Materials Monday - Granny's Thanksgiving Dinner

It's getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving (only two and a half weeks away!), so I wanted to post this little book that I created. My preschoolers LOVED the Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin, What Do You See? book, so I knew I had to create a little book for Thanksgiving.

The book is titled Granny's Thanksgiving Dinner. It is about a granny who eats a lot of food for Thanksgiving! At the end of the book she tells everyone "Happy Thanksgiving!".

First page:

I went to a BER conference last week, and one thing that I took away from that conference was that preschoolers love to learn through sing-song. Now granted, I am not the best singer in the world, but if I am alone in my room with a few kids, I don't mind singing a few tunes. Therefore, I created this book with that tidbit in mind.

This book is sung to the tune of Hi Ho the Derry-O, The Farmer and the Dell. The first page and last page is read just like a regular book, but the main part of the book is told through sing-song.

For Example:
The Granny eats the food,
The Granny eats the food,
Oh wow, Oh wow
The Granny eats the food!

Taken from:
The Farmer and the Dell,
The Farmer and the Dell,
Hi Ho the Derry-O
The Farmer and the Dell.

I include on the last page little pictures that will help with sequencing the story! My preschoolers love to sequence the story after I read it. I will also use a granny cut-out (found here: KidzClub Printables - I just ignore the tracings on her stomach), and the kids will velcro the items that she eats into her stomach as I read the story. It's great fun!

I also use the words to create a sentence strip. After I read the story, the student will go through the book and tell me everything the Granny eats using complete sentences. This is a great way to expand MLU.

You can do so much with this. Have the students describe the food, ask them if they have ever eaten ____ (cake, bread, squash, etc.), WH-questions (where can you find this, what color is this, who would eat this, why would you eat this, what is your favorite Thanksgiving food, etc.), vocabulary and categorization (name another bread, name another dessert, name a vegetable, etc.), and so forth.

What do you think? Love it? I think my preschoolers will!

Download this book for free here: Granny's Thanksgiving Dinner

Enjoy!