The hallway outside a classroom tells a visitor what the class has been learning, and in November it should tell them the class has been thinking about gratitude. Not a store-bought poster of a turkey, but a wall of turkeys the children made themselves, each one with a piece of writing about what its maker is thankful for. A parent walking past stops. A child walking past points and says, "That one is mine." A teacher walking past sees the whole class on one wall, from the four-year-old's drawing to the nine-year-old's paragraph.
That is what this bulletin-board set is for. Eight giant "THANKFUL" letters spell out the theme, and each child makes a turkey — with a photo or without — and adds a piece of thankful writing. The set is built for PreK through 4th grade, with writing pages in two levels so the youngest children and the oldest can share the same board. There are decoration pieces — 16 bottom-border pieces, 9 scalloped strips and 6 "THANKS" pennants — along with 6 subtitle strips, a family photo note, teacher notes, a setup guide and a photo guide. The writing pages are "If I Were a Turkey" and "I Am Thankful," each in two levels. There is no answer key for this set, and none is needed: it is a display and craft set, not a worksheet packet. This guide walks through the board from the first letter to the open house.
Start with the Word, Not the Wall
Before any cutting starts, teach the word. "Thankful" is not a word every four-year-old knows, and it is not a word every nine-year-old thinks about. Gather the class and ask what they are thankful for. The first answers will be toys and games. That is fine. Ask again, and ask differently. "What is something someone did for you this week?" "What is something in our classroom you would miss if it were gone?" The answers change: a friend who shared crayons, a teacher who helped with reading, a warm lunch, a grandmother's house. Those are the answers the writing pages are for, and the children need to hear them from each other before they write them down.
Write the best answers on the board and leave them there while the children work. A child who cannot think of something to be thankful for can borrow an idea from the board and make it their own. That is not copying. That is how gratitude works: hearing what someone else is thankful for reminds you of your own reasons. The board of answers becomes the word bank for the writing, and the writing becomes the board.
The 6 subtitle strips belong in this conversation. They are the smaller text under the giant letters, and they give the board its sentences. Put them up with the letters, or hold them back until the writing is done and let the children choose which subtitle fits their board. Either way, the subtitles are the bridge between the big word on the wall and the small words the children write.
The Letters Go Up First
Put the letters up before the turkeys are made. The 8 giant "THANKFUL" letters in white with a die-cut edge are the frame of the whole board, and they should be on the wall while the children work. A child who can see the word going up understands what they are making, and a child who walks past the letters every day will ask when their turkey goes up. That question is the motivation. The board is not finished until every turkey is on it, and every child knows it.
The setup guide and the photo guide tell you how the letters fit, and they are worth reading once before you start. Measure the wall before you cut anything. Eight giant letters need more space than they look like they do, and a board planned for a hallway wall will not fit on a classroom door. If the wall is small, use the letters on the classroom wall and put the turkeys on the door. If the wall is large, the 16 bottom-border pieces and the 9 scalloped strips fill the space below the letters, and the 6 "THANKS" pennants fill the space above them. The decoration pieces are there so the board looks finished, not crowded. Use what fits. Leave the rest in the folder for next year.
Put the letters up straight. It sounds obvious, and it is the difference between a board that looks professional and a board that looks rushed. Use a level, or a piece of string, or a second pair of hands. A crooked "THANKFUL" is the first thing a visitor notices, and it is the last thing the children remember. Take the ten minutes to get it right.
The Turkey: Photo or No Photo
The turkey craft comes in two versions, and the choice matters. The photo version — large and two per page — puts the child's face on the turkey's body, and it is the version that makes parents stop in the hallway. The no-photo version with a face — also large and two per page — is for the child whose family did not send a photo, or the classroom that does not use photos, or the child who would rather draw a face than paste one. Both versions are in the set, and both belong on the same board. A board with some photo turkeys and some drawn turkeys is a board that includes everyone, and inclusion is the point.
The family photo note is how the photos arrive. It is printed two per page, and it asks the family to send a photo of the child. Send it home a week before the craft starts, not the day before. A family needs time to find a photo, print it, and send it back, and a note sent on Monday for a Tuesday craft will come back with three photos for twenty children. Send it early, send it twice, and have the no-photo version ready for the children whose photos do not arrive. No child should be the one turkey without a face because their family was busy.
There is also a thankful-sign turkey in two levels, and it is the turkey for the child who finishes first or the child who wants to make a second one. It holds a sign that says what the child is thankful for, and it is the simplest turkey in the set. Keep a few of them in the tray for early finishers. A child who finishes the main turkey can make a sign turkey while the rest of the class catches up, and the board gets fuller for it.
The photo guide is worth reading, too. It tells you how to size the photos, how to attach them, and how to keep them from falling off the wall. A photo that falls off the board is a photo lost in the hallway, and a lost photo is a problem no teacher needs. Attach them properly the first time.
The Writing: Two Levels, One Board
The writing is the heart of the set, and the two levels are what make one board work for PreK through 4th grade. "If I Were a Turkey" and "I Am Thankful" each come in two levels. Level 1 is for the youngest writers: a few words, a drawing, a sentence with help. Level 2 is for the older writers: a full piece, with reasons and details. Both levels go on the same board, next to the same letters, and the board does not say which is which. A visitor sees twenty turkeys with twenty pieces of writing, and every piece belongs.
Teach the writing before the children write it. For "I Am Thankful," use the answers from the class conversation as the starting point. "I am thankful for my friend Sam, because he shared his crayons." That is a complete piece of writing for a first grader: a person, a reason, a sentence. For a fourth grader, ask for more: "I am thankful for my friend Sam, because he shared his crayons when mine broke, and that made the whole afternoon better." The difference is detail, and detail is teachable. Ask the older children for one more sentence than they want to write. "Why did it matter?" That question turns a list into a piece of writing.
