I’m so excited to share a simple Thanksgiving math activity the preschoolers and I did recently! It was inspired by my blogging bud Asia from Fun at Home with Kids and her new book.
Related: Preschool Thanksgiving Activities
Full disclosure – I received a free copy of the book in exchange for sharing it with you. All opinions are, as always, my own! Affiliate links included below for your convenience.
easy Thanksgiving math activity for kids
In Asia’s book, 150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids, she shares easy-to-create “sticky window art” with foam sheets. I’ve used foam sheets every year since I started teaching, and I LOVE the trick to get them to stick to windows! When I read Asia’s book, I knew I wanted to create my own little spin on her window art idea. Thus, the Thanksgiving math activity using glittery foam turkeys!
Related: Turkey Activities
I happened upon the foam turkeys in my staff workroom, and I’m not sure where we got them from. The closest I could find were these basic foam turkeys on Amazon. If I figure out where we got our glitter-fied turkeys, I’ll be sure to share!
I grabbed five of the turkeys, then I cut out numbers from some orange foam sheets. I just free-handed the numbers one through five, but they turned out fine. The turkeys and the numbers were placed up on a window in our messy room, and I let the kids at it.
Related: Fall Math Activities for Preschoolers
They explored the foam shapes, pulling them off the window and then re-positioning them. There was turkey counting, silly stories about what the turkeys were up to, and lots of exclamations over their glitter! Some of the children placed the numbers on the turkeys and put them in order. Others took the foam numbers and created larger numbers with them. A few of the kiddos and I had a great conversation about this – how rearranging the numbers made a completely different numbers.
This activity lasted about an hour, and the children made me promise we’d do it “again and again and again” before Thanksgiving break. Something tells me we’ll be exploring lots of new ways to use “sticky window art” for learning! I even had another preschool teacher pop in and say, “I love that! I’m doing it next week!”
Super easy set up + lots of learning = awesome preschool activity!
the new Fun at Home with Kids book
150+ Screen-Free Activities for Kids has tons of ideas for kids of all ages. I’m pretty happy with that fact, since I teach 4- and 5-year olds, and I have a 7-year old at home. Asia includes ideas for modifying the activities, includes dye-free and gluten-free play recipes, and uses affordable materials. I would have bought it if I wasn’t given a free copy!
My son and I plan on using the Colored Salt Dough recipe to create Christmas decorations next month, and he really wants to try the fizzy colored slush from the book! For preschool, I’m excited to try out the frog world and the glow-in-the-dark insect world. I know my students will go wild for both of those activities!
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