My daughter Holly
and I are meeting up at the NAEYC Conference today in Atlanta. I’ll be in the Frog Street Press booth
this afternoon at 1:30, and our workshop called “Give Me a Break – A Brain
Break!” will be Saturday morning from 10-11:30 am in room B406. If you’re at the conference, I hope we
can meet up for a hug and a picture.
If you don’t have
plans this weekend, then you’ll definitely want to create this “Timmy Turkey”
story to use in your classroom this coming week. It’s great for oral language, sequencing, and alliteration.
Directions:
You will need to find the shape of a turkey and cut it out of the front of a
file folder. Insert colors of
construction paper inside the file folder according to the story. (brown, blue,
red, green, yellow, purple, and multi-color) Glue the words to the back of the folder so you can read and
remove one sheet of paper at a time.
*Encourage
the children to join in on the chorus!
Once
upon a time there was a beautiful brown turkey named Timmy. One day as he strutted down the road he
heard a bluebird say:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey I ever did see.
Timmy
Turkey replied:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
bluebird answered:
You
should be blue like me. It’s
such a peaceful color.
The
next day as Timmy strutted down the road he heard a red hen say:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey I ever did see.
Timmy
replied:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
redbird answered:
You
should be red like me. It’s such a
bright color.
So
Timmy went home and dyed himself red.
(Remove the blue paper to reveal a red turkey.)
The
following day as Timmy was strutting down the road he heard a green frog croak:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey I ever did see?
Timmy
sadly replied:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
frog croaked:
You
should be green like me. Green is
the color of life!
So
what do you think Timmy did? That’s
right! He went home and dyed
himself green.
(Remove
the red paper to reveal a green turkey.)
Timmy
was strutting down the road a beautiful shade of green the next day when he
heard a yellow cat say:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey I ever did see!
Timmy
answered:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
cat laughed and said:
Who
ever heard of a green turkey?
You
should be yellow like me. It’s
such a happy color.
Yes,
you’re right! Timmy went home that
night and dyed himself yellow.
(Remove the green paper to reveal a yellow turkey.)
The
next day Timmy was strutting down the road again when he heard a purple parrot
squawk:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey I ever did see!
Timmy
said:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
parrot squawked:
Yellow’s
no color for a turkey.
You
should be purple like me. Purple
is the color of royalty.
Timmy
went home immediately and dyed himself purple. (Remove the yellow sheet of paper to reveal the purple
turkey.)
Once
again Timmy was walking down the road when he heard his turkey friends
laughing. They said:
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the funniest turkey we ever did see!
Timmy
cried and said:
Oh,
dear, oh, dear! Oh, me, oh, me!
Why
am I the funniest turkey you ever did see?
The
other turkeys replied:
Who
ever heard of a purple turkey?
You
look so silly!
Timmy
slowly walked home and as he walked he thought to himself, “I have dyed myself
blue, red, green, yellow, and purple, and I have pleased no one.” Then he got a brilliant idea! He got all the bottles of dye and made
all his feathers different colors.
(Remove the purple sheet of paper to reveal the turkey with the colorful
feathers.
The
next day as Timmy Turkey strutted down the road everyone laughed and cheered!
Ha,
ha, ha! He, he, he!
You’re
the most beautiful turkey we ever did see!
And
that’s why you always see turkeys with beautiful tail colors!
