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Pigeon Fun Thanksgiving-Style!

November 10 By Linda Kamp 24 Comments

Who doesn’t love Mo Willems’ books?  I thought I’d share this fun twist on disguise a turkey that we did.  It’s persuasive writing Pigeon fun, Thanksgiving-style!
The Pigeon is by far our favorite Mo Willems character.  Our librarian and art teacher do all sorts of activities at the beginning of the year with Mo Willems books so my kiddos can practically retell this story word for word!
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We started out by setting the purpose for our writing.
Tom Turkey has disguised himself as a pigeon to keep from being eaten on Thanksgiving!
He needs everyone’s help to convince people to eat hot dogs instead of
turkey for their holiday meal!
Next, my kiddos brainstormed, from the turkey’s point of view, good reasons
to eat hot dogs on Thanksgiving.  I projected the colored anchor chart
and had students share some of their favorite reasons.

 

Uh, oh somebody’s mom burned the turkey!
This little guy could not stop talking about how some people don’t like birds! (I think he is one of them!)
Students made the booklets listing three good reasons to eat hot dogs instead of turkey and then told why.  I have to laugh whenever I hear the phrase “3 good reasons”!  It always reminds me of my Mom raising me and 5 boys! I can still hear her saying…”Give me three good reasons why I shouldn’t….!)  I don’t know how she did it!
These are some of my favorites!

 

 “Turkey makes you fat when you eat the whole thing!”
    I love this one!  “Sleeping pills are made from turkey meat.”

 

“You won’t choke on a bone and have to go the hospital and miss all the fun!

My kiddos absolutely loved this project!

 Anchor charts for prewriting and setting the purpose, all of the templates and directions,
as well as 3 different versions of handwriting lines are included.
If you’d like to do this in your classrooom you can find it

in my TeachersPayTeachers or Teacher’s Notebook stores.

I’m linking up with Amanda at Teaching Maddeness for another Friday Flashback!
Head over to check out what’s happening in classrooms this week!
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    Filed Under: Holidays, Reading, Thanksgiving Activities Tagged With: book activities, Pigeon, Thanksgiving, writing

    Comments

    1. Greg Smedley says

      November 10 at 5:40 pm

      OMG! This is the cutest ing ever!! So using this with my class! Thank you for sharing and inspiring!

      Greg

      Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten

      Reply
    2. Lisa Mattes says

      November 10 at 7:53 pm

      Oh My WORD!!! I'm buying NOW. Not waiting one more second! Thanks so much!!!!
      Growing Firsties is having a Pete the Cat Giveaway that also donates to Hurricane Sandy Relief!

      Reply
    3. Lisa Mattes says

      November 10 at 8:00 pm

      Just bought it and I'm super excited! Thanks a bunch!!!

      Reply
    4. Miss Foote says

      November 10 at 8:47 pm

      So fun! Love the Pigeon as a Turkey. Pigeon wants a Turkey!

      Laurie
      Chickadee Jubilee

      Reply
    5. Linda says

      November 11 at 1:36 am

      Hi Greg! Thanks so much! Don't you just love the pigeon?
      I'm so glad you stopped by and hope your kiddos enjoy it!

      Reply
    6. Linda says

      November 11 at 1:38 am

      Hi Lisa! Thanks so much! My kids had a blast and we laughed the whole afternoon! I'm headed your way now to the Hurricane Sandy Relief Giveaway!
      Thanks again!

      Reply
    7. Miss Kindergarten says

      November 11 at 2:33 am

      How cute!! My students love this story, they would love this project!

      Reply
    8. Linda says

      November 11 at 2:52 am

      Hi Casey! Thank you so much for stopping by so I could find your blogs! I teach second grade, too and love finding new ones!

      Reply
    9. Alisha P says

      November 11 at 4:56 am

      This is ADORABLE! And so creative!

      Reply
    10. Casey Turner says

      November 11 at 12:21 am

      LOVE LOVE LOVE This! What a great idea! 🙂

      Casey
      Second Grade Math Maniac
      Second Grade Freebies

      Reply
    11. Alison Hislop says

      November 11 at 11:11 am

      LOVE LOVE LOVE! These are adorable! We love that book in our classroom! Thanks for sharing!

      Alison
      Teaching Maths with Meaning

      Reply
    12. Melissa Machan says

      November 11 at 8:25 pm

      Hi Linda,

      Thanks so much for finding me on TpT and on my blog! It is so fun to connect with new people. I LOVED your freebies and highlighted you first on my blog – check it out http://first-grade-smiles.blogspot.com/2012/11/fresh-new-freebies.html I also tried to follow you on here, but there was some sort of error so I will check back another time and try again. You have some really fun ideas on here so I am anxious to follow so I can keep coming back for more inspiration!

      Melissa
      First Grade Smiles

      Reply
    13. Jessica Lawler says

      November 11 at 10:27 pm

      What a wonderful idea!
      I do something similar in my classroom to practice persuasive letter writing.
      I think I'll use this as an introduction example to my unit.

      Thanks! 🙂

      I found you through the Friday Flashback linky – I'm your newest follower! Stop by sometime 🙂

      ~Jessica
      Joy in the Journey

      Reply
    14. Amanda Madden says

      November 11 at 10:59 pm

      That is the cutest pigeon ever!! I can tell from your kids' ideas that they had the best time with this activity. I enjoyed reading their writing. 😉 So glad you linked up again to share your fabulousness! 🙂

      Amanda
      Teaching Maddeness

      Reply
    15. Lisa Mattes says

      November 12 at 12:22 am

      You may want to head back and check my newest post…had to give you some bloggy love via shout out. 🙂
      Smiles – Lisa

      Reply
    16. Linda says

      November 12 at 3:18 pm

      Ha! Thanks, Miss Foote!

      Reply
    17. Linda says

      November 12 at 3:20 pm

      Hi Alison! How are you, my friend? Don't you just love Mo Willems books?!

      Reply
    18. Linda says

      November 12 at 3:41 pm

      Lisa, you are too sweet!! Thank you so much!

      Reply
    19. Linda says

      November 12 at 3:43 pm

      Thanks Amanda! You know how much I love your Friday flashbacks!

      Reply
    20. Linda says

      November 13 at 2:27 am

      Hi Melissa! You are so sweet! Thank you so much!

      Reply
    21. Sister Secrets says

      November 13 at 3:29 am

      These pigeons are so cute! Love the ideas here. 🙂

      Reply
    22. Greg Smedley says

      November 17 at 4:56 pm

      We did this today in our Kindergarten class! The kids LOVED it! I gave you a shout out on my blog! Thanks for the great idea!

      Greg
      Smedley's Smorgasboard of Kindergarten

      Reply
    23. Linda says

      November 21 at 3:42 am

      Thank you so much Greg! I taught Kindergarten for a long time and it still holds a special place in my heart! I'm so glad your kiddos enjoyed it! You gotta love that pigeon!

      Reply
    24. Ashley says

      January 2 at 9:04 pm

      I LOVE this! Mo Willems and that crazy pigeon are my absolute FAVORITE! I was so excited to buy The Duckling Gets a Cookie? a few months ago that the monday after, we just HAD to read it! I'm putting this on my favorites list to bring up next year for thanksgiving! 🙂

      Your newest follower,

      Ashley
      Primary Teacherhood

      Reply

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