Do you ever have a light bulb moment and try to throw an activity together at the last minute?
I do. All the time.
Sometimes I kick myself for it, but sometimes it works out wonderfully, like this one did.
I present to you…One ODD Turkey.
I had the idea that students could create a turkey that has all odd numbers of body parts.
(1 leg, 3 eyes, 5 feathers, 3 wattles, and so on.) Even and odd is a second grade standard that we practice throughout the year.
Then I decided to take it a step further and create a classroom store so students could “buy” the materials they wanted to complete their projects. All second graders need practice counting coins and making change.
If I had thought of this farther in advance, I would have asked a parent or two to come help me. Instead, I did it all myself. In addition to all of the usual hats that teachers wear, I was also “cashier” and photographer. However chaotic, it was a BLAST!
First, students made their shopping lists while I passed out materials. They each received the two worksheets, a cup to be a “shopping cart,” and 25 cents worth of play money.
As students finished their lists, they came up to the “store” to “shop. Students that were waiting to come shop began coloring the turkey body on their worksheets.
All items were labeled with a price of 1 cent. Students counted the materials they wanted to buy, handed me money to cover the cost and told me how much change they needed back.
Here I am being teacher, cashier, AND photographer: multitasking at its finest!
This cutie asked if she could return something she bought but didn’t want. How funny!! She started a trend, of course, even though I told students it didn’t matter how much money they ended up having left at the end of the activity.
Towards the end of our time, I noticed I had WAY TOO MANY feathers left. What’s a girl to do with hundreds of leftover feathers?
So, I put the feathers on sale: 2 feathers for 1 cent.
The kids had a BLAST and the finished products turned out to be adorable and hilarious.
The One Odd Turkey activity is my newest product in my TPT store. It includes directions, the worksheets, and some additional materials for the optional extension of a “store.”
I hope you have as much fun as we did!
You might also like my Thanksgiving Choice Board.