"If I Were a Turkey" is the fun one, and it is also the harder one, because it asks children to imagine. A turkey that can talk, a turkey that hides, a turkey that flies away — the children will invent freely, and the writing will be joyful. Let it be joyful. The humor is the point. A child who laughs while writing will write more, and a board with funny turkeys is a board people remember. The two levels work the same way: Level 1 draws the turkey and writes a sentence, Level 2 writes the whole escape plan.
Do not correct the writing into sameness. A board where every piece says "I am thankful for my family" is a board where the teacher did the thinking. A board where one child is thankful for pizza, one for their dog, one for a teacher, and one for rain is a board where the children did the thinking. Let the answers be different. The differences are what make the board worth reading.
Confer with children while they write, one at a time, for a minute each. Read the piece aloud with the child and ask one question: "Can you tell me more about that?" A child who is thankful for their dog can add that the dog sleeps on their bed. A child who is thankful for rain can add that rain means puddles. One more detail is the difference between a sentence and a piece of writing, and a minute of conferring is enough to get it. Do not rewrite the child's piece. Add a detail, fix a capital letter, and move on. The writing on the board should sound like the child who wrote it, not like the teacher who corrected it.
For the youngest writers, the drawing is part of the writing. A PreK child who draws their family and writes "mom" has written a piece. A kindergartner who draws a turkey and writes "I am thankful for my dog" has written a piece. Let the drawing carry the meaning the words cannot yet carry, and put the drawing on the board with the words. The board is for the whole class, and the youngest children's work belongs on it as much as the oldest children's paragraphs.
Display the writing with the turkey it belongs to. A turkey on one side of the board and its writing on the other is a board that makes visitors work to connect them. Put each piece of writing directly under or beside its turkey, and the board reads itself. The family photo note, with its no-photo option, means every turkey has a face and every face has a piece of writing, and the board is complete.
The Board Goes Up, and Stays Up
Put the board up in the first week of November, and leave it up through Thanksgiving week. A board that goes up the day before the holiday is a decoration. A board that goes up early and grows as the turkeys are finished is a project, and the children watch it grow. Add the turkeys as they are finished, a few a day, and let the class see the board fill up. The last turkey going up is a small ceremony, and the class should notice it.
The board fits more than a hallway. It fits Thanksgiving door decor, a classroom community board, a fall writing center display, and a family open-house display. The open house is the best use of all: families walk the hallway, find their child's turkey, read the writing, and take a photo. A parent who photographs the board will show it to grandparents, and the child's work gets a second audience. Put the board up where families will see it, not where only the class sees it.
Take a photo of the finished board before you take it down. The photo is the record of the work, and it is also the example for next year. A teacher who shows next year's class a photo of last year's board will not have to explain the project. The photo does it. Keep the letters, the border pieces, the scalloped strips and the pennants in a folder when the board comes down. They are reusable, and next November the board goes up faster.
When the board comes down, give each child their turkey and their writing to take home. The turkey is a keepsake, and the writing is a record of what the child was thankful for at this age. A parent who gets the turkey home will put it on the fridge, and the fridge is the last display of the project. That is a good place for it to end.
Beyond the Board
The set is not only a hallway display. The turkey craft works in a Kindergarten classroom as a photo craft on its own, without the full board. The writing pages work in a writing center, with children writing "I Am Thankful" at a table while the board is being built. The "If I Were a Turkey" page works as an early finisher, and the thankful-sign turkey works as a second craft for the child who finishes first.
For homeschool families, the Turkey Bulletin Board turns a wall at home into the board. The letters go up on a bedroom wall or a kitchen wall, the turkey goes in the middle, and the writing goes beside it. A homeschool board is smaller than a classroom board, but the work is the same: a turkey, a piece of writing, and a word on the wall that the family can see every day.
For a classroom community board, the turkeys can stay up past Thanksgiving. Gratitude does not end with the holiday, and a board that stays up into December reminds the class of what they said they were thankful for. Take it down when the month turns, and let the children take their turkeys home.
Frequently Asked Questions
What grades is this bulletin board set for?
It is written for PreK through 4th grade, with the writing pages in two levels so younger and older children can share the same board. Level 1 is for the youngest writers, and Level 2 is for the older writers.
How does the turkey craft work?
The turkey craft comes in a photo version (large and 2 per page) and a no-photo version with a face (large and 2 per page), plus a thankful-sign turkey in 2 levels. A family photo note (2 per page) is included, with a no-photo option for families who do not send a photo.
What writing is included?
The writing pages are "If I Were a Turkey" and "I Am Thankful," each in 2 levels. The family photo note is included too, and the set has 6 subtitle strips for the board.
Is there an answer key?
No. This is a display and craft set, so there is no answer key — the work is the board itself. The set includes teacher notes, a setup guide and a photo guide instead.
Can I use it for homeschool?
Yes. The Turkey Bulletin Board gives a homeschool November its shape with its letters, turkey craft and writing pages, and the board can go up on a wall at home. The family photo note works the same way at home as it does at school.
What do I need besides the packet?
Photos from families (with the no-photo version as a backup), plus crayons or colored pencils, pencils, scissors and glue. The set includes the letters, border pieces, scalloped strips, pennants, subtitle strips and the photo guide.
How long should the board stay up?
Put it up in the first week of November and leave it up through Thanksgiving week. It also works as a classroom community board, a fall writing center display and a family open-house display.
