Positional Words: A Thanksgiving Game

Here's a fun Thanksgiving activity to help work on positional words (above, below, under, behind, on, next to, etc) with your baby, toddler, preschooler, or school-aged child. We had a blast doing this and my toddler begged to play it over and over again. I love it when that happens. It's also a great way to work on following simple directions and listening skills, too.


Ages: Baby and up (if there is an older sibling or child, the baby can participate). This is a great activity for families with a baby and older sibling. I'll explain as we walk through the activity.


Materials:

• Thanksgiving pictures (2 of each picture you choose)
• Index cards
• Tape

Prep:

• I went to Google Images and typed in Thanksgiving words to find appropriate pictures. Some pictures I used: wild turkey, cooked turkey, family eating thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin pie, funny guy with a turkey hat, peas, mashed potatoes, hugging family, dinner rolls.
• Once I chose my pictures, I printed them off on my printer (2 of each picture), cut them out, and taped them to index cards.
• I hid one of each of the pictures around the house, writing down where I hid them on a separate piece of paper.

Activity:Show the pictures and explain why you chose certain images. It was a good time to prep my daughter for the upcoming festivities since this is the first year she'll really "get it."
Baby: The baby can participate with older siblings. Give the clue cards to the older sibling/child, and have the older child find the images. If the baby crawls, let them crawl after the older sibling to help. You can have the older sibling crawl with the baby, too. Or, carry the baby around, running after siblings as they do the hunt. After the pictures are found, show the pictures to the baby. You can have the sibling show them, too.
Young Toddler: Use really easy directions for the game I listed below. You can also use the pictures to teach names of things. For example, show a picture of the turkey. Explain that it's a real turkey. Hang the picture of a real turkey somewhere (and something else if you think they are able). Give simple directions, working on one positional word at a time, like "Find the turkey on the door. Find the turkey on the TV cabinet. Find the turkey on the couch."
Toddler: Here's how I did this with my toddler. I showed her the picture and told her she could ONLY look for this picture. I then told her where it could be found. This is different than a traditional scavenger hunt, since you are essentially telling them where the card can be found. However, it is important to use phrases with positional words like "Look under the pillow. Check behind the door." When she came back with the correct card, I had her find its match and set it on the couch.
Preschooler and Up: Try 2 step clues: a clue for the item and/or a clue for its location. For example, "The turkey is on the item I would use to cook the turkey (oven)." "The corn is in the thing I use to protect my hands when I am cooking (oven mitt)." or try "I'm looking for the picture of what we do when we see our family (hug). It is under something in this room." You can also do things like "Find all the foods we eat for thanksgiving." "Find everything that starts with a T/H/etc."
With the cards I also played memory, a picture matching game, and a color matching game. You can also ask questions, like "Which of these is round (peas)? Which is the color white? Point to the animal."
This is an adaptation from an activity in The Siblings Busy Book by Lisa Hanson and Heather Kempskie.