Give Me Five, Turkey!

I am always shocked that some students have never made a hand turkey before. I guess you have to learn everything somewhere and what better place then 1st grade! Check out our hand turkeys:

 
These turkeys quickly turned into mathematical tools. We'll use them to help us count by fives throughout the month of November. 

Make sure to practice counting by fives at home. Mix it up by starting from any number. Use your hand turkeys to help or nickels to make sure your child really understands how to count automatically by fives.

Floppy Turkey

Last week we discussed how the Pilgrims and Native Americans, particularly the Wampanoags, lived differently than we do.  We used a variety of books and online sources to help us learn about life back then.

I stumbled upon a stack of old floppy discs and as any good teacher I thought these are cute, colorful and free, what can I do with them?  So with turkeys on my mind we turned them into floppy turkeys.  Students each got their own floppy disc (after learning what a floppy disc was) and feathers to decorate.  I love how different and creative all the turkeys came out. 

On the left side 1st graders wrote something that the Pilgrims or Wampagnoags had then and on the right side they compared it to what we have now.  We brainstormed so many different ideas about how their lives were different than ours.  For example, the Pilgrim boys wore dresses until the age six or seven but now boys wear jeans and t-shirts.  Or that Pilgrims and Wampagnoags played games like ten pin and marbles but now we have computers, TV, iPods and iPads (no more floppy discs though)!