Thanksgiving Projects - Edible

We are going to make edible turkeys on Tuesday. They are not very healthy but they are fun. I also tie it with our curriculum with a test.

Moon Pie= turkey body
Nudder Butter cookie= head
choc. chips=eyes
gummy worm= wattle
candy corn=feet
Five tooth picks are stuck into the marshmallow filling.
Each tooth pick has four colored mini marshmallows. This makes the tail feathers.

This is their Thanksgiving snack instead of a party. We are not allowed to cook at school. The parents are not allowed to send foods that they have prepared at home .

When I was younger, every year I made little edible turkeys for each person that was coming to Thanksgiving dinner. It was so much fun! I used Oreo cookies. I untwisted the Oreos so there were two parts. On the creme side, I spread chocolate icing. Then, I stuck the other side (standing up) into the icing. I also spread chocolate icing on the part that was standing up. I put a Whopper for the body/head right in the middle, touching the Oreo that was standing up. On the Oreo that was standing up, I put candy corn in the icing around the Whopper so it would look like feathers. Last, I put a little bit of icing on the front of the Whopper and added a red Tic Tac. They were so cute and edible!

Apples, toothpicks, fruit loops, mini marshmallows, a gumdrop (for the head), raisins for the feet


Poke the apples with the toothpicks.
put on fruit loops and top with a mini marshmallow to make them stay put
toothpick in the front with gumdrop for the head
toothpicks (you need 3 to keep it balanced)It is SO fun and the kids LOVE it!

I use this as my starter project to intro Thanksgiving. Before the activity, I read "Arthur's Thanksgiving" (the last page reinforces that a turkey is a symbol of Thanksgiving)

Happy Turkey Day,
Shark

One of the primary teachers at my school makes these at Thanksgiving time. I think I might do it with my fifth graders too and then have them write a how to essay when they finish.

You will need for each student:
2 small piece of licorice
Peanut butter or frosting (make sure no one has peanut allergies)
1 candy corn
pretzel sticks
2 mini M & M's

The first thing you will have them do is spread the peanut butter or frosting on the rice cake. Then they will put the pretzels around the edge fanned out to look like feathers. The M & M's will be the eyes, candy corn the beak, and the licorice the feet.

These are cute and yummy.

We're going to make these on Wed afternoon. Since we've learned how Squanto and the Wampanoags helped teach the Pilgrims to plant corn. We actually have testing in the a.m. and so I definitely wanted to do something kind of fun and simple for the p.m.

"Helpful Squanto’s Snack"


Ingredients:
4 Oreo cookies
3 candy corns
3 goldfish crackers- fish

Supplies:
Clear cup
Spoon
Ziploc bag

Directions:
Put 4 Oreo cookies in a Ziploc bag and crush them.
Pour the crushed cookies into a clear cup.
“Plant” 3 candy corns and 3 goldfish in the “dirt”.
Eat with a spoon.

Rebecca,
What a great idea! I just love it!
I ran across this recipe for another treat that I'd like to share.

BLESSING MIX
Each ingredient in this snack symbolizes something associated with Thanksgiving.

2 C. Bugles brand corn snacks (shaped like a cornucopia or horn of plenty)
2 C. pretzels (represents arms folded in thanks and prayer)
1 C. candy corn (during the first winter, the pilgrims were allotted only 5 kernels of corn per day because food was so scarce)
1 C. dried fruit (Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest. Craisins would be a great addition!)
1 C. peanuts or sunflower seeds (seeds represent the potential of a bounteous harvest for the next season if the seeds are planted and well tended)

Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl. Discuss with the children each ingredient and how it relates to Thanksgiving. Then, enjoy!

Cindy

Here are some ideas:

We make individual cranberry breads. I find for my students, it is easiest to purchase the pre-made mixes from Betty Crocker that are available in the supermarkets. I invite moms in to run cooking groups and the students get to measure and mix. The moms take the breads home to bake, and because we do them in the individual disposable tins, each child has the bread that he or she helped make. You can also do this with muffins. If you want to get really involved, you can do a bread or muffin recipe from scratch, but I find this works well for my kids.

