Thanksgiving Crafts For Kids

Dillon and I love to make stuff.  We used to only make ornaments for the Christmas tree, but then we decided to branch out to other holidays and decorate with our own talents, skills and fun together.

Here are some great and kid-friendly crafts that will help any Thanksgiving festivity feel perfectly you!

1.  Paint the Turkey.  Not the real turkey, but the wooden turkeys and pilgrims and ears of corn that are made out of wood.  We bought 7 or 8 different styles at the craft store for about $0.60 each and then bought 5 colors of paint for $1.00 each.  With brushes we already have, we spent a good hour together painting turkey day decorations to go around the house and to put on everyone's plate around the table as a keepsake.

2.  Thumbprint Placeholder. You can see the picture below.  This idea came form the Disney Family Fun website.  See the instructions here and get creative.  You only need a non-toxic ink pad, some blank place cards (we used folded over index cards) and some markers.

3. Paper Cup Turkey. This one is a favorite for art teachers everywhere but Dillon didn't do one this year.  You can make these simple or complicated.  We chose simple because I didn't want to go to the store and buy those wiggle eyes.  We just cut eyes out of the felt we already had at home.  Get some styrofoam cups, a hand, some crayons and felt and you can do the same.  If you want the full monty instructions from Kaboose, just click here.

4.  The Turkey Glove. If you have a dozen pair of white gardening gloves that might have seen better days, turn them into turkeys.  We found four or five gloves, none of which matched.  We got out the crayons and markets and turned the fingers into feathers, the thumb into the neck and head and then glued on a felt wing in the palm.  While we've been using them to scare each other around corners, they're cute and fun and the kids of the house will love them without making a lot of mess.

5.  Napkin Rings.  We don't have napkin rings in our house.  When would we ever use them??  Well, I guess Thanksgiving. . .but why buy when you can design and make?  This year, we saved some toilet paper rolls, cut them into about one inch rolls and then turned them into turkeys with the famous hand print feathers on the back, coloring the roll and (here's more felt for ya) creating a felt beak and cheeks and eyes.  Really fun and fast.  The secret here is to make sure it DOESN'T look like a toilet paper roll is on your Thanksgiving table. . .but don't worry, your kid will tell anyway.