What a great month to focus on families!

First, let each child make a house from a paper grocery sack. Fold down the top corners of the sack to the middle of the back to make the roof.

Staple in place. Next, staple the bottom of the sack to the sides to create a pocket.

Have the children decorate the front with markers or crayons. Give them old magazines or catalogs and let them cut out different family members.

Tape the paper people to straws to make puppets. Store the puppets in the back pocket.

Encourage the children to make up stories about their families with their puppets.

Discuss how families are alike. How are they different?

Make a graph of the number of people or pets in their family.

Write a language experience story of how families have fun together.

Write this poem on a poster: (Click and use your browser's
Print button to print your own poster)

He is big and fat And he gobble, gobble, gobbles.
He spreads his tail And he wobble, wobble, wobbles.
And when Thanksgiving Day is here,
Then it's our turn to, "Gobble, gobble, gobble!"

Glue a small, plastic turkey or turkey eraser to the end of a pencil so children can track the words as they "read" the poem.