For projects, we have made pinecone turkeys where we have glued chenille bump pipe cleaners to the pine cone back for the tail, and wiggly eyes to the front. My favorite project though, is to take a pattern of a cornucopia and duplicate it for each child. Tape it to a 9 X 12 sheet of tagboard, and cover the pattern with Saran Wrap. Children color the Saran Wrap covered pattern with permanent markers. When you are done, carefully remove the Saran Wrap and set it aside. Scrunch up enough tin foil to cover the oak tag. Tape the foil onto the oaktag and then tape the colored Saran Wrap pattern on top. It looks just like stained glass.

Finally, for our party, we have a "finger food feast". Each child signs up for a small healthy snack: carrot sticks, string cheese, fruit etc. We have a buffet where each child can take what they would like. The kids really enjoy it, and it avoids a lot of the sugar.

Every year I ask my second graders to bring in a fresh pineapple. I do this the week of Thanksgiving.
I cut out a turkey head from red/orange felt and give each student 2 pieces. They place an eye on each side then I have them line the edges of the felt with glue and let this sit overnight. The next day we stuff the turkey heads with white batting. Next I take the student's pineapple turn it on it's side and pin the turkey head to it. I always put 6 pins in to anchor the head. That way each child knows to pull out 6 pins before enjoying their turkey centerpiece. It is a hit every year and parents who I have had before look forward to this tradition.

Get the storybook "Cranberry Thanksgiving" by Wende and Harry Devlin. Its about Grandmothers Famous Cranberry Bread recipe, and people trying to steal it from her, while she saves it behind a brick in the fireplace to give to her grand daughter.

At the end of the book, wonder of wonders, they have "accidentally" left the famous recipe in the back of the book!! Its a fairly simple loaf recipe. I make it in mini loaf pans and we wrap it in cellophane and send it home, along with a copy of the recipe, which they PROMISE not to lose.

A really easy recipe is to make home made cranberry sauce - its just raw cranberries, sugar, water and a little fresh orange zest (grated peel). You cook and stir for about 10 minutes as the berries pop their skin, and then and let it cool. There is a recipe on the back of the package. One package of cranberries makes lots, enough to share into at least 8 baby food jars to take home.

I tell my students that we're going to have a Thanksgiving Feast. They get all excited. We talk about what their Thanksgiving Feasts look like. They could even write about it.

Then I pass out popcorn, jelly beans, toast, and pretzel sticks and they are super confused. I put on the movie, "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and it is so cool to hear them when they realize that this is the feast the characters have in the movie. The love it!

I make butter and corn bread. For the corn bread I use my electric frying pan with the lit on. I use corn bread mix from a box(Jiffy). We mix up several boxes, pour into small waxed drinking cups and put into the pan bake for 15 minutes. We have no over available and this works great.

Also we make mini pumpkin squares. Mix about a tablespoon of pumkin pie mix in a can with cool whip. Make a sandwich from graham crackers and freeze.

In my second grade class, we make a stone soup the day before Thanksgiving. We read the book (there are lots of versions-find the older version) together and I will found a stone for our soup on the playground. I will boil it at home to kill the germs and then bring a crock-pot, beef bouillon cubes, and seasoning to school. The kids take home a parent letter explaining that we are participating in an activity in which we are learning about sharing and giving to others. The students will bring in two cans of vegetables. One can for our soup and one can to give to a charity. We have a great time eating our soup and cornbread!

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

The best cookies to use are the fudge striped cookies, turn striped sides down (fudge circle should show), but you could dip any medium size cookie in chocolate. Dip marshmallows in melted chocolate and place on top of cookies. Put it in a cool place so that it can harden. Use yellow icing to pipe a buckle on the marshmallow. These make really cute pilgrim hats.