This is not likely to make you thousands of dollars, but it's always so much fun! It works best in Middle School/Junior Highs and High Schools where students change classes and have several different teachers.

Basically, you make a turkey for each teacher. Take a round styrofoam ball, cut it in half, then either cover it with brown construction paper or paint it brown. Use pipe cleaners, craft eyes and construction paper to give it a head, or just draw a head on construction paper and cut it into the correct shape.

Then, you make feathers. If you have access to a die cut machine this can go a little quicker, but it really isn't hard to just do it with construction paper. Glue a toothpick to each feather.

Now comes the fun part.

Students can purchase feathers for $0.10 or $0.25 each. They then give the feathers to their favorite teachers/staff members. Sales can either be done through one central location like the cafeteria, or you can designate a small group of students to do the selling, like the band or student council. The latter tends to work better since kids can do this between classes all day long. On the last day before Thanksgiving break, have someone go collect the turkeys from each teacher and tally the winner, and announce it over the PA system. The winning teacher gets (what else?) a Thanksgiving turkey. You can also award 2nd and 3rd prizes as well if you want.

The amount of money to be made will depend mostly on the size of your school, and how much you have to spend on materials. Construction paper and toothpicks are cheap things that most people have around the house to donate. And the styrofoam balls aren't that expensive and you might even be able to get them or your Thanksgiving turkey prize donated by a local business.

Regardless, the best thing about this one isn't even the amount of money that you make. It's the fact that the kids have a great time with it, and it has the added bonus of making staff members feel great every time they see a feather added to their turkey. And my experience was that there was never a teacher who didn't get at least a few feathers, even the ones who feel like none of the kids like their classes. It also has a tendency to get bigger every year, as the teachers get more competitive with each other, especially if the same teacher wins two or three years in a row.

I hope someone can put this to use. I've spent the past week reading the old posts on the board and benefiting from everyone else's knowledge. I really wanted to give something in return.