My Harvest Story – My Harvest Story and Harvest Story Spinner
Materials needed: Print one copy of the Harvest Story/Pictures for each of your children and one Harvest Spinner for each small group, scissors, and glue sticks (*craft sticks and poster putty are optional.)
Print the Harvest Story (linked above) and read the story to each of the children. After several readings (we do extension activities after a day of reading and orally retelling the story), have the children cut out the pictures and glue in the blank boxes in the order they are found in the story. If desired, the children can cut the pictures to make “puppets” using craft sticks and poster putty to retell the story (the beginning letter or words for the pictures can also be written on the craft sticks.) The children can use bingo dot markers or pencils to circle any letters they are working on in the text portion of the Harvest Story.
Spinner for Story Enhancement: *Small group activity
Print the Turkey Spinner (linked above) on heavy paper. Cut out the arrow and make a spinner using a gold brad (turn the arrow several times to loosen the arrow on the brad.) Have the children turn the arrow to the color box of their choice. Read the question out loud to the children and make time for discussion. Have the children use the puppets (made above) or story stones (below) to help answer the story questions. Give each child a turn to choose a color box with the spinner arrow.
Story Stones – Thanksgiving Theme Story Stone Pictures and Words
Materials needed: One My Harvest Story (text only – linked at the beginning of this post), Story Stone Pictures and Words (linked above), small stones, poster putty, and scissors.
Read the Harvest Story several times to the children. Print the story stone pictures/words for each of the children and laminate for durability. Take a walk outside and have the children collect 6 story stones for each of the small groups/individual students. Have the children cut the pictures and words out carefully (assist younger children or pre-cut prior to the activity.) Using the poster putty, have the children tear off small pieces of putty to “glue” the 6 pictures to the 6 stones (one picture per stone). Scramble the word cards and place in the center of the table or work tray. Have the children sequence the stones to correspond with the Harvest Story. After sequencing the stones, have the children try to match the word cards to the story stones they belong to. For younger children, have them look for the beginning letter/sound of each picture and try to locate the word card that begins with that letter/sound.
For more literacy activities for Thanksgiving or Autumn: see the Thanksgiving Thematic Unit at The Preschool Toolbox!
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