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Plump and Perky Turkey

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Throughout my childhood I vividly remember Thanksgiving as the annual holiday when I ate potatoes. Lots and LOTS of mashed potatoes. Eventually I grew to love pumpkin pie and that was added to my meal.

plump turkey

And that was it.

Even now I’d prefer a honey-baked ham over a turkey any day.

It is little wonder that I adore the rhyming book A Plump and Perky Turkey. It is about a clever turkey who outsmarts an entire New England town. Shredded wheat for Thanksgiving? No problem (so long as there are mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie!).

Speech Therapy Ideas:
1. Practice articulation words before, during, and after reading this story. Here are some of the words that I picked out of the story.

2. Identify and explain turkey idioms such as:
“go cold turkey”
“talk turkey”
“turkey” (as in “You turkey!”)

3. Practice vocabulary within the story. Identify meanings, tell meanings aloud, determine synonyms, match words to pictures. I made a 3 page chart of vocabulary words. Here is a screen shot of a few of them:

4. Answer story comprehension questions:
Who:
Who are the main characters in the story?
Who has the great idea?
Who decides to be the model and makes the towns people happy?

What:
What do the people in Squawk Valley want?
What do the people in Squawk Valley NOT want to eat?
What does Pete take as his payment for modeling?
What kind of activity do the people hold?
What is the plan for tricking a turkey?

Where:
Where does the story take place?
Where are all the turkeys going?
Where do the posters go?

When?
When does the story take place?
When does Pete disappear?

Why?
Why are the turkeys hard to find at Thanksgiving time?
Why does Pete hide?
Why do the people want to trick a turkey into their town?

5. Retell the story including characters, setting, problem, events, resolution.

6. Just for fun, make some turkey origami!

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18 Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing! It sounds like a really funny book to get kids into Thanksgiving.

  3. This sounds like fun! I just know my daughter would enjoy this. Especially the origami 🙂

  4. This book sounds and looks so cute….believe it or not, I have never seen it! I will have to grab a copy before turkey day!!

    Happy Monday!

    Lisa

  5. This is awesome! I totally wish that I had discovered your blog while I was still teaching!

  6. This is awesome! I’ve been looking for a good Thanksgiving book! Thanks for all of this!!

    (Hug!)

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  8. Ooh honey baked ham. How I love it!

    Looks like a fun book! I’ll have to check it out.
    Becky

  9. I want you to know I bought my son the Leapfrog fridge letter thingie and he LOVES it. And I know he’s too young for it at 15 months, but I swear it’s already helping. He tries to mimic the letter noises he hears and has learned “k” from it already.

    Anwyay. As for roast turkey? It’s uber gross. But FRIED turkey is an entirely different story …

  10. I can’t wait till next week when my kids have VACATION. Seriously.

    My kids are into older stuff now. I just read THE HATCHET tonight. My oldest daughter loved the story and asked me to read it too. I love reading children’s literature.

  11. Perhaps one of these days, before I get too terribly old, I could go back for my Speech Path. degree? I got special ed. but have always been fascintated with speech therapy. Thanks for sharing great ideas! I’m going to direct a friend to your blog. Her son has speech challenges.

  12. So you eat potatoes!!!! Seems like every recipe I post — you don’t like the vegetable I use so now I know — POTATOES. Okay, so I am off to figure out some potato recipes to post for you.

    Thank you for your encouraging comment. It is so comforting to know that there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

    In friendship,
    Lacy

  13. We already had our Thanksgiving in Canada, but I love the turkey craft for the kids!

  16. I need to introduce Alexis to this book – I’ve never heard of it! I love turkey and … ham!

    See you soon – Kellan

  17. You amaze me with the all of the activities you are able to come up with for one book. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

  18. My favorite Thanksgiving story!!! Thanks for all this great stuff!

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