Thankful for Thanksgiving Blog Hop and Follower FREEBIES!

I am thankful that I have been able to pursue all my childhood dreams, which included becoming a teacher and writer. I never thought I was going to be able to pursue both dreams but here I am blogging away and sharing curriculum resources I've written with you. I also wanted to share one easy way I practice daily gratitude. I have set an alarm on my smartphone that goes off before bedtime, that I have edited to say in place of the words alarm, today I am grateful for... This way no matter how bad my day goes I can always end with a positive and count my blessings. I hope this tip helps you in some way too.

Since my first year of teaching in 2000, I've been using this exact turkey that you see pictured below. I drew it on tag board then cut it out and added scrunched up tissue paper to decorate it.  Each year it is displayed and finished with student decorated thankful feathers! It's a yearly classroom tradition that I love sharing with my students. They also like hearing that they are part of this longtime tradition that all my past students have got a chance to do as well. Best of all they love that his name is Turkey Lurkey.  I laminated it a few years ago to make it last.  If you want to make one for your class you can check out my TpT product here. It includes the four-page poster template to make the large turkey, feathers, and newly added this year, display signs that say I am thankful for... with cute graphics added.  This year Turkey Lurkey got a major makeover! Check out the before and after photos below. I got the felt thankful letters from the Target dollar section and added a turkey border along with new graphics I created. 

  

Pumpkin Pecan Squares

Here is my favorite Thanksgiving Recipe.  I first came across this recipe in Williams-Sonoma where they were giving away yummy samples. Of course, I just had to buy their Pecan Pumpkin Butter they used in it, but there is a cheaper alternative without nuts at Traders Joe's.

Ingredient List ~ Serves 12

1 (18 oz) box yellow cake, use Duncan Hines

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 jar of pumpkin butter from Trader's Joe's one jar pumpkin pecan butter from Williams-Sonoma

3 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened 

3 tablespoons

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup of chopped pecans

1 -12 x 9 Cake Pan

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF

2. Reserve one cup of the cake mix flour to be used later.

3. Mix remaining cake flour mix with 1/2 cup melted butter and 1 egg. Press mixture lightly into the bottom of a 12" x 9" baking pan. (I like using the disposable baking pans for this)

4. Mix one jar of pumpkin pecan butter with remaining two eggs and milk, 

and pour over cake mixture in pan.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until golden.

6. Mix remaining 1 cup cake mix flour, sugar, remaining 1/4 cup butter, cinnamon, and crumble over the top of the pumpkin layer. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the top.

7. Cool to room temp before cutting into squares.

I also found this awesome free printable to use for our place settings via Craft Aholics Annoymous last year. Follow the underlined link above to get this FREE printable. 

Also, if you subscribe to my newsletter at the top of the blog, you will be sent this month's exclusive FREEBIE for newsletter subscribers only and not available in my TpT store. It's a passage on the History of Thanksgiving with comprehension questions included. This book also compliments this activity too.

Finally, I have a quick giveaway to say, thank you for your readership and support. I hope that you also visit the other wonderful bloggers in this hop for more recipes and FREEBIES.

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