Gobble Up This Free Turkey Pattern as a Thank You

These turkeys have been hanging around our school for as long as I've been teaching there.  I have no idea what the origin of this pattern was, but I had to sort of revamp it to make it fit on a digital paper file.  Consequently, if you use my pattern the way it is, it will be smaller than the turkeys seen here.  If your photocopier has the capability to take larger construction paper, you might want to consider enlarging the pieces to make it larger.  My coworkers (who shared this activity with me) use tracers, so that the students have to trace each piece.  It is perfect for 1st graders to do these extra steps, but I found that it was difficult to have kindergarten students trace all pieces, so I copy some onto the colored paper for them.  You know your students best and can decide which would be best for your particular class.

You can also make a large pattern by creating a tracer AFTER you assemble the body and the wings.  We usually use brown paper bags to trace that huge apparatus on, but this year I got a huge roll of brown butcher paper that we all used and, I have to say, it was much easier than taking apart all of the bags.

I am not a huge fan of "cookie cutter" projects, but this is too darn cute to pass by and, even though they all get the same pieces, they still come out looking differently, which is the way I LOVE it.  Of course, there must be a literacy component as well, so the last page of my free kit is speech bubbles that make the turkeys say, "Eat ____________, not turkey."  The children can decide what it is that they want the people to eat instead of turkey and write it down.  We will be adding these tomorrow, since we made our turkeys last thing on Friday afternoon (I know, WHAT was I thinking???).

I also just added a Disguise a Turkey Family Kit to my TpT store.  It has everything and more that you would need for this project and allows you to expand in the classroom with writing activities, puppets and even trading cards.  My favorite part, that never occurred to me before now, was that I created 40 different awards to be given to EVERY child, as well as some blank ones.  I am going to print them on sticker paper/labels to just peel and quickly stick on each turkey, but you can also just print them on paper, cut, and tape them on.

Do you do this project at your school?  If not, now is the time to start.  It is a great way to allow families to be involved in their child's learning and promotes great discussion in the classroom.

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