Last week I introduced Thanksgiving and November with the book, Thanks for Thanksgiving, in preschool. It’s a sweet little book with things to be thankful for. We talked about what ‘thankful’ means. We came up with the definition of thing we are happy we have, or are proud of. When I read the book whole group, we made this turkey. I gave students each a turkey feather with a boardmaker symbol. ‘Thankful’ is still hard to grasp for most of my students, so we said ‘thank you for ___.” As we read the book they could match the symbol on the feather with the symbols I had placed in my book. This gave them some independence to know when to add the items as I read. They added them to the turkey on the felt board. Do-a-dots are the perfect reinforcer for artic and phonology drilling. This little friend was using them to request with signs (more, please, stop, go, etc.) I did the story 1-1 with a lot of kids. I love doing comprehension and listening skills this way. The kids help me find the appropriate symbol for each page. Then I asked WH questions about the page. On this piggyback page, I asked WHO and WHERE questions. I also let them look at the book and tell me what they think the words might say. We made an emergent reader. Perfect for basic sentences, grammar, artic and more! These (blurry) pics should give you an idea of what I send home with parents for the week. What are you doing in your preschool rooms this week?
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Debbie Thornhill says
Wonderful ideas,Jenna! Thank you for posting!
Betsy says
I’m curious – did you attach the symbols to the book pages with velcro?
I love your blog – I’m an old-timer (got my MS in 1985), and you are helping me come up with much-needed new ideas!
Jenna Rayburn says
Hi Betsy! Yes, velcro! It works best on ‘board’ books, I have to be careful when they pull off the velcro on these thin scholastic books.
Lindsay says
Jenna, are these activities no longer available?
Claudia says
I am also interested in the pictures to use it for the book. Are they still available?