French Thanksgiving Turkey Finger Play
I started my French Thanksgiving lessons at the preschool today. It was all about turkeys–les dindes. I always get a kick out of asking a group of kids to imitate French turkeys with a glou, glou, glou. It’s just hilarious, especially with the random gobble, gobble and cock-a-doodle-doo!
I wrote a finger play as part of my Thanksgiving for PreK-Grade 2 downloadable unit at Foreign Language House. The kids really enjoyed it. At our next class, we’ll be making handprint turkeys to illustrate the rhyme. Hold up your hand as you say the finger play, and use a nice cartoony turkey voice at the end. C’est amusant 
Voici la dinde, dinde, dinde = Here is the turkey (hold up hand)
Elle a une tête, tête, tête = She has a head (wiggle thumb)
Et quatre plumes, plumes, plumes = And 4 feathers (wiggle 4 fingers)
Aussi un bec, bec, bec. = Also a beak (wiggle thumb)
La dinde a peur, peur, peur = The turkey’s scared (shake hand)
Elle dit glou, glou, glou = She says glou glou glou/gobble (wiggle thumb)
Ne me mange pas, pas, pas = Don’t eat me (shake hand back and forth)
Merci beaucoup, -coup, -coup = Thanks a lot (wave)
Of course, my child came up with an alternate ending to the finger play. He likes to add on a nice big “CHOMP!” and a wild little laugh. Yep, he’s a character!
In addition to the hand turkey finger play, the FLH download includes three songs, a story, TPR, comprehension worksheets (great for grades 1-2), and coloring pages that my pre-k’s loved. A Spanish version of the download is available, too.
Happy Dinde Day!
Photo Credit: by spekulator at http://www.sxc.hu/photo/854540
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Comments
I think it is terrific that you have found a way to incorporate french and spainish things in your class. I wish there were more teaching like us that would incorporated french things in to the lesson. I believe this helps promotes the students brains and makes their learning environment more enriched. Keep up the good work!
I LOVE your Thanksgiving unit….I needed both of them since I teach French K-8. and have used all your ideas…..The kids love it too….I am hoping you have a Christmas Unit too!!! Keep up the good work…..
I think the “French Thanksgiving Turkey” fingerplay is adorable! I have a lot of hispanic students and may try to do it in the Spanish version that you linked. I’m sure the kids would love it. An idea would be to allow the children to come up with their own dance moves while “gobbling.” The holidays are always a fun time to incorporate bilingual songs or plays with younger children. It’s interesting to see how easy they can pick up on a language when it’s repeated or sung to a familiar song!