Turkey Letter Match for Preschoolers
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If you’re looking for an alphabet activity for your preschoolers to do during Thanksgiving month, this FREE, fun, and pretty hands-on Turkey Letter Match activity will allow your preschoolers to work on letter recognition and matching uppercase and lowercase letters. This will help them build the pre-reading skills they need to learn to read in kindergarten.
This activity is excellent for strengthening the children’s concentration, letter knowledge, one-to-one correspondence, and creating set skills.
The Turkey Letter Match activity includes six and a half pages with twelve different turkeys featuring all the uppercase letters and four and a half pages with pumpkins featuring all the lowercase letters of the alphabet. You can get it at the end of this post.
Importance of Recognizing Letters
If a child doesn’t identify and name the letters and their sounds, it will not be possible to create the necessary base for him/her to start reading.
When a child can recognize and name the letters of the alphabet, that child can distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters. Exposing your children to letters in different fonts is also essential; it gets them used to the variety and helps them recognize letters regardless of the font used.
After that, the child will start to say letter sounds, then put sounds together to make syllables, later words, and finally put words together to form phrases.
Turkey Letter Match
Use this Turkey Letter Match activity as a small-group Writing center, Literacy center, reading center, take-home game, or quiet-area activity.
This low-prep activity is straightforward to prepare and requires a few materials.
You will need:
- Free Turkey Letter Match printable.
- Printer.
- White cardstock.
- Laminator and laminator pouches.
- Scissors.
- Small basket or Ziploc bag.
Print each page using white cardstock, then cut out and laminate the turkey and pumpkins to make them last longer. To protect them, place them in a small basket or a Ziploc bag.
This activity can be played individually or with a partner. To begin, your preschoolers gather the turkey and pumpkin tiles. Take one tile at a time, identify the letter, and find the matching pair.
If your kids are just starting to learn letter names, begin with a few tiles. Then add two or three more each time they play.
When your kiddos know all the letter names, have them say each letter’s sound as they match turkeys with the pumpkins.
This activity helps preschoolers practice letter recognition, fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, control, concentration, one-to-one correspondence, and language development (naming letters aloud and letter sequence).
Other Ideas
- To give the children another option, have them match the letter with magnetic, foam, or wooden letters.
- Prepare centers using this and my other Fall activities. Below are some ideas and free printables.
- Have them trace the letters on paper using pencils, crayons, or markers.
- Have them find words that start with each letter.
- Have them place the letters in alphabetical order.
- Use the turkeys and pumpkins to create patterns.
- Use the turkeys and pumpkins in your sensory table, adding feathers, hay, mini turkeys, and other materials.
- Have them count and graph how many turkeys of each kind they have and how many light-orange and dark-orange pumpkins.
- Use this activity as a folder game. Cut out the pumpkins and paste them into a manila folder. Then, cut out the turkeys and place them in an envelope or a Ziploc bag to keep them safe.
Enhance Their Learning by Reading Books
Never forget to include books related to the season and/or theme you are using in every center. Exposing your children to literacy is crucial to support their learning.
On this occasion, I want to suggest some of my favorites for Thanksgiving and turkeys. If you don’t have them, you can always find many at your local library or used bookstore. Of course, you can order them through my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the titles below.
- 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston is a silly, fun rhyming story about ten turkeys that teaches children to count backward.
- How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace is a hilarious picture book that combines STEAM concepts and traps with a silly story and fun illustrations, perfect for the Thanksgiving theme.
- How Many Turkeys Can You Find? by Holiday Puzzle Sensations. Children will love this book’s vibrant Thanksgiving pictures and be motivated to solve the riddles on its pages.
- 1,2, 3 All About Fall: A Counting Book from 1 to 20 by Little Pear Books. Children will love learning to count from 1 to 20, along with fall-themed vocabulary, in this book celebrating autumn and Thanksgiving.
- One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy. This book’s simple, rhythmic text and autumn-colored illustrations are perfect for practicing counting and sharing the history and fun of Thanksgiving with young children.
Pin It For Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it, pin this to your Literacy, Fall, or Thanksgiving board on Pinterest for later.
Then check out other FREE counting printables available only to my readers and grab them, too, to expand your Fall activities collection and help your preschoolers have fun while learning.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE Turkey Letter Match printable by clicking the link below!
I hope you and your children enjoy this activity, wherever you live. Even if you’re not American and don’t have the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving, you can still use this activity during the entire Fall season.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you. If you would like to see an article or a printable on how to make something specific, please let me know, and I will do my best to create it for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can, and I don’t like anything better than posting something you might find helpful.
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