Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Turkey Templates for Thanksgiving Creativity and Writing

Last month I shared my "Build a Jack-O-Lantern" Google Slides activity, which I based off of my "Build a Snowman" activity from last year. Each one of these was designed to let students be creative, learn some tech skills, and practice their writing.

Over the past week or so I have received several emails and Tweets asking if I also had made anything for Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I have not created any Thanksgiving-themed activities (yet), but I am so excited to share that other folks have.

Two awesome educators worked from my Snowman and Jack-O-Lantern templates to create their own Turkey versions. Although based on my original templates, these educators clearly put a lot of time and creativity into making their own versions for Thanksgiving.

See below for a brief description of the two templates, as well as links to get your own copies for your students to use.


Template #1 - Build a Turkey

The first template was created by Beth Kingsley (@bethkingsley13)


In this Google Slides template the students build a turkey by copying and pasting eyes, beaks, feathers, feet, hats, wattles (yes that's what they are called), and extras onto their blank turkey body. When done the students write about the turkey they created.

You and your students can get your own copy of the "Build a Turkey" template here: Google Slides link


Template #2 - Disguise a Turkey

The second template was created by Kelley Costa (@costasecond)


In this Google Slides template the students try to disguise their turkey so he will be safe from becoming the Thanksgiving Day dinner. They do this by copying and pasting masks, costumes, hats, accessories, and shoes onto their turkey. Then they write a story about their disguised turkey and how it will stay safe.

You and your students can get your own copy of the "Disguise a Turkey" template here: Google Slides link


Conclusion

Thanks so much to Beth and Kelley for creating and sharing these activities! It is so neat to see folks take an idea I had and build upon it to make something new and awesome.

And with winter quickly approaching, don't forget to use my "Build a Snowman" template from last year.

You can get your own copy and see all of the directions here: Build a Snowman with Google Slides



Post by Eric Curts
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12 comments:

  1. I would like to have our younger students do this, but they do not have google accounts. Is there a way for them to access and edit without an account?
    BTW, what a great resource!

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    1. What I am going to do to my younger kids is first, I will make a copy to my google drive and change the share settings as "share with link" then I will go to tinyurl.com and create a link like tinyurl.com/turkeybuild etc. Then students will type this link and download as Powerpoint then theycan use this activity in Power Point

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    2. Yes meet Google Sheets. Here is an example with a Jack O Lantern. https://goo.gl/rXN11z Mainly you are creating a Google Sheet - 1 document 1 link, with an embedded Google Drawing, with multiple tabs, one for each student.

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    3. What I do is make a copy of each in a Google Folder then link the folder to their start page. I share the folder with anyone who has the link then give them edit rights....that way it just opens without them having to log in...anyone can edit, regardless of account. They just find their document, click on the one that has their name...it works pretty slick.

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  2. These are adorable and I will be using them in my tech classes! Looking forward to receiving your email - I just signed up!

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  3. Thank you for such fun ideas. These activities will be perfect for my middle school French classes. Young students can describe the body parts and older students can describe the disguise and write a short paragraph. Great engaging activity!

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  4. Amazing!! Thank you so much! Will use this with first grade next week!!

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  5. Thanks so much for continuing to share and spread this idea for others to use! What a gracious innovator! :-) My students all loved the Jack-O-Lantern and it was really great copy/paste/duplicate/delete and even font/typing practice! When they were done I had them insert their best one into a class collection slideshow! They were great!
    https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PWlSqSDIWs5XAQ-xn5BzzQ70XIJSISvtve_7SgTT2xo/edit?usp=sharing

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  6. LOVE THE TURKEY DISGUISE SLIDES!! THANK YOU!!!

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  7. My students absolutely loved these. Even my reluctant writers but forth great effort

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