Simple Thanksgiving crafts …

We woke up this morning to 4 inches of fresh snow. What a beautiful sight it was, made even more lovely by the fact that we had no where to go today. After an extended Indian summer, the snow really makes it feel like the holidays are upon us. The girls and I have spent the morning at the kitchen table making thanksgiving crafts. Each Thanksgiving since the girls (now ages 2 and 5) were born, we have made handprint turkeys and Indian headbands. These two simple crafts announce to us that Thanksgiving is here. The girls end up wearing their headbands all day on Thanksgiving and then I put them into their memory boxes with the previous years' ones. It is a wonderful thing to pull out all their little turkeys and headbands, each one so much bigger than the last. We line them up and measure the girls' hands against last year's turkey. They try to put on last year's head band. Their growth amazes them nearly as much as it does their dad and me.

Here are the directions (although I know you must remember these from your own school days!). If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, put out the materials on a table for your little guests. They might just get busy enough to give the adults time to catch up and finish the meal preparations.

 

Handprint Turkeys:

Materials:

Brown construction paper

3-4 other colors of construction paper

Glue stick

Decorations – crayons, stickers, feathers, googley eyes etc

Directions:

1. Trace your child's hand with their fingers spread out wide on the brown paper. Cut out.
   
2. Cut feathers out of the other colors of construction paper
   
3. Decorate the turkey and feathers
   
4. Glue feathers to the back side of each of the four fingers. Do not glue feathers to the front side of the fingers, that way you can fully see the size of the hand.
   
5. Draw the profile of a turkey face on the thumb.
   
6. Write the child's name, age and date on the back.
   

 

Indian Headbands:

Materials:

Construction paper in 3-4 colors

Glue Stick

Decorations – stickers, crayons, feathers etc.

 

Directions:

1. Cut a piece of construction paper into 2 inch wide strips – cutting the paper length wise.
   
2. Cut feathers out of multiple colors of construction paper.
   
3. Decorate the feathers and strips.
   
4. Glue two strips of paper together to make a headband around your child's head.
   
5. Glue feathers (real and paper ones) onto the headband.