Thanksgiving is a time for friends, family, gratitude and delicious foods. My parents have always had an open door policy for our holiday meals, believing that anyone who doesn’t have a place to go has a place at our table. Today’s book is a great reminder about sharing what you have with others and creating new traditions.

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Franklin’s Thanksgiving by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark is a great story about celebrating Thanksgiving and sharing with those around you. Franklin and his parents are disappointed when his grandparents can’t make it for Thanksgiving dinner. They all decide that they should invite their friends from around the neighborhood who don’t have plans of their own – but they don’t mention it to each other. When Thanksgiving Day comes, the big crowd won’t fit at their table, so they come up with a new tradition! This story tells readers about harvesting fruits and vegetables, Thanksgiving preparations, and sharing the holiday with others.

Dramatic Play – The blog Pre-K Pages created a beautiful garden for dramatic play out of pool noodles and brown felt. This would be a great way for kids to pretend that they are planting and harvesting ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner. You could use felt foods or plastic foods. If you have a kitchen set up, kids could expand this dramatic play into the kitchen area and use their ingredients to cook up a delicious dinner!

Acts of Kindness Turkey

Acts of Kindness – Make a turkey that you can add feathers to as you complete acts of kindness throughout the Thanksgiving season. Create a turkey shape out of brown paper (use a butternut squash shape as a guide). Add eyes and an upside down yellow or orange triangle for a nose. Cut feather shapes out of different colors of paper. As a family, create a list of acts of kindness that you can do. These could be as simple as raking the leaves for a neighbor or making a Thanksgiving treat for a friend. As you complete your acts, write them out on a feather shape and stick it to the back of the turkey. Try to add as many feathers as you can by Thanksgiving!

Related Post: Spread Smiles with these Children’s Books on Kindness

Enjoy delicious harvest themed snacks!

Cornucopia Snacks – Curling the ends of sugar ice cream cones makes them look like cornucopias, which can then be filled with delicious snacks for kids to enjoy. Cones can be curled by dipping the ends into warm water and then microwaving them for a short burst. You can also place a damp paper towel over the cone ends and microwave. Quickly curl the softened end around a skewer or straw and hold it there for a few seconds. Let the cones harden before filling them.

Marshmallow Counting – Franklin enjoys several helpings of pumpkin fly pie in the story. Pumpkin pie can be used for a variety of math and fine motor activities. You can print pictures of pumpkin pie, or create them out of construction paper or paper plates painted orange. For younger kids, let them use tongs to pick up cotton balls “marshmallows” and place them onto the pumpkin pie. For older kids, you can assign each pumpkin pie a number and have kids use the tongs to place the right number of cotton ball marshmallows onto each pie.

What are some acts of kindness that your kids wanted to do? Did they enjoy Franklin’s Thanksgiving?

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