Harvest Party Fun!

I {Kayla} teach a preschool class at church on Wednesday nights and, since we're off next week for Thanksgiving eve, we had our Thanksgiving/harvest 'celebration' this evening and it was a blast! I wanted our activities to be meaningful and fun - and I think we hit the nail on the head! To kick off the evening, we completed this adorable thumbprint turkey craftivity I found over at Silly Eagle Books. Since we've done finger painting before, I was looking for ways in which I could create a 'unique' art experience for my preschoolers and stumbled across a great project from Growing a Jeweled Rose that was just the ticket. Instead of plain Jane finger paint, we created our thumbprint turkeys with pumpkin paint! {That is, paint with pumpkin pie spice added to it!}

While we worked, we discussed the meaning of Thanksgiving and the many things that we're thankful for - i.e. Our family and friends, our church, our houses, our toys, etc. Each of my kiddos then selected a blessing to write on their {dried!} turkey cards and we added it to our classroom display, 'Thankful for God's Unbe"LEAF"able Blessings!"

After chapel and a snack, we had fun with a turkey Bible Verse scavenger hunt! Unbeknownst to our kiddos, while they were singing and learning about Abraham and Sarah's little bundle of blessings {Isaac}, my lovely assistant, Ms. Kari, left on a secret mission to hide all of the verse turkey's feathers around the classroom. Filled with sweets and armed with their game mats, our preschoolers were charged with finding all of the verse turkey's feathers, searching high and low to find and match the hidden feather cutouts to the ones on their game mat. Once each student had collected all their feathers, we set about constructing our verse turkeys! {NOTE: The fabulous verse turkeys were adapted using the amazing turkey potato head printables I found over at Kiki Creates!}

Of course, we can't forget about the treat bags! I found the recipe for "Harvest Blessing Mix" {gorgeous printable gift tags and all!} over at Caramel Potatoes and thought it was fitting for the theme of the holiday and our harvest party - each snack item in the mixture acts as a reminder to be grateful for the abundance of blessings in our lives! A taste treat sensation! Our kiddos were ready to gobble it up before they got out the door!

Overall, we had a great time reflecting, learning, and playing together! I have always been of the option that more is "caught" than "taught" and I think that it is important for our children to see us - parents, teachers, siblings, etc. - giving voice to the many things we are grateful for, not just on Thanksgiving, but all year long!