Turkey Claus

Welcome to the last Wild About Books Wednesday of the year! I hope you don't mind that this little blog series will be taking a break to observe the holidays. But, never fear! It will return January 7, 2015 with a BANG! And by bang, I mean a freebie. haha.. If you're new around here, each Wednesday I discuss a specific book and share ideas on how to use it in speech/language therapy. I also invite my fellow bloggers to link up to share their own ideas! If you would like to link up, just use the picture at the bottom of this post to link back to me. Without further ado...
Turkey is baaacck! I just love Wendi Silvano's Turkey books! There's just something about a turkey, as my man Benjamin Franklin said when comparing a turkey to a bald eagle, "a turkey is a much more respectable bird."

This time around, Turkey must escape Christmas dinner! Being a bird of gumption, he hails a taxi and journeys to the North Pole. Of course, getting a Christmas wish from Santa is the only logical solution to his problem. Except.. it's Christmas Eve and Santa is too busy to take guests. Well, Turkey tries a variety of disguises to sneak into Santa's house. Ultimately, a present turns out to be the best disguise (if you ever find yourself in the North Pole desperately seeking Santa). Santa grants him his wish and gives him the best disguise of all - a Santa costume! He returns to the farm with pizza and he lives to see another day!

I put a little Christmas spin on my previous Turkey freebie! This freebie is perfect for students who are working on comprehension, sequencing, retelling, and more! Students simply sequence the story by drawing on each disguise that the turkey tried. First, they'll draw a Christmas tree costume, a reindeer costume, etc.
If you would like this freebie, just click HERE.

Additional Ideas:
1) Problem Solving - ask students, "what would you do if you were Turkey?" and discuss other costumes that would be appropriate at the North Pole.
2) Compare/Contrast - Compare this book to Turkey Trouble. These two books are perfect for building text-to-text connections. You can also compare Santa and Turkey!
3) Executive Function - Have students plan a Christmas dinner or pizza party!

Have you used this book before? Please comment and share some ideas! Have a wonderful Wild About Books Wednesday!
P.S. Have you signed up for my newsletter? It's coming in February with some sweet freebies! You can sign up HERE.