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The Thankful Turkey
By: Brandie Valenzuela
So, what's the best part of Thanksgiving? I
know -- the food! However, Thanksgiving is really much more than that and
by taking part in this fun family activity, you can help your children
understand the bigger importance of this holiday.
This Thanksgiving, create a "Thankful
Turkey". Take a big, brown paper bag and create a body.
It doesn't have to be anything fancy, and you certainly don't have to be
an artist. I did this simply by cutting a big circle for the main part of
the body, long rectangle for the neck, and smaller circle for the head. I
also cut a beak out of orange paper and a red wavy strip for the wattle.
Glue or tape all of you pieces together to make your turkey.
Next, choose a spot in your home where you can
hang your "Thankful Turkey". In our home, we chose to put our
turkey on the inside of the front door. Hang up your turkey proudly!
After your turkey is hung (certainly something
that our real feathered friends would not be too happy about), you will not want
to cut out a bunch of colored "feathers" from paper. We used
construction paper for our feathers, but any colored paper will work. You
can even use white paper and have your children decorate the feathers with
crayons.
On these colored feathers, have each member of
your family writes things that they are thankful for. One way to do this
is to just give each family member a set amount of feathers and instruct them to
write one thing that they are thankful for on each feather. Another
version is to have each family member fill out at least one a day, at the end of
their day, all the way until Thanksgiving. You can even set up a basket
with extra feathers for guest to fill out and if you plan to have company over
for Thanksgiving, be sure to have them get in on the fun!
After feathers are filled out, they are to be
taped (or otherwise secured) to the turkey body. Before you know it, your
turkey will no longer be bald, but he will be full of color and gratitude!
Enjoy your "Thankful Turkey" and be sure to take the time to read what
everyone writes on their feathers. If your "Thankful Turkey" is
just too big to store for future memories, take pictures of your "Thankful
Turkey" to remember in the years to come.
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