Episode Details

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It has been a beloved school and community Thanksgiving tradition at Golden Fields Elementary for years. On this episode of the Supercast, we find out why the Turkey Trot and Turkey Tunes play such an important role in the school's Thanksgiving celebration year after year. Then we have some fun with students who show us their homemade talking turkeys and tell us what they're thankful for this year.

We're here in first grade at Golden Fields with Stephanie Murray and Amber Squire to talk turkey here before Thanksgiving. First off, you guys have amazing shirts on. Tell me about this.

Stephanie Murray:
Our whole program is based around the turkey and our first graders dress up in turkey costumes that they create themselves. So we couldn't just leave them hanging, we had to dress up as the turkey ourselves. So we reached out, purchased some shirts and surprised them this morning. When we walked out to pick them up, they almost lost it. They were so excited to see us sporting the turkey.

Anthony Godfrey:
So it's a brown shirt with big googly turkey eyes and a beak. And of course the

Stephanie Murray:
Snood.

Anthony Godfrey:
The snood. I knew you would know the word. That's why I could just pause, the snood. So you look very festive. Tell me how did the focus on turkeys get started?

Stephanie Murray:
Well, long ago, when we very first opened the school, we had so much fun during the month of October celebrating Halloween and all of its festivities. We had a bunch of fun during December celebrating all of the winter holidays, but November kind of got passed over. That had us a little sad because November is a very important month and a time to reflect on being thankful and showing gratitude for what we have and those around us. So we started thinking as a team, how can we make this month focused on what it truly is about being thankful to those around us? And so we started a search to find some child appropriate songs, and we wound up finding turkey. So our whole month has been spent talking about turkeys, learning everything we can about them, but also about why the turkeys are so grateful to escape being eaten on Thanksgiving day, if they're ever so lucky. We use that as a stepping stone to talk to the children about what they are thankful for and just had a lot of fun along the way, using the turkey as our guide.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a great tie into the Thanksgiving meal and to turkeys, but also to have the kids reflect on their own lives and the things that they're grateful for. What a wonderful way to make November exciting for the students. That's really what it's about, connecting with students. I'm sure this is something they'll remember for a very long time.

Stephanie Murray:
Oh, definitely. We still have kids that are here the first year that we did it that come up to us and say, I still remember Turkey Tunes and I have my costume and everything. So we hope that it is something that leaves a lasting memory with them for the rest of their lives.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me something about the costumes. What do they put together?

Amber Squire:
For the costumes, we just use brown paper bags, like grocery bags. We cut them up the back and then we actually cut arm hold inside of them and a little neck hole for the collar. Then w