A TURKEY FOR THE USA THANKSGIVING

Pencil hold help and fun for young hands:

1) Give a child or children some corn. Use candy corn or the hard corn found at this season. You could even cut up tiny bits of orange paper and pretend it’s corn.

2) Children should pick up a piece of corn, holding it between index finger and thumb. Put it down. Close the eyes and pick it up. Repeat slowly, and think about where fingers are placed.

3) Hand out one or more turkey papers. Pick up a piece of corn. Feed corn to your turkey, placing it near his beak. Repeat.

4) The teacher or parent demonstrates a good hold for the child or children.

5) Add some feathers to the turkey that look like the pattern below. This is a good opportunity to use the non dominant hand to turn the paper.

As children write they should chant “gobble, gobble, gobble,” emphasizing the first syllable; it’s the downstroke! Say “Freeze.” If the writing tool hold is still good feed your turkey. Repeat.

6) Trace and copy the word, “turkey.”

7) Switch to crayons or markers and color. Hope the good holds HOLD!