Thursday, November 21, 2013

Turkey & Pumpkin Tot School Fun

If you read my previous post, you know that we now have a half dozen or more kids in the house on Wednesdays!  It’s fun, noisy, messy, and crazy! 

Without a little planning, it could get far too chaotic for me to handle.  So…we’re getting back into the routine of themed tot school days!

This week, we did a Thanksgiving themed day.   We started out our day by making “Harvest Muffins”, which is a recipe from an old friend of mine.  Each child got to take turns measuring and pouring in the ingredients, and each child took a turn to stir as well.

Harvest Muffins

1 3/4 C flour
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 white sugar
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 stick butter, melted
1 bag butterscotch chips
(I also like to add a handful of mini chocolate chips!)


Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Mix wet ingredients in another mixing bowl.  Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients.  Stir in chips.  Bake large muffins at 350 for 20 minutes; bake mini muffins at 350 for 12 minutes.  Enjoy! 


That was our only morning activity, as the kids were playing nicely and I hated to pull them from their fun!

After lunch, we made stained glass turkeys before the littlest ones took their naps.  Money Saving Mom linked to this project last week, and I instantly knew we needed to try this at home!

This was a really easy project, fun enough for the 5 – 7 yr olds, yet easy enough for the toddlers!  I cut out the ‘turkey frames’, contact paper, and tissue squares the night before so it would be easy and ready-to-go.

IMG_1894

Max took this project VERY seriously, and he filled in EVERY LITTLE SPOT in the whole turkey.  Jensyn was more random with her tissue paper placement. 

(Again, I haven’t asked permission to post pictures of the little ones we’re watching, so I didn’t snap any pictures of them this time.)
IMG_1895IMG_1896

(My boys are dressed up as Jake and Cubby, from Jake & The Neverland Pirates…it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it makes them happy, hee hee!)

IMG_1897

It’s so pretty when the sun shines through these turkeys. 
(Photos of turkeys on the window courtesy of Alex’s photography! Open-mouthed smile)
IMG_1947

(The templates for these turkeys are available to print from HappyClippings.com)

IMG_1946

We also used Thanksgiving printables from my own Thanksgiving Pack and from Gift of Curiosity.  We had do-a-dot pages, mazes, patterning pages, letter hunts, and basic addition/subtraction pages to meet the needs of all different ages!

IMG_1935IMG_1936


This day was a little ‘simpler’ than last week, but that was intentional.  It also had to make an extra batch of muffins and a big pot of soup, so I needed a little less ‘super involved mommy’ time on this day.  Now I have to come up with something fun for next week!   Wish me luck!Open-mouthed smile

No comments: