30 Terrific Turkey Videos for Kindergarten
It’s turkey time! 🦃 As Thanksgiving break approaches, you may be planning a turkey theme in your classroom. If so, your kiddos will gobble up this curated collection of turkey videos for kids! Like my other video round-ups, this one is divided into categories to help you choose turkey videos that make it easy to integrate your theme across the curriculum. You’ll find turkey videos for teaching science, math, literacy, and art concepts, as well as some that are just for fun!
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Now, onto the list! I mean, you could go off flying blind on YouTube, hoping to find the perfect turkey videos, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush! No need to wing it when you’ve got this collection of turkey videos to add to your bag of chicks! 🤣
Turkey Videos for Teaching Science
This first set of turkey videos is full of information that will both fuel and satisfy the curiosity of your students! Turkeys are really fascinating birds! These videos are great for adding info to your anchor charts and fueling informational writing!
One of my favorite channels on YouTube, SciShow Kids, has this “Fun Facts About Turkeys” video. At just under four minutes, this video packs in a lot of turkey info! Like the other SciShow Kids videos, this is very fast-paced and is probably worth watching more than once.
This next video, from Homeschool Pop, comes in at just under nine minutes. The narrator uses a fun, kid-friendly tone, making this an engaging lesson. Using a combination of photographs, clip art, and animation, Homeschool Pop teaches a number of fascinating facts with the goal of helping viewers become “turkey experts.”
Miss Stephanie takes students on a nine-minute virtual field trip to a turkey farm in the next video. The narrator of this video speaks in a slow, calming voice, giving students time to process the new vocabulary she introduces. She also shows photos and video footage of turkeys that nicely illustrate her lessons.
In this Mystery Science episode, Doug answers a student’s question about a turkey’s wattle and snood, leading into a lesson on why male and female birds have different colorations. This video is very informative and kid-friendly. I love how it really encourages children to be curious and to think deeply about science.
From Harry Kindergarten, this catchy and content-rich turkey song gives students the chance to get their wiggles out while also internalizing some turkey facts and vocabulary!
Need something a little longer? This full Wild Kratts episode, “Happy Turkey Day,” features the Kratt brothers on a mission to defend the honor of the wild turkey while thwarting a menacing chef with ill intentions.
Learning about turkeys? This informational unit includes an eye-catching PowerPoint and a bunch of printable material! Find it in the website shop below and here on TPT.
Turkeys Unit with PowerPoint
This “All About Turkeys” thematic unit includes materials to help you integrate learning about turkeys into science, social studies, literacy, and math in your primary classroom. You will download a zipped folder containing a PowerPoint File and a PDF.
Turkey Videos That Support Math Instruction
This section includes turkey videos you can integrate into your kindergarten math lessons this November!
Kids will enjoy gobbling, flapping, clapping, and stomping as they count twenty turkeys with Dr. Sean. If rote counting practice is what your little turkeys need, then this is the video for you!
From The Kiboomers, this “Five Little Turkeys” video follows the “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed” pattern and tune and is great for introducing the concept of subtraction.
Here’s another “Five Little Turkeys” song, this one from The Learning Station. This version introduces the turkeys in order from first to fifth and is perfect for reviewing ordinal numbers. Kids will enjoy singing along with this turkey song at increasing speeds!
The Learning Station also has a “Ten Little Turkeys” song. This is another great subtraction song, as the turkeys leave one at a time (much like in the “Five Little Ducks” song).
This math video and the next are from Mr. R’s Songs for Teaching. This one gives kids several chances to practice subitizing, or quickly identifying a quantity, with groups of turkeys.
And this one gives two and a half minutes of catchy skip counting practice—by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
Looking for more turkey math? This little printable set lets your kiddos make a shape turkey! Find it on TPT, or below in the website shop.
Shape Turkey Math Craft
This Thanksgiving shape turkey math craft gives students a chance to review basic shapes while building their fine motor skills and following directions.
Turkey Videos for Your Literacy Lessons
Next up, turkey videos that you can use to support literacy concepts in your classroom!
From Reading Rena, this fingerplay of “The Turkey is a Funny Bird” makes a great quick literacy lesson. Write the words of this short poem (which are included in the video description) on chart paper and use it for shared reading. Children will also enjoy making up their own motions to go along with this classic rhyme!
Here’s another fingerplay from Reading Rena (again with the words in the description—thanks, Rena!). “Mr. Turkey and Mr. Duck” is a fun rhyme for language play and has lots of good material for putting phonics lessons into practice. I would definitely write this one on chart paper, too!
Turkey Trouble, which you can find on Amazon here, is a fun Thanksgiving picture book about a turkey attempting to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner by trying on various disguises. Many teachers use this story to lead into a “Turkey in Disguise” project for students. See it read aloud in this video from Storyline Online by comedian Marc Maron.
Part of the Turkey Trouble series, Turkey Goes to School follows up with our protagonist as he tries to sneak into school, again using a variety of creative disguises. Find the book here on Amazon to add it to your library and watch it below in this video read-aloud from Clever Brains.
Toadstools and Fairytales brings us another turkey read-aloud. This one is How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton (which you can find on Amazon here). This story follows a turkey with stage fright attempting to escape from school children who want him as a participant in their school Thanksgiving play.
Here’s one last read-aloud by Storytime Anytime. The Very Stuffed Turkey by Katherine Kennah is a sweet story of a turkey who over-commits on Thanksgiving and accepts many invitations to Thanksgiving dinners. With a theme of friendship, acceptance, and belonging, this is a perfect story for the Thanksgiving season. (This one is available on Kindle, but the paperback price makes me think it is no longer in print.)
Turkey Videos with Art Ideas
No thematic unit is complete without arts and crafts! These turkey videos share how-tos and tutorials that will help your students get creative within the turkey theme.
Let’s start with hand turkeys! If your students don’t already know how to make a hand turkey, this video will show them how. Provide plenty of scratch paper so they can practice!
While they have hand turkeys on their minds, your kiddos will enjoy this short, but cool, Sesame Street video that shows an artist painting a realistic turkey on his own hand!
Here’s something to bookmark as you plan your turkey unit. This post includes a freebie to use with the adorable book Five Little Thank-Yous.
Back to turkey art ideas! Here’s a directed drawing of a very simple turkey (for preschoolers) from Art for Kids Hub.
And from the same channel, here’s a more sophisticated cartoon turkey directed drawing:
I also really like this turkey-drawing tutorial from Crazy Art Class. She teaches students to draw a fairly simple turkey, but then decorates it in the style of Romero Britto, who is an artist you can learn about here. (Preview that link before showing art examples to your class—some of the artwork may contain nudity. The video is just a turkey, though!)
This last turkey art video shows a few paper crafts. If you have a free-art center in your classroom where students can explore materials, watching this video might really spark their creativity! You might also find that one of these crafts would work well with your class to make with older-grade buddies or families at a special event.
Kids might also enjoy getting crafty with this sweet keepsake Thanksgiving Placemat project! Find it on TPT or click below to grab it in the website shop.
Thanksgiving Placemat Craft
Get students thinking about gratitude with this Thanksgiving placemat craft that is perfect for your class feast and to send home as a family memento!
More Turkey Videos: Just for Fun!
This last set of videos is great to pull from when you need a brain break, a cool-down time for recess, or a little reward at the end of the day!
This fun video tells the real-life story of a turkey who decided to move in with a human family!
This silly video from Sesame Street will have your little turkeys gobbling and wobbling along with Elmo, Abby, and their turkey friend! This Thanksgiving song is about gratitude.
“Albuquerque Turkey” is a fun song to the tune of “Oh My Darling, Clementine.” This version by The Learning Station has bright animation to help tell the story.
Get your kids up and moving with the “Turkey Hokey Pokey” video from The Kiboomers. Little ones will enjoy putting their “wings” and “tail feathers” in and out in this variation on a classic song and dance.
Another fun brain break, “Turkey Dance Freeze” by The Learning Station, will have students moving and singing! The one is great for indoor recess or anytime your kids need to get out of their seats for a few minutes.
No one knows how to “get funky” like Jack Hartmann 🤣 and he’s here for your kiddos during turkey season! Children can dance and sing along with Jack (in a turkey suit) to “Get Funky with Tommy the Turkey!”
I hope this collection of turkey videos for kids will save you some time and help you plan your November. Thanks for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃
