Gratitude Turkey 2013

Last week we started our traditional Gratitude Turkey!

Every year in November, I make a turkey body and stick it to the wall. Then I cut out a bunch of feathers and put them in a bowl or a bag with a marker, near the turkey.

When we think of something we're thankful for during the month, we write it on a feather and add it to the turkey! (We stick them to the wall with sticky-tack)

It's so fun to watch our turkey grow and grow throughout the month as we think of the MANY blessings we have in our lives.

Here are the posts about our turkeys from years past:

2012:

2011:

2010:

Gratitude Turkey 2012 - Thanksgiving Tradition

It's that time of year again! Time for our traditional Gratitude Turkey! 

We started it during Family Home Evening this week as we talked about what it means to be grateful. It's also a perfect activity to go with our "Turkey" Preschool theme for the week.

**We've done this Thanksgiving tradition for the past few years. Here are links to the ones we've posted in the past:

2010:

2011:

Here's how we made this year's Turkey:

• Using a piece of brown scrapbook paper (ours was polka-dotted), cut out 1 big cirlce and 1 smaller circle. (our circles were about 8" wide, and 4" wide). (p.s. Check out our post on an AMAZING deal for scrapbook paper packs on Amazon!)
• Using orange craft foam, cut out a beak and 2 legs with feet.
• Using red craft foam, cut out a red piece to be that funny thing under the turkey's beak.
• Get out 2 big googly eyes.
• On a piece of paper cut into a rectangle, write, "We are THANKFUL for......"
• Using different colors of scrapbook paper, cut out fat feathers. 

(I stacked the papers on top of each other so I could cut 6 feathers at once. Saved a lot of time.) Keep in mind the feathers don't have to be perfectly shaped. You could draw the feathers on 1 piece then put it on top of all the other papers and cut them out. Or just cut haphazardly....like I did. :)

I cut 6 feathers out of each piece of 12x12 square scrapbook paper.

•  Then Glue all the turkey pieces together, like so........

Here's what you do:

• Stick the turkey to the wall with tape or sticky-tack. (We put ours on the inside of our front door).
• From now until Thanksgiving, whenever someone thinks of something they are thankful for (or each week for Family Home Evening), they will take a feather and write it down. We also decided to draw what it was on the feathers too. :) Then using tape or sticky tack, stick the feathers on the wall all around the turkey.

This is a fun tradition for our family. Like you, we are very blessed with many wonderful things in our lives--big & small. It's fun to spend time thinking about all our amazing blessings. 

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Gratitude Turkey - Thanksgiving Tradition

It's the first week of November, and we are starting our traditional "Gratitude Turkey" for this Thanksgiving season. 

Here's how we made him:

• The turkey body & head is made from brown construction paper (about 6" tall).
• The beak and legs are from an orange paint-chip sample (or just use construction paper) and glued on.
• The feathers are cut out of pieces of scrapbook paper (about 4" long).
• The eyes are drawn with a black marker.

Here's how it works:

We put the turkey on the inside of our front door with sticky tack. Each week during Family Home Evening, and everyday as the boys and I sit down to go through the Learning Binder, we will each choose a feather and write something on it that we are grateful for. Then we will add it to our Turkey with sticky tack and watch him grow!

 I love this tradition because it's a fun way to focus on all our blessings this holiday season. A simple way to teach our children how much we have to be grateful for while we watch the turkey grow bigger and bigger!

**Update: Here is a picture of our Turkey about halfway through November:

And click the picture below to see how we made our Gratitude Turkey a couple years ago (2009):

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Gratitude Turkey Tradition

This is something we did last year (2009). The idea, however originated years ago with some of my college room mates. I wish I had the picture of our college turkey, because it was HUGE and amazing and filled up an entire wall!

The idea is to cut out a Turkey body, (I used a brown paper bag stuffed with newspapers for our Turkey body) and stick it up on the wall with tape or sticky tack:

And then cut out a bunch of feathers using construction paper:

Anytime someone thinks of something they are grateful for, they pick out a feather and write it on there. Then they add the feather to the wall around the turkey with tape or sticky tack. (We put ours on the side of our file-cabinet--hence the black background).

After a month of gratitude, our turkey turned out to be quite a thankful fat-feathered-fowl indeed!