Use music to get children moving while they learn about turkeys. Play the song "The Chicken Dance" and teach children how to move like turkeys. Show the children how to flap their hands to represent the turkey talking. Demonstrate how to fold your hands under your armpits and move your elbows to represent a turkey's wings. Children can then shake their hips to resemble a turkey shaking his feathers. Finish by clapping. Repeat each step four times, in time with the music.
Use paper to make turkey prints and tape them over the floor, placing one less print than the number of students. Turn on music and allow the children to walk around the room pretending to be turkeys. Instruct the children to stand on a turkey print when the music is stopped, like musical chairs. The student who does not get to a print is out. Remove a print from the floor. Start the music again and repeat until there is a winner.
Use the melody from popular nursery rhymes and come up with Thanksgiving themed songs. Use songs that children are familiar with, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and change the lyrics to suit your preschoolers. You can create songs about dinner, turkeys, Pilgrims and Native Americans. You may come up with the lyrics or allow the children to contribute to the song. Teach the children the song and have them sing together. Children may enjoy dressing up in Thanksgiving costumes and performing the new songs for other children.