How to Catch a Turkey Book Companion November PreK-2nd Sped

About this resource

One theme, one week. Read the same clever-turkey story every day at circle time, and pull one simple

activity after the read-aloud each day — sort, count, find the letter, put the trying-again steps in

order, then build a craft. Every student page has one short instruction with a picture, so a

paraprofessional can run the room from it too.

This week pairs with **How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton** (or any clever-turkey

story you already have). Not affiliated with the authors or publisher. You need your own copy of the

book; nothing from it is reproduced here — the turkey, the trap, the corn trail and every activity are

our own, built from the subject, never the book's own specific traps or their order.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (58 pages)

• 1 Start Here week plan: what to do after the read-aloud each day, plus what else it practices
• 1 book-and-words page naming the read-aloud, an original circle-time chant ("One More Clever Plan,"

written for this unit — no song or story text is reprinted), and the 9 circle-time vocabulary

words

• 9 smartboard slides for whole-group circle time on a projector or interactive board: the cover art,

name the pictures, sort, count (3 slides), the letter hunt, the life skill in order, and the core word

• 9 circle-time vocabulary cards to cut out and use at the carpet (turkey, corn, feather, basket,

pie, house, tractor, leaf, trap)

• Day 1, Sort (something a turkey would eat, or not?), at 3 levels: Level 1 errorless matching, Level 2

the standard two-group sort, Level 3 a third group added (bait, a farm thing, or a toy) — 10

cut-and-glue pieces on every level

• Day 2, Count the feathers the turkey leaves behind, at 3 levels: Levels 1 and 2 count 1–5 with a

5-piece numeral strip to cut and glue; Level 3 counts 6–10 and writes the number, no cutting

• Day 3, Letter T, at 3 levels: Level 1 glues 5 matching T's, Level 2 finds T among 10 look-alike

letters, Level 3 says 10 pictures aloud and glues the 5 that start with the /t/ sound

• Writing, at 3 levels: Level 1 traces the big letters, Level 2 traces letters and the word,

Level 3 writes the letters and the word independently on primary lines

• Day 4, a life-skill sequencing page: 5 picture pieces (4 real steps to try, try again — set the trap,

wait quietly, the turkey gets away, try a new plan — first/next/then/last, plus 1 that does not belong)

• Day 5, a book craft: color and cut a 5-piece build-your-own-trap craft (a big friendly turkey, a

box-and-stick trap, a coiled rope, an ear of corn and a basket — every cut a straight line) and glue it

into a field coloring scene with a fence and corn stalks

• 2 fine motor pages: a tracing-paths page (dashed paths from the turkey to the trap) and a

cutting-practice page (strips, easiest first)

• 4 core-word pages for the word of the week, "try": a big word card for the talker or core board, a

12-word find-and-circle grid (6 of the 12 are the target word), a barn to color, and 10 turkeys to cut

out and glue around it

• 1 "Who Did What This Week" data page (one row per student, a prompt-level code for each day — handy

for IEP notes and progress reports)

• 1 family letter to send home on Day 1
• 1 "What's Next" page pointing to three live November turkey theme weeks (Turkey Disguise, Turkey

Countdown, A New Friend)

• 1 credits page (art and font licenses)
• Ink-saver twins of 19 picture-based student pages (the craft and pure-coloring pages are

color-only) in outline art for a photocopier, so the color pages above are optional, not required

Three Levels On Every Academic Task

Sort, count, letters and writing each come in three levels, marked with a small shape instead of a

number so children don't compare theirs to a neighbor's: a circle for starting (errorless matching), a

square for building (the standard task), a triangle for ready for more (a real step up — a third sort

group, counting 6 to 10 with writing, or beginning sounds).

Cutting Built For Small Hands

Every cutting page carries 5 or more pieces, lined up edge to edge so each cut is one straight line.

Pre-cut them yourself for students who are not cutting independently yet.

Color Or Ink-Saver

Print the color pages, or use the ink-saver twins at the back on a photocopier — most picture-based

student pages have both (the craft and pure-coloring pages are color-only by design).

Who This Is For

Any teacher starting a self-contained preschool or early childhood special education classroom who wants

a whole week of circle time, ready to pull and go: one theme, a different simple activity every day.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A print-and-go weekly theme unit built around a turkey who outsmarts every trap. It is not a claim about

any student's age or rate of progress, and it does not reproduce any book, its text, its artwork, or its

specific trap sequence — no character art is drawn here, only our own generic turkey, a hand-drawn

box-and-stick trap, and our own corn-trail and barnyard pieces.