Fun Facts about Turkeys & a Turkey Craft Round Up

Have you been following our fun fact posts? It is November so we are moving on to Thanksgiving. So let's talk turkey!! Below the fun facts are a round-up of turkey crafts and activities. Ready for these fun facts?

Fairy Tales in a Different Culture: The Turkey Girl

For our final Native American Cinderella tale, I am sharing a Zuni version called The Turkey Girl retold by Penny Pollock. Now this story is a bit of a stretch to be a Cinderella tale, but I have seen it on various lists of types of Cinderella tales, so I am sharing it. First a bit about the Zuni people.

The Zuni live in New Mexico and have been there for 3,000 to 4,000 years (according to archeologists' estimations). Their reservation is about 450,000 acres. They are farmers of maize (corn) and wheat. They also now engage in jewelry making as an important income to the Zuni people. The traditional Zuni life is a matrilineal line. They have very specific groups and order for religion and life. Zunis still practice their own religion and beliefs. They are very artistic and express their beliefs in their art. The Zuni language is believed to be more than 7,000 years old.

Source: By Kmusser (Self-made using the National Atlas.)
 [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The Zuni live in pueblo style of houses. Pueblos are built of clay and often are built into the ground or on top of one another. Here is a picture I found of a Zuni Pueblo. (Sources: The Pueblo of Zuni, Zuni Indians, Wikipedia)

Source: Timothy H. O'Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Now onto our story. In the author's note it is mentioned that Frank Hamilton Cushing included this tale in his collection of Zuni folktales. Cushing traveled to New Mexico in 1879 to study the Zuni. He admired them so much that he became a member of the tribe and lived with them.

A young orphan girl lived  in the shadow of Thunder Mountain and nestled against the edge of the pueblo village, Matsaki. She was very poor and herded turkeys for a living. The wealthy families of Matsaki valued the turkey tail feathers for decorating prayer sticks and ceremonial masks. They paid the young girl with corn and cast-off clothes and called her the Turkey Girl.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Her days started at dawn when she led the villagers' turkeys to the flat-topped mesa of Thunder Mountain to graze. Then at sunset she led the turkeys back to their stockade of cedar sticks. The turkeys were her only friends. The humans did not talk to her even when she went to the spring to get water and saw others there.   

One night while at the spring, a herald-priest announced from one of the flat housetops that a Dance of the Sacred Bird would be held in Hawikuh in four days time. The Turkey Girl caught the excitement and imagined herself dancing with others. She could not stop dreaming of the dance and told the turkeys all about her dreams. On the day of the dance, the villagers left at dawn for Hawikuh. The Turkey Girl was left with the turkeys and her normal day, however she had tears running down her cheeks. While walking along the birds cause a commotion and get her attention. Then a huge turkey stepped forward and begins to talk to her and tells her she shall go to the dance. Then he tells her the turkeys will take care of her tattered clothes if she goes into the pen with them.

In their pen the turkeys break into song and dance and clean the girl. Then they have her undress. Swaying up and down the turkeys tread and tap new life into her clothes. They sing while they work.  Soon she is dressed in a white doeskin dress belted with red and yellow cloth. They give her rare shells and beautiful moccasins. Next the turkeys cough up jewels that the people have dropped on the ground over the years.  Then the turkeys give her one condition--she must not forget them and will show this by returning to them before Sun-Father returns to his sacred place and while she is gone to leave their pen unlocked so if she does not return before night they will be free.

She rushes off to the dance feeling beautiful and special. When she arrives the dancing has already started. She hears music from drums, flutes, turtle rattles and notched sticks. The musicians miss a beat when they see the beautiful stranger.  She joins the dance and has a wonderful time. The braves want to dance near her. As the sun's rays began to go down, she thinks when the music dies I will leave, but with each break the music started right back up and she continued to dance. As darkness approaches she thinks of leaving, but a brave brushes against her and she wonders why she will leave for turkeys. Then as night sets in she remembers the kindness of the turkeys and she runs home to their pen. She however is too late. The turkeys had waited for the sun to set but  left Matsaki forever. She is full of sorrow and even more so when she sees her dress was back to rags. She understands she has lost her turkey friends forever.

From this day on the turkeys have lived apart from their tall brothers for the Turkey Girl had not kept her word.

Join us later this week for more on Native Americans!! Also visit last week's fairy tales for other Native American versions of Cinderella.

Thanksgiving Crafts & Games Past and Present

We did this fun and easy craft this year so far. We got the idea from Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross.

 We changed the craft a bit because I wanted to put the corn on something stiffer than felt. I had these natural wood pieces and thought they would look nice and work well. Hazel had so much fun gluing on the Indian corn.

Picture Books to Celebrate November

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own.

November has begun!! November is a month full of so many things. Often here the weather is changing (although this year we have had warm weather thus far). The leaves are falling. There is Day of the Dead, Election Day, Veteran's Day and of course Thanksgiving! November is colorful leaves, pumpkins, turkeys, and a month of gratitude! Today we are sharing a roundup of picture books that are November themed!! They include the month, pumpkins, gratitude, and turkeys!! The first book is Meet November by April Martin. It is part of The Calendar Kids series. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Turkey on the Run! -- Picture Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in order to provide an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

Halloween is coming fast and that means Thanksgiving is also around the corner. There are so many good Thanksgiving books out there and we have shared quite a few as well as crafts and more. Some of the books are serious about gathering and sharing with others and some are quite fun and humorous. Today we are sharing a fun one. It is Turkey on the Run! by Alayne Kay Christian and illustrated by Neha Rawat.  It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Thanksgiving Books & More Turkeys

Today I thank God for my creativity!

I am also looking for help in selecting the winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just visit and click like on your favorites!

Well this year for Halloween we gave away lollipops. Usually we go through 8-10 bags of candy, so I decided to go the inexpensive route this year. And of course we got about a quarter of the number we usually do, so we have lots of lollipops leftover. Luckily they are one of Hazel's favorite candies, however we are talking three large bags. So expect many lollipop crafts in the next few months. And today I will share our first one.

I bought these foam gourds at the Dollar Tree awhile ago for some craft I saw. Well, we made one up today. We stuck the lollipops in them for the turkey tails (and some in the back to get them to stay up) and then I hot glued the other shapes on and gave them eyes, beak, etc. Very easy.

We also have been enjoying some Thanksgiving books. So far we have read the following this year.

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley is I think one of my favorites ever. The story is told by two children going to visit their grandmother. Their grandmother has a special hat that allows them to travel through time. This trip the girl picked going to visit an ancestor who was a pilgrim. They got to see what life was like in Plymouth Plantation and how the first Thanksgiving went. I loved this book because it gave information I did not know. For example, Squanto is not his real name, but the name the English called him. It is a great book to give a child the real view of life in colonial times.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey is an adorable story about eight children who go on a field trip to a turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving. They get to play with eight turkeys and all is well until someone asks the farmer about the ax they found. He tells them how he is going to kill the turkeys so they can be roasted for Thanksgiving dinner. The children become upset that their friends are going to be eaten and they sneak them away. That year the eight families have a turkey as a guest and have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners.

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel and Lisa Donze is a great story to learn more about Squanto. I always want to give the multicultural view to Hazel and being so close to Plymouth where their are demonstrations by Native Americans every Thanksgiving, I feel it is important for her to see both sides. To me the most amazing thing is that Squanto was willing to help the English after being enslaved by them twice, but he was. 

We have some more Thanksgiving stories to read and will share as we do. Enjoy!!

A Morning at Drumlin Farm

Today Hazel and I started a class at Drumlin Farm. Drumlin Farm is a full operating farm run by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Our class is called Spring Sense-Sations. It is about using your senses around the farm and seeing what senses the animals use. Last year Hazel and I took a course that was for two-year-olds to introduce them to spring at the farm. Hazel was completely afraid of the animals if we got too close. We will see what happens this year.

He greeted us all when we came to the Turkey House

Our class started in the Turkey House. I don't know why it is called the Turkey House, but it is a building with a classroom. And we did see turkeys right outside. Our first adventure was finding the Turkey House since we had not been there before. When we arrived there was a table set up with all sorts of natural things--pine needles, leaves, coyote teeth, nettles, apple slices, etc. for the kids to use their senses with. Then the instructor talked about what our five senses are and then she introduced us to our guests for the day--three mice. We observed them in a somewhat naturally set-up habitat. She pointed out the size of their feet to their ears versus ours. At this point we had to make a bathroom run where we saw all the turkeys since we didn't notice them coming in since our main concern was finding the Turkey House.

The females turkeys the male was trying to impress

While on the bathroom run we saw our teachers from last year so Hazel was excited about that. She had been asking if we would see them. She did not want to stay inside too much and wanted to get out to see the animals. Next our teacher showed the kids how to make newspaper explorer hats--well ok, all the moms made the hats for the kids. Hazel didn't want one, but I made one anyway. Then we headed out to see the animals.

We saw the goats and the kids. Then we saw some chickens. Hazel was terrified of the chickens last year but couldn't wait to see them this year.

Then we looked at the lambs and sheep and headed to the pig barn. (Sorry I didn't get a picture of Hattie, the pig.)

Then we headed to the red barn to see Midnight, the pony, but he wasn't there. We saw the cows instead.

Then we walked on the Discovery Trail and saw the cows up close. On the Discovery Field they also had cement type makers with labeled foot prints--rabbit, fox, raccoon, etc. Then we headed over to see if we could spy the rabbit. We did! At least if we picked the kids up we all did. She is a good hider.

At this point the class was over. So Hazel and I went to check out the fox and then back to see all the animals and take pictures for you.

The fox was rather quick and I didn't get a great picture of him. Then we went back to the goats. There are kids laying where their food is suppose to go.

We went into the goat/sheep shed.

On the sheep side there was a ram and we saw a sheep eating.

Outside we found more sheep and lambs.

Then we headed to the chicken house. It took Hazel the entire class (7 weeks or so) last year to be willing to enter the chicken house. This year she couldn't wait to get in there.

Then we said hi to the pig, but I didn't get a great picture since she moved outside and there wasn't a good angle of her. And we headed back to the red barn and this time Midnight was there as well as another sheep that apparently did not get shaven over the weekend during their big wool shearing festival.

They also have a room set up to explore about horses. We discovered based on Hazel's height she is a pony---10 hands tall.

And she tried to ride a horse as well as groom one.

They also had a table of the sheared sheep's wool out for the kids to feel. It had not been treated or anything.

Then we headed up to bird hill to check out the birds--mostly the owls and hawks. They keep some of the "wild" animals--birds, rabbits, foxes, etc. that were injured or born into captivity and got too use to being cared for to be released safely.

Great Horned Owl

Sorry the hawks came out way too blurry to post and by this time Hazel was tired and getting cranky so we headed home, but not without stopping to buy the last dozen eggs from the farm.

Talk about colored eggs. Check out all the different ones in here.

Of course the view I got most while walking through the farm with Hazel was this:

her back! She was so excited to be back there!

This is where I link up...

Sharing Saturday #6

You all amazed me this past week and I am happy to say we had over 50 entries. Hopefully this week we can beat that number!! Thank you to everyone who participated and shared an idea or two or three. I really appreciate it and love seeing what everyone is doing. I know I pinned quite a few of them from this past sharing party.

New Board Books for the Fall

 

Disclosure: I was sent copies of these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fall is such a fun time of the year. I love the colors of the leaves and the crunch when you walk on them. Thanksgiving is approaching quickly. Today I get to share a round-up of board books including ones that are fall and Thanksgiving themed.  We will start with the very fall themed one. It is Jump in the Leaf Pile by Kelly Green and illustrated by Kasia Nowowiejska. It has surprise slide out leaf piles. It is recommended for ages 3 and up.

Korean Doll & Nature Turkeys

Today I thank God for my extended family and keeping all of us save through the hurricane and for the amazing cats we have been allowed to adopt and have part of our family.

I finally made our poor Korean doll some clothes. I made this doll a few months ago from the Joan Russell pattern for her world dolls. I bought the materials to make all the dolls in the series. Now to find the time. Hazel has been playing with her naked.

This book also has a series of Native American dolls which if I have time I would love to make. Hopefully I can make some this month since it is Native American Heritage Month.

When Hazel saw her clothes, she looked at me and said what should we name her. I explained to her the pattern calls her Soh Ni, but we decided to name her Kongi after the Korean Cinderella. We have been reading different versions of Cinderella which I will post about on another Monday. Hazel has loved them!

Now unrelated, I would like to share some of our nature turkeys we have made. Mine are on the right and Hazel's are on the left.