Thanksgiving Singing Time

I love preparing the children for the Primary Program, and teaching them about the monthly themes through music ... but I also love that small window in November when the Primary kids aren't preparing for a program, and we have a little more time to explore all of the amazing songs in the Children's Songbook.

This is one of the Singing Time activities I like to do every year - have children draw feathers from a basket and help fill in Thomas the Turkey.

The kids love this one - and it's easy to have a fun time, but also encourage reverence because everyone wants a turn. I just say, "I'm drawing names from the jar so that everyone has a chance to be called up ... but if you're not being reverent, I'm going to put your name back into the jar."

This Sunday's Sharing Time is about forgiveness, so I think one easy way to incorporate that is to have a few of these feathers be questions about forgiveness, and songs about forgiveness.

Thomas the Thankful Turkey ... or if you need something fast, The Thanksgiving Basket

I'm so excited to bring back my "Thomas the Thankful Turkey" for Singing Time this Sunday.

This was one of my favorite Singing Time activities last year. I want to re-cap what I did last year, but I've also added some thoughts on a less time-costly way to prepare for the same activity.

   

First, Thomas the Turkey

I went nuts last year and and drew a poster-sized turkey (my original turkey design) that I colored in with markers. I then cut colored paper into feather shapes. I cut the top of the turkey away from the poster so that there was a slit in which to insert the feathers, but then also added Velcro stickers to help the feathers stay in place. Each child came up, chose a feather, and then we followed whatever instruction was on the back of the feather. Usually, the child was asked to share something they were thankful for in relation to a certain topic, then we sang a related song that was noted along with the thankful topic.

The children really loved this. I was able to ensure that more children had an opportunity to come up by not assigning a song to every feather. 

You can buy velcro stickers in craft stores or fabric stores.

If you don't have time or energy to make a turkey and feathers, you can still give children the fun visual effect by putting together a Thanksgiving basket:

                                        

Stuff a cornucopia (or if you don't own one, just use a "Thanksgiving" basket) with fruits. Write a page number for a song on each piece of fruit, or attach a song number with a sticker. Each child that comes up shares something they are thankful for, then chooses a fruit. The class sings the song associated with the fruit. Choose songs under the "gratitude" section of the Children's Songbook. I made some quick, simple, flip charts for songs that I did not think the children knew that well.

November - Week 3 - Thanksgiving Weekend - Tom the Turkey and his Gratitude Feathers

I have been super excited for a few weeks now to do this activity. I actually started working on it before I started the previous two activities, and I'm pleased to say that it went over about as well as I had hoped and anticipated. I plan to pull this turkey out again next year.

I was inspired by Mindy Byrnes' Thankful Jar but instead of a jar, I turned it into a turkey instead of using a jar. This turkey (as with pretty much any hand drawing you see in this blog - everything else was printed off a Google Images search or from a chorister's blog) was my own creation, not copied from anywhere. I'm glad I finally have a good excuse to draw because it's so much fun. I sketched the turkey out onto the poster board, then colored it in with markers. I only had six colors to choose from, but fortunately, they were appropriate colors for a turkey. Since this is a poster board, keep in mind that this is a big turkey. It made it fun for the children to pick giant feathers to add to the turkey. I could only fit two feathers per sheet of paper when I was cutting them out.

I cut the poster board along the top of his wings, up his back, and around his head. I put velcro stickers on the backs of the feathers and on the poster board so that children could tuck the feathers in behind the turkey, then velcro them to the board.

I told the children that Tom the Reverent Turkey was getting ready for Thanksgiving, but he was missing something (feathers!). I used the Helping Hands jar to select names. Children came up and picked a feather. Each feather had a theme on it, for which they were supposed to share something for which they were grateful. Some feathers also had a corresponding song, which we then sang. One example, is that they sang, "Families Can Be Together Forever," after they answered a question about sharing someone in their family they were grateful for, and why.

I tried to remind the children about what the song had to do with gratitude either before or after we sang each song. I also made sure to add some reverence-related gratitude songs to fit the theme for the month.