

Number Activities
Bear Says Thanks Gratitude Counting Activity 

Counting On Bear Paws with Number Claws

Sensory Activities
Easy Gratitude Turkey Pumpkin for Kids

Cooking Activities
Pumpkin Muffins for Friends – Inspiration Laboratories
Kid-friendly Gingerbread Cookies to say Thank You – Rainy Day Mum

Color Activities
The Gratitude Game: Pick-Up Sticks- Teach Beside Me

Pre-Writing Activities
Gratitude Drawing Prompt with Free Printable – Sunny Day Family
Gratitude Tree Free Printable – Mama Smiles

Shape Activities
“I’m Thankful For You!” Kid-Made Ornament Gifts – Preschool Powol Packets
Thankful Bear Craft from Books and Giggles

If you enjoyed this gratitude activity idea you might enjoy joining our Weekly Virtual Book Club for Kids!

This Word Puzzle Game for Kids is one of the featured games in our book 100 Fun and Easy Learning Games for Kids 
LEARN MORE AND BUY NOW. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! This week, we tried our very best to take some time to “Give Thanks” as we went about our week. The girls are having lots of fun reading books and creating projects about Thanksgiving. Most importantly we are learning about the “Spirit of Thanksgiving.”

Now that they are in Kindergarten in a Public School there aren’t as many opportunities to work on handmade art and craft projects which is so important for them to experience. So we tried our best to incorporate some projects at home.

Giving Thanks Activities for Thanksgiving

Here’s a few of our projects that we created this week in both of our homes.

Turkey Finger Puppets

We loved these, but didn’t have the supplies in the house and opted for the traditional felt (plus extra fabric choices that I didn’t have the colors in felt)  Although we talked about the difference between male and female turkeys, there was NO way you could convince my 5 year old that this turkey did not need a bow =)

Thankful Turkey

We’ve been working about expressing the things that we are thankful for each night at the dinner table and she’s been writing the thoughts of gratitude down on strips of paper. Then we took all of the papers and glued them onto a circle for the body and a circle for the head. Then she cut some legs and beak and waddle. It’s so cute to see what they are thankful for.

Recycling Turkey feather papers into Fall Tree

Using the leftover paper from our feather we practiced our cutting skills and created this fall tree. I think over the next few days my daughter will also be adding people and a turkey and an owl in the tree. Love projects that you can continue to build upon.

Pilgrim Writing

We were inspired by the Pilgrim at First Grade Blue Skies for our writing this week.  She cut out the pieces and glued them together.  Then wrote about what she is thankful for.  I think we will continue this idea for each Month to keep our writing on the fridge at all times. 

We used this as the lesson in our Cooking Class The Littlest Pilgrim and Turkey Casserole.

Painted Handprint Turkeys

So many cute ones out there like this one and this one!  My kidsmade hand print trees and figured that our hands were already painted on and made the turkeys too!!! We visited this interactive website and learned more about the Wampanoag and if turkeys were present at the first Thanksgiving. 

What would have been really cool is if the real ones showed up at my house like they did for this mama!

Works great for crafts for siblings to do together!

Coffee Filter Turkeys

We LOVED this project!  I showed her this post and read the directions. We didn’t have the regular filters and just used the cone shaped ones.  She created the heads and decorations all on her own, then made up a game similar to “I Spy,” to play using their different features.

Turkey T-shirt

We are Thankful for great deals and re-purposing clothes that are no longer being used!  A 25 cent thrift store bright orange t-shirt was transformed into this hilarious turkey shirt.  My daughter choose the fabrics, cut the pieces and placed them where she wanted them. I embroidered them with the machine! The eyes were made with my thumbprint in black fabric paint.

We have pinned many projects on our Fall Pinterest Board for you to find something special to make with your little ones this week as you prepare for Thanksgiving. We’d love to see what you are doing with your grade school children this week!

Looking for more Activities for Fall? Try these ideas

It’s time for Busy Bag of the Month!  This month we’ve been having fun with Turkeys. Plus our new favorite toy to play with is LEGOS. So I decided it might be fun to combine the two to see what kind of fun things we could do together with them.

LEGO Turkey Activity for Toddlers

We created turkey feathers from the LEGOS or any smaller object in the house.

Why? Because it works on

• Fine Motor Skills
• One to One Correspondence
• Visual Discrimination
• Patterning and More

Plus it’s so easy to make. Grab some paper and let’s create our own turkeys. I just cut some paper for the outline to put the objects to work on those specific skills.

Here are some additional Thanksgiving activity ideas for your child!

Once you create a turkey together you can find smaller objects to use around the house to create the turkey’s feathers.  

We chose LEGOS but truthfully the fun of this project is that you can make a design with anything that you have a handful off.

Encourage your child to sort the feathers by colors and even encourage them to create a few pattern designs with their LEGOS.

We also used our Food Pouch Lids to make this game different.  

Take a moment to explore our other Lid Activities, they are so much fun to use.

• Christmas Tree Fun
• Caterpillar Math
• 8 Activities with Lids
• Color Words with Lids
• Letter Bugs with Lids

What will you use to decorate your turkey with?  

Save your lids for Christmas Too!

Here are some additional activities your child may enjoy…