Works For Me Wednesday - Thanksgiving Countdown

Last year, around the last week of October, not coincidentally just as Christmas decorations began to edge in on all the Halloween stuff on store shelves, my then-3-year old began talking about how ready he was for Christmas. Not wanting to spend the next 8 weeks telling him "not yet" I began to explain that first we had to have Thanksgiving, and T-giving was still a while away itself. So, to break down the wait, and to encourage some thankfulness, we made this little activity. First we made a paper chain with a link for each day remaining until Thanksgiving. Then I cut out a gourd/upside-down light bulb shape out of brown construction paper for a turkey-body. I added eyes & a beak, and wrote across his belly, "Dale says: 'Thank you God, for...."
Then, each day we would unfasten a link, write something he was thankful for on it, and then glue it behind the turkey for his tail. (I also put a little symbol on each link as a help - stick person for a person, house for a place, and dot for a 'thing'). Each time the turkey got a new feather we would kneel right then and there and thank God for whatever it was that day. Along with all the usual stuff, you get some interesting things, like soup. And insects. You never know what a preschooler is going to be thankful for! But there is a good lesson for all of us in that. :)

This Worked So Well for us last year, that on November 1st we were ready to go again with a new turkey. This year, Dale cut him out and drew on his eyes himself. And for some reason, he is liking keeping the feathers sorted by color. But hey. It's his turkey. And he's learning (slowly) a sense of time. And he's thanking the Giver of all good gifts. And that Works for Me! :)
Fore more great WFMW tips, be sure and head over to Rocks in My Dryer